The Hunger Games Series' First Cuts Had A Very Different MPAA Rating

From its inception as a young adult novel series to its eventual domination as a $1 billion film franchise, "The Hunger Games" has maintained a loyal fanbase of teen and preteen viewers. However, a good chunk of the franchise's film installments may have had a very different audience had they been left unaltered. 

In an interview with Jake's Takes about the prequel "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes," director Francis Lawerence was asked about his thoughts on the potential of a fully R-rated "Hunger Games" film. Lawerence, who has helmed each entry in the series since 2013's "Catching Fire," didn't have to search very far for an answer. "The truth is every 'Hunger Games' movie that I've done has gotten an R rating at first," he stated. "And we always have to inch it back and inch it back and inch it back, and go back and forth with the MPAA to sort of nudge it back into PG-13. So, I'm always approaching it thinking we have to be PG-13, but we always end up getting an R first and have to inch it back." 

Having also worked with R-rated films in the past such as "Constantine" and "Red Sparrow," Lawrence is clearly no stranger to navigating the tricky and controversial world of film ratings. 

It's easy to see how each film in the "The Hunger Games" series could have been saddled with an R-rating. This was nearly the case for the second entry, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," which was saved from the more mature label thanks to some quick-thinking and some solid intent.

During the New York premiere of "Catching Fire," producer Nina Jacobson spoke with Vulture about how one act of violence got the film in some hot water. She explained, "We had one shot where one of our tributes is killed at the cornucopia, and we had to move where the arrow hit him, from one part to another part. It used to hit him in the face, and now it hits him in the chest. But it was really pretty minor, all things considered." Thankfully, the alteration was not detrimental to director Francis Lawerence's vision for the film. As Jacobson stated,  "We're never really dwelling on the gore of the games. It's much more about the emotional effect."

Much like its predecessor, "Catching Fire" received mixed reactions to its PG-13 rating, with some critics feeling it didn't go far enough while others questioned how the film got away without the more restrictive rating. Regardless, it did little to harm the sequel, which went on to become the franchise's highest-grossing entry to date with a worldwide total of over $864 million.