Critical Theory in a Digital Age, CCU, ENGL 483 2017

Fan Labor from Hunger Games

Hunger Games had become a huge phenomenon amongst its fans all over the world. The movie and book both created a huge fandom. It had a huge impact economically and physically from all sorts of platforms. Social media became a big part of the success as well. Lionsgate the company that created the movie had to keep up with their fans in creating different hashtags and events that if they had a certain amount of tweets or likes that person would get to see the Hunger Games set. The night of the movie premiere there were many clips on the internet of fans waiting numerous hours to see the movie. The fans would go through all types of hell to meet the cast and visit the set. The movie made the popular book become even more famous. They sort of went hand and hand. 

The phrase "May Odds every be in your favor" became a well known saying amongst fans everywhere. Even years later it is. Fans were ecstatic to watch the whole series as they came out year after year. When a movie or book becomes famous such as Harry Potter or Star Wars millions of fans spend money on buying items and books in large quantities. Hunger Games became a huge viral markter for Lionsgate and the book became way more popular than it already was. 



In this media clip, fans are camping out for the premiere of Hunger Games and meeting the cast of the movie. This is an example of fan labor because they came from all over the country to see the cast members. Some people came to the meet and greet dressed as the cast members such as Katniss. In the text "The Hunger Games Viral Marketing Campaign" by Sandra Ilar, it talks about the fans and how much they have contributed to the marketing side of Hunger Games. The viral marketing comes from fanbases on the internet who follow Lionsgate and Vanity which talked about Hunger Games. Fans who are into movies, books and tv shows come together on these social media plaforms and get information on these meet and greets. In the text it says "The fanbase took an active role in the online campaign and annotated, appropriated and recirculated content related to the film." (Ilar 7) This means that the fans of the movie contributed to the viral marketing of the Hunger Games series and film. Friends of die hard fans wanted to be involved with what was popular so they read the book and watched the film. This is a way that digital labor comes into play amongst fans. They purchase the book because they want to be included. Before the film came out according to Ilar Hunger Games sold 100000 copies. 

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