Haymitch Abernathy gets his own Hunger Games movie on Friday, Nov. 20. Some theaters are showing it two days early. Cinemark and Regal both list Wednesday, Nov. 18, screenings of Sunrise on the Reaping. Lionsgate lists Nov. 20 as the wider opening, including IMAX.
The early screenings have separate listings. If you want to go Wednesday, open the early-access page and choose your local theater before looking for seats. Regal’s listing is specifically for IMAX. Cinemark has its own early-access listing, so check the auditorium format before you book. A Friday showtime at the same theater tells you little about whether it’s showing the movie on Wednesday.
IMAX says more than 45 minutes of the film use its expanded 1.90:1 picture. The format shows more of the image vertically in those sequences. The separate Wednesday listings are useful if that is what you’re booking for. Cinemark lists the film at 2 hours and 43 minutes and rated PG-13. A 6 p.m. showing would put the end of the film around 8:43 p.m. before allowing for any trailers.
The Hunger Games Haymitch remembers
In the original films, Woody Harrelson plays Haymitch as the former victor assigned to mentor Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. This time Joseph Zada plays him as a teenager. The story starts in District 12 on the morning of the 50th Hunger Games, 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games. For readers of Suzanne Collins’ books, this is the Second Quarter Quell, the edition of the Games Haymitch survived.
Scholastic’s description of the novel spells out what changes in the 50th Games. The Capitol takes twice as many tributes as usual, so Haymitch leaves District 12 with three other young people from home. In the original story, the district sends Katniss and Peeta. The difference makes the Capitol’s anniversary rule personal from the opening scene. It also gives the prequel a different starting point from the story of Katniss volunteering in her sister’s place.
Francis Lawrence, who directed the later films in the original series and The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, returns as director. Lionsgate’s official trailer introduces Zada as Haymitch. Ralph Fiennes plays President Snow in the new film, between the young Coriolanus Snow introduced in Ballad and the president played by Donald Sutherland in the original films. Haymitch and Snow appear across these stories at very different points in their lives, which makes the choice of rewatch more useful than the order in which the films came out.
Which movie to revisit before Friday
**For Haymitch, go back to The Hunger Games.** The 2012 movie introduces the adult Haymitch as a man who already knows what the Capitol expects from its victors. His job during the 74th Games is to advise two teenagers from District 12. Seeing how he handles that job gives you a point of comparison for the teenager in Sunrise.
**For Snow, choose The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.** The earlier-set prequel follows a young Snow mentoring Lucy Gray Baird, a District 12 tribute, during the 10th Games. That puts it four decades before Haymitch’s Games. The three reference points in Panem’s timeline are Lucy Gray at the 10th Games, Haymitch at the 50th and Katniss at the 74th. You can follow Haymitch’s story without revisiting every film in between.
The novel and the movie tie-in
Collins published Sunrise on the Reaping in March 2025. Scholastic’s edition announcement lists the trade paperback from August and the movie tie-in paperback from September. The two editions tell the same story and carry the same $17.99 U.S. list price. The different cover can make the movie tie-in look like a separate book. Scholastic also released an audio excerpt read by Collins. If the soundtrack is what you came for, our CD and vinyl comparison lists the track-count difference between those releases.
.jpg)
