All The Hunger Games Movies, Ranked from Dull to Absolutely Brilliant

The Hunger Games franchise is soon getting revived by another prequel movie Sunrise on the Reaping, now officially starring Joseph Zada as young Haymitch and Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove.

Sunrise on the Reaping’s casting news comes just a month after the publication of Suzanne Collins’ novel of the same name, so the franchise’s fans have been up to diving deep into the favorite story once again for a while now.

It’s also pretty clear The Hunger Games movies will likely receive a new increase in viewership before Sunrise on the Reaping comes along, but not all of those can be considered the franchise’s gems — we rank them here to make it easier.

5. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014)

• On Rotten Tomatoes, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 holds scores of 70% and 71% from critics and viewers
• On IMDb, the movie is rated 6.6/10

The movie, released right after the first two extremely successful parts, saw a significant drop of the audiences’ interest — mainly due to the fact that, unlike The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, it never featured the Hunger Games themselves.

Instead, Mockingjay – Part 1 delves into Katniss’ rebellion against Panem and offers numerous disturbing, but still brilliantly made scenes with unrecognizable Peeta held hostage in President Snow’s residence and Katniss, tortured by PTSD, struggling to move forward.

4. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015)

• On Rotten Tomatoes, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 keeps scores of 70% and 66% from critics and audiences
• On IMDb, the movie rates 6.6/10

This one gets as harsh as it can ever be, but it doesn’t even help the final chapter of the story reach the same level of high-quality drama like the first two movies did.

Mockingjay – Part 2 repeated its source material’s controversial fate and was met with a solid amount of criticism, aiming mostly at the rushed storyline during the last hour of the run and Prim’s ignored arc that should have had more impact and, eventually, more screen time.

Apart from that, the movie is also full of major revelations about other characters too, and these are also left behind, making Mockingjay – Part 2 one of the weakest parts of the franchise.

3. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes ( 2023)

• On Rotten Tomatoes, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has scores of 64% and 88% from critics and viewers
• On IMDb, the movie’s rating is 6.7/10

The Hunger Games’ first spinoff, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a powerful addition to the franchise, finally going back in time and witnessing the very beginning of the Hunger Games tradition with 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow being one of the key figures in there.

Directed by Catching Fire’s Francis Lawrence, the prequel does a brilliant job exploring Panem’s darkest secrets and Snow’s path from a wealthy couple’s son that lost everything to the biggest villain the dystopian world has ever known.

Some, however, did mention that Collins’ book gives a much more profound look at Snow’s character development rather than the movie, though Tom Blyth still shines in the leading role.

2. The Hunger Games (2012)

• On Rotten Tomatoes, The Hunger Games holds scores of 84% and 81% from critics and audiences
• On IMDb, the movie is rated 7.2/10

The movie that started it all, The Hunger Games introduces its viewers to Panem and its future biggest rebellion leader Katniss Everdeen, the role still considered one of Jennifer Lawrence ’s finest works to-date.

The story is gripping and suspense-inducing, keeping the audiences on the edge of their seat as they have to go through some of the most traumatic events in the history of cinema while Katniss struggles to survive.

The Hunger Games thrived in the box office, making almost $700 million against the budget of $78 million, and is still regarded as one of the top movies in the franchise.

1. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

• On Rotten Tomatoes, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire keeps scores of 90% and 89% from critics and viewers
• On IMDb, the movie’s rating is 7.5/10

With its action-packed storyline and an even bigger scale of tragedy, Catching Fire goes even higher than the first ever movie in the franchise, introducing a bunch of new characters that still hold a special place in many fans’ hearts.

It all starts swirling even more when both Katniss and Peeta are thrown into the games once again, this time having to fight against a doubling number of participants at the 75th Hunger Games, or the third Quarter Quell.

With the cruel tradition becoming all the way more unpardonable, Catching Fire makes some time for diving into Panem’s corrupt politics too, proving itself as the most fulfilled and emotionally challenging part of the franchise.