Before Katniss Everdeen became the girl on fire, there was a boy who helped build the very system she would eventually burn down. Before that system became the nightmare we know, there was Haymitch Abernathy, a teenager walking into the arena for the 50th Hunger Games with twice as many tributes and almost no idea what was coming.
That is what makes The Hunger Games movies more interesting than a simple dystopian franchise. The story keeps moving backward as it moves forward, showing how Panem created its monsters, its victors, and eventually the rebellion that brought the Capitol to its knees.
With Sunrise on the Reaping expanding the story in 2026, there are now six movies to keep track of. So, here are the Hunger Games movies in order, from Katniss’ first trip to the arena to the earlier Games that changed Panem forever.
The Complete Hunger Games Movies in Order of Release
Get ready for four movies, one increasingly furious Katniss, and a Capitol that keeps finding new ways to make everything worse. This is the main Hunger Games story, so watch these in release order.
1. The Hunger Games (2012)
Watch it on Amazon Prime Video
| Release Year | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| 2012 | 2h 22m | Gary Ross | 7.2/10 |
The one that started it all, and still one of the easiest Hunger Games movies to throw on for a rewatch. It has that very early-2010s YA blockbuster feel, but the premise was vicious enough to make it stand out from the crowd.
Gary Ross keeps the Capitol suitably obnoxious, the Games genuinely uncomfortable, and Katniss refreshingly uninterested in being anyone’s chosen one. She just wants Prim alive. Everything else is a massive inconvenience.
2. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
Watch it on Amazon Prime Video
| Release Year | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| 2013 | 2h 26m | Francis Lawrence | 7.5/10 |
Catching Fire is where The Hunger Games stops feeling like a story about one televised competition and starts feeling like something much bigger. Katniss has returned home as a victor, but her very existence has begun to challenge the Capitol’s control.
The result is a sequel with more characters, a more elaborate arena, and considerably higher stakes. It also introduces some of the franchise’s most memorable players, so there’s a lot more going on than Katniss simply trying to make it through another Games.
3. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014)
Watch it on Amazon Prime Video
| Release Year | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| 2014 | 2h 3m | Francis Lawrence | 6.6/10 |
Mockingjay – Part 1 moves the story into the middle of an actual revolution, with Katniss becoming the face of the rebellion whether she wants the job or not. That change gives the movie a very different mood.
There are fewer big action sequences and much more focus on propaganda, politics, and the psychological damage left by the Games. It’s slower than the first two films, but it sets up the final chapter and shows just how far the story has moved from its original survival-game premise.
4. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015)
Watch it on Amazon Prime Video
| Release Year | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| 2015 | 2h 17m | Francis Lawrence | 6.6/10 |
The rebellion finally reaches the Capitol, bringing Katniss’ story to its end. This is the most war-focused movie in the series, but it doesn’t suddenly turn the franchise into a standard action blockbuster.
There is still plenty of spectacle, but the real weight comes from seeing what years of violence have done to these characters. The final stretch also gives Katniss a chance to imagine a life that isn’t dictated by the Capitol, the Games, or the rebellion.
The Hunger Games Prequels
The original movies make the Capitol look like it has always been this absurdly polished nightmare. The prequels pull back the curtain and show that it wasn’t always this way.
One takes us to the early days of the Games and the rise of Coriolanus Snow, while the other goes even closer to the story we know by revisiting the Games that made Haymitch famous.
5. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)
Watch it on Amazon Prime Video
| Release Year | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| 2023 | 2h 37m | Francis Lawrence | 6.6/10 |
Want to know how Coriolanus Snow went from ambitious Capitol student to the man sitting at the top of Panem? This is where you find out.
Set 64 years before Katniss, the movie drops you into a much less sophisticated version of the Hunger Games, when the event hasn’t yet become the slick piece of propaganda seen in the original films. Snow is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird, a District 12 tribute with a talent for turning a crowd in her favor.
It’s part prequel and part origin story of Snow. Knowing where he eventually ends up makes some of his choices here considerably more unsettling.
6. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (2026)
Watch it on Amazon Prime Video
| Release Year | Runtime | Director | IMDb Rating |
| 2026 | TBD | Francis Lawrence | TBD |
There are few Hunger Games characters whose backstory fans have wanted more than Haymitch’s. Sunrise on the Reaping finally goes there.
Set 24 years before Katniss enters the arena, the movie follows 18-year-old Haymitch during the 50th Hunger Games, the infamous Second Quarter Quell. For anyone who watched the original films wondering what turned their sarcastic, permanently exhausted mentor into that Haymitch, this is the prequel you’ve been waiting for.
Which Hunger Games Movie Should You Watch First?
If you’re watching The Hunger Games for the first time, stick with release order. There’s no real advantage to starting with the prequels, and The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is much more interesting once you already understand what the Capitol eventually becomes.
The bigger question is whether you stop after Katniss’ four-movie story. You can, and it works as a complete arc. But the prequels make Panem’s history feel much bigger than Katniss herself.
So, if you’re doing a full Hunger Games marathon, go Katniss first, prequels second. By the time you reach Sunrise on the Reaping, you’ll know exactly what Haymitch is walking into, and that makes watching his Games a whole lot more brutal.
Writer. Dreamer. Journalist (maybe?). Anime lover (definitely). I turn curiosity into stories and everyday life into a narrative worth reading.
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