Deadline reports that advance tickets for 'The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping' are the best Lionsgate has ever seen post-Covid for any title, ahead even of 'Michael,' which bowed to $97.2 million in North America.

The trade says the prequel's presales are well ahead of Universal's 'Wicked' at a comparable stage, a striking benchmark given that 'Wicked' went on to open at $112.5 million.

Tickets went on sale this week, per Yahoo, which notes the film premieres November 20, 2026, with about three weeks of runway for franchise catch-up viewing.

The story marks a sharp reversal from the 2023 prequel 'The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,' which Yahoo's overview notes was based on a Collins novel less popular than its predecessors and which Deadline reports was hobbled by the actors strike before opening to a franchise-low $44.6 million domestic.

Prediction platform Polymarket gives a 75% chance that the adaptation of Suzanne Collins' 2025 novel opens north of $100 million, a figure Deadline says other distribution sources also share.

Still, the trade cautions that female-driven films are often front-loaded, and it now pegs the floor for the Francis Lawrence-directed film at $80 million-plus — up from last weekend's forecast of $60 million to $70 million.

Deadline also notes presales don't translate directly into enormous openings for every demographic or genre, recalling the worry two years ago that 'Wicked' would be front-loaded before its presales converted into a $112.5 million debut.

'Songbirds and Snakes,' by contrast, earned a B+ CinemaScore against the franchise's earlier As and A-s, and wound up with a 3.7x multiple for $166.3 million domestic — a comp Deadline says no longer applies here.

With nothing of blockbuster magnitude like 'Wicked,' 'Moana 2' or 'Zootopia 2' on the Thanksgiving horizon, Deadline reports 'Sunrise on the Reaping' is shaping up to deliver the goods and would not be a surprise winner of the five-day Thanksgiving box office.

Its would-be challengers are Disney Animation's 'Hexed' and Universal/Paramount's 'Focker-in-Law,' starring Ariana Grande, each looking at $40 million to $50 million apiece over the holiday stretch, per the trade.

The ensemble — Jesse Plemons, Elle Fanning, Mckenna Grace, Joseph Zada and Ralph Fiennes — gives the prequel franchise-scale star power, and Yahoo notes confirmed flash-forward cameos from Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Woody Harrelson that fans will want to see on a big screen.

Yahoo reports that after recently departing Netflix, all the 'Hunger Games' movies have moved to Disney+ and Hulu, and are also streamable free with ads on Tubi — a full franchise refresher from the 2012 original through 'Mockingjay — Part 2' and the Snow origin story 'The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.'

Chronologically, Yahoo lays out the order as 'Songbirds & Snakes,' then 'Sunrise on the Reaping,' then the four Katniss films.

The new prequel follows a young Haymitch Abernathy through the 50th Hunger Games, the Second Quarter Quell, with Joseph Zada and Mckenna Grace starring alongside Ralph Fiennes, Jesse Plemons, Maya Hawke and Elle Fanning.