22 Movies Like ‘The Hunger Games’ That’ll Keep You on the Edge of Your Seat
Although it’s been over 10 years since I first saw Jennifer Lawrence grace the big screen as Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games still reigns supreme in the teen dystopian dynasty. (And who knows? Maybe we’ll get another installment—J.Law has said she’d be down to reprise the role.)
After the initial film brought in a whopping $694.4 million, three successful sequels were released, kick-starting a new wave of YA sci-fi content that would appeal to both teens and adults alike (we're looking at you, Divergent). And I can’t forget the 2023 prequel, Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. If you, too, live for a post-apocalyptic thriller, I’ve compiled a slew of titles that are sure to pique your interest, from chilling dystopian titles to action-packed coming-of-age flicks. Keep reading for 22 of the best movies like Hunger Games.
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Movies in The Hunger Games Series
1. The Hunger Games (2012)
Run time: 2 hours 22 minutes
Director: Gary Ross
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks
Rating:Rotten Tomatoes - 84%
The first film in the trilogy introduces us to Katniss Everdeen and her post-apocalyptic world of Panem. Located on the North American continent, the nation is divided into 12 districts and ruled by a wealthy Capitol with a base in the Rocky Mountains. Katniss resides with her mother and younger sister, Primrose, in District 12, one of the poorest, where she must hunt to survive. Every year, the districts must offer two “tributes” to compete in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death that awards the sole survivor and their district much-needed food and supplies. When Primrose is selected in the reaping, Katniss volunteers in her place and is sent to the Capitol along with Peeta Mellark, where they must join forces if they want to survive.
2. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire(2013)
Run time: 2 hours 26 minutes
Director: Francis Lawrence
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland
Rating:Rotten Tomatoes - 90%
After defying the Gamemakers in The Hunger Games, Peeta and Katniss are jointly declared the victors and embark on a tour across the districts. However, trouble is brewing as Katniss’s defiance has sparked revolts. Thus, President Snow demands that the couple feign romantic feelings for each other in effort to suppress the uprisings. When the 75th Hunger Games comes around, the Gamemakers announce a twist: tributes will be selected from the pool of past victors, sending Katniss and Peeta into the arena once again. There, they team up with District 4 tribute Finnick Odair and others to fight the Career tributes, who traditionally come from wealthier districts. As the stakes intensify, Katniss realizes that nothing is as it appears.
3. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)
Run time: 2 hours 3 minutes
Director: Francis Lawrence
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Sam Claflin
Rating:Rotten Tomatoes - 71%
Following the cue from Twilight, the last book of the series was split into two parts for the screen adaptation. The first installment sees Katniss and some of her allies recovering from the Quarter Quell in District 13, which was believed to have been annihilated before the Hunger Games had been established. Across Panem, rebellion has broken out, and Katniss reluctantly agrees to be its face. However, during the Quarter Quell, Peeta was captured by the Capitol and is subjected to torture every time Katniss speaks against it. Eventually, Peeta is rescued but determined to have been brainwashed.
4. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015)
Run time: 2 hours 17 minutes
Director: Francis Lawrence
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland
Rating:Rotten Tomatoes - 69%
A full-blown civil war ravages Panem as the rebellion, led by District 13, fights for control of the Capitol. Katniss is dispatched to rally the rebels in District 2, before closing in on President Snow, who uses Capitol children as a human shield. After the rebellion seizures control, Katniss negotiates to carry out Snow’s execution herself—with a shocking twist.
5. The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)
Run time: 2 hours 37 minutes
Director: Francis Lawrence
Cast: Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth, Viola Davis
Rating:Rotten Tomatoes - 64%
The prequel to The Hunger Games series details the ascent of the infamous Coriolanus Snow. Set 64 years before the original events, 24 Capitol Academy students are invited to preside over the tenth annual Hunger Games, where they’ll act as mentors to the incoming tributes. Snow is paired with Lucy Gray Baird, the District 12 tribute and member of the Covey, a band of nomadic musicians. After helping her win the Games, he joins the Peacekeepers and is assigned to District 12, where their paths continue to cross—and a forbidden romance blossoms.
22 Other Movies Like The Hunger Games
1. The Maze Runner (2014)
Run time: 1 hour 53 minutes
Director: Wes Ball
Cast: Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 65%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A group of young people are at the mercy of a cruel organization desirous of control under the guise of order and the greater good.
Like Katniss, 16-year-old Thomas (O'Brien) finds himself trapped in an environment that makes survival extremely difficult. After waking up in a life-sized maze with no memory of how he got there, Thomas and a group of other boys try to find their way out while establishing a society known as “the Glade.” Every day, they send out a “runner” to trace the maze—though it’s not without risk. Slinking through the hedges are mysterious “Grievers,” mechanical beasts that have the power to infect the inhabitants with a strange and deadly disease. Once they manage to escape, even more inexplicable horrors—and the real truth—await.
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Run time: 2 hours 37 minutes
Director: Mike Newell
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Robert Pattinson, Timothy Spall, Tom Felton, Alan Rickman
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 88%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A lethal competition. Deadly stakes. Sinister forces.
“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has the same concept of putting kids into a competition where they can potentially die (yikes),” says PureWow beauty and cultures editor Chelsea Candelario. “I love this movie because it shows other magical schools other than Hogwarts. Of course there’s magic, insane villains...and yes, Robert Pattinson.” But if you enjoyed the competition element in The Hunger Games, then this installment will definitely stand out. The fifth movie in the Harry Potter franchise sees our favorite wizard return to Hogwarts and compete in the dangerous Triwizard Tournament against other magical schools. At stake: the highly prized Triwizard Cup. Little does he know that victory will unleash a slew of irreversible events.
3. After the Dark (2013)
Run time: 1 hour 47 minutes
Director: John Huddles
Cast: James D’Arcy, Sophie Lowe, Daryl Sabara
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 67%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: Through a thought experiment, students fight for survival and impossible odds, having to choose who lives and dies.
A thought-provoking psychological thriller, After The Dark will give you Quarter Quell vibes. At an international school in Jakarta, a philosophy course takes a dark turn when the professor tells his students they must choose only ten people from their group to survive a nuclear holocaust. As the group continues to run simulations, more information is revealed about the characters they play, changing the dynamics each time. At the heart of it all is a desire for revenge—and control.
4. The Tournament (2009)
Run time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Director: Scott Mann
Cast: Ving Rhames, Robert Carlyle, Kelly Hu, Sébastien Foucan, Liam Cunningham
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 40%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A fight to the death, but for professional assassins instead of hapless citizens.
When it comes to movies like The Hunger Games, you can think of The Tournament as the R-rated version. Every seven years, a group of powerful and wealthy men gather assassins, serial killers and trained athletes to enter a secret “tournament.” The participants are tasked with killing each other until one is left standing. As a reward, the winner gets $10 million and the title of “World's Number One.” While it is exceptionally cold-hearted, even by The Hunger Games standards, there’s still room for sympathy with the killers at the center of the plot—because, like Katniss, they’re actually at the mercy of forces more powerful than they.
5. Divergent (2014)
Run time: 2 hours 19 minutes
Director: Neil Burger
Cast: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet, Ashley Judd, Kate Winslet, Zo? Kravitz, Miles Teller
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 41%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A dystopian future in which an extraordinary young woman is thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
“I’ve watched this more times than I’d like to admit, wondering which faction I’d fall under—definitely NOT Dauntless,” says PureWow associate fashion commerce editor Stephanie Meraz. “There’s something so wrong yet intriguing about splitting people up into factions, erasing any other identity or differences that they may have. Plus, it has action, romance and Theo James…need I say more?” Set in a futuristic Chicago where everyone is placed into factions, Beatrice Prior’s (Woodley) world is turned upside down when she learns that she is “divergent,” meaning that she doesn’t fit into one faction. A fearless 16-year-old heroine, a fascinating dystopian world and a swoon-worthy romance? Sign me up.
6. Battle Royale (2000)
Run time: 1 hour 54 minutes
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Cast: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Tarō Yamamoto, Takeshi Kitano
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 90%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: Young people forced to fight to the death, as orchestrated by a cruel totalitarian government.
It’s like the grittier, darker version of The Hunger Games, complete with plenty of violence and gore. Set in a Japanese high school, a group of students are forced to compete in a twisted game where they all fight to the death, until one person is left alive. Like The Hunger Games, alliances form, allies betray friends and a rebellion brews.
7. Hanna (2011)
Run time: 1 hour 51 minutes
Director: Joe Wright
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Tom Hollander, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 72%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A bright young women is chosen for a tragic fate.
Ronan shines as 15-year old Hanna Heller, a trained assassin sent on a mission by her father, an ex-CIA agent who possesses a dangerous secret. Her only goal: Kill the CIA officer who’s on their tail. However, the closer Hanna gets to completing her mission, the more she questions her humanity as the truth about her own past emerges.
8. The Darkest Minds (2018)
Run time: 1 hour 44 minutes
Director: Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Cast: Amandla Stenberg, Harris Dickinson, Mandy Moore, Gwendoline Christie
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 15%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A young woman must find the courage to lead her peers in a movement against manipulative government forces.
This YA film tackles themes of bravery, love and self-sacrifice—all things that’ll appeal to any The Hunger Games fan. The Darkest Minds follows a group of teen survivors who gain special abilities after surviving a pandemic that killed millions of children. They are classified by color: Green (intelligence), Blue (telekinesis), Yellow (manipulate electricity), Red (control fire) and Orange (mind control, telepathy). The story centers around Ruby Daly (Stenberg), as she leads a group of peers towards a sanctuary known as “East River.” However, as their odyssey progresses, they discover that friends may actually be foes.
9. Logan’s Run (1976)
Run time: 1 hour 59 minutes
Director: Michael Andereson
Cast: Michael York, Jenny Agutter, Richard Jordan, Roscoe Lee Browne, Farrah Fawcett
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 58%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: Dystopian world post-apocalypse set in what was once the United States, with an authoritarian powerbroker bent on keeping citizens in line.
If you’re looking for movies like The Hunger Games with a sci-fi twist, queue up Logan’s Run. The year is 2274, and Logan appears to live in a utopian society, where technology takes care of everyone’s needs. But there’s just one catch: Everyone who reaches 30 is “renewed”—codeword for killed. When Logan discovers the world outside the Sanctuary, it opens up possibilities about the utopia’s reality. But, he’ll have to convince everyone that the technology is a sham.
10. The Condemned (2007)
Run time: 1 hour 53 minutes
Director: Scott Wiper
Cast: Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones, Robert Mammone, Tory Mussett, Madeleine West, Rick Hoffman
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 16%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A fight to the death orchestrated by the rich and powerful, with glory, freedom and wealth awarded to the last survivor.
A group of prisoners on death row are put on an island and forced to fight to the death. (Sound familiar?) The entire game gets broadcast to the public, and the grand prize for the last one standing? Their freedom. In the center of it all is Jack Conrad, who is on death row in a corrupt Salvadoran prison. He is brought to a mysterious island controlled by Ian Breckel, the creator of the show whose ambition is to surpass the ratings of the Super Bowl. There, Jack’s past and true identity are revealed as his girlfriend, Sarah, watches helplessly from afar.
11. The Truman Show (1998)
Run time: 1 hour 43 minutes
Director: Peter Weir
Cast: Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 94%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: One person’s life becomes fodder for millions of other people’s entertainment.
You won’t find any explosions or bows and arrows here, but much like Katniss and the rest of the tributes in Hunger Games, Truman Burbank’s (Carrey) struggles are put on full display and viewed as entertainment by the rest of the world. The only problem? He has no idea he’s being watched. (With 5,000 cameras, no less.) Slowly but surely and with the help of an extra named Sylvia, Truman begins to discover cracks in his idyllic life.
12. The 5th Wave (2016)
Run time: 1 hour 52 minutes
Director: J Blakeson
Cast: Chlo? Grace Moretz, Nick Robinson, Ron Livingston, Maggie Siff, Alex Roe, Maria Bello, Maika Monroe
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 17%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A teenage girl living in a ravaged, dystopian future must find a way to save her sibling from certain death—all while trying to survive herself.
Cassie’s relationship with her little brother will instantly remind you of the bond Katniss shares with Prim. The 16-year-old is sheltering with her family at an abandoned summer camp in Ohio after having survived earthquakes, floods and loss of all electricity. When the military arrives, the soldiers claim they’re evacuating children in anticipation of a fresh alien attack. However, Cassie soon learns that the aliens control the army. So, she teams up with a group of teens in an attempt to save the human race.
13. Lord of the Flies (1963)
Run time: 1 hour 32 minutes
Director: Peter Brook
Cast: James Aubrey, Tom Chapin, Hugh Edwards, Roger Elwin
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 92%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A group of young people are isolated from the world and must decide whether to embrace chaos or humanity.
Lord Of The Flies brilliantly depicts how society can unravel when they’re stuck in survival mode. In the film, a group of young boys are left stranded on a remote island after their plane crashes and kills all the adults. The group tries to establish some order by creating a society, but chaos ensues when conflict causes them to split into factions, which quickly descend into violence.
14. Nine Dead (2010)
Run time: 1 hour 26 minutes
Director: Chris Shadley
Cast: Melissa Joan Hart, John Terry, Chip Bent, Lawrence Turner
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 29%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A group of strangers are thrown into captivity—but instead of a fight to the death, they must work together if any will survive.
Following a number of kidnappings, all nine victims are held hostage in the same room. And unless they can figure out how they’re all connected, one of them will die every ten minutes. Slowly, they discover how their pasts intertwine—but one of the nine isn’t as forthcoming as the others.
15. V for Vendetta (2005)
Run time: 2 hours 12 minutes
Director:James McTeigue
Cast: Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 73%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games:A young woman living under a fascist government is swept up in a rebellion.
It’s likely that Suzanne Collins took some inspiration from this political action flick, since the titular character is essentially an edgier version of Katniss. Set in a future where England is overtaken by an oppressive, neo-fascist government, a vigilante named “V” (Weaving) tries to spark a revolution using terrorist tactics. Evey Hammond, the daughter of activists who died in prison, tumbles into his life when V rescues her from a gang of secret police. Evey is continually swept up in V’s violent plots against the government, before suffering what she believes to be an ultimate betrayal.
16. Cube (1997)
Run time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Director: Vincenzo Natali
Cast: Nicole de Boer, Nicky Guadagni, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller, Julian Richings
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 63%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A group of strangers are trapped in a deadly game—and some aren’t afraid to kill to survive.
If you’re a Kafka fan and are searching for movies like The Hunger Games, consider Cube your perfect match. A random group of strangers are startled to wake up in a prison composed of industrial cube-shaped cells, though it doesn’t take long for them to figure out that they’ll need to work together to escape. Can they beat a system where several cubes are rigged with deadly traps? Like Suzanne Collins’s trilogy, there’s plenty of conniving, backstabbing and harrowing escapes.
17. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Run time: 2 hours
Director: George Miller
Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 97%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: In a ravaged world where resources are controlled by the elite, two rebels bravely seek to break the status quo.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world where there’s an extreme shortage of water and gasoline, the action film follows Max (Hardy) and Imperator Furiosa (Theron) as they fight to survive while fleeing from an evil cult leader. The pair’s resilience and determination in a stark world has “Katniss” and “Hunger Games” written all over it.
18. The Giver (2014)
Run time: 1 hour 37 minutes
Director: Phillip Noyce
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Brenton Thwaites, Odeya Rush, Meryl Streep, Alexander Skarsg?rd, Katie Holmes, Taylor Swift
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 35%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A young man must find the courage to defy the status quo for the chance of a better life.
Can you imagine living in a world where all conflict and emotions have been removed? Such is the case in this adaptation of Lois Lowry’s novel, where young Jonas (Thwaites) lives in a relatively peaceful society. While it’s not something top of mind when you think of movies like The Hunger Games (So! Much! Fighting!), there are similarities between Jonas and Katniss, notably, both teens’ courage to take a risk and step outside the status quo. In The Giver, Jonas has been selected as the Receiver of Memory, a venerated position in the community that holds society’s collective memories. But when he learns the truth about his community’s dark past, he realizes that he must find a way to escape.
19. Super 8 (2011)
Run time: 1 hour 52 minutes
Director: J.J. Abrams
Cast: Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 81%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A group of young people band together to survive after their town is besieged by strange and violent events.
Set in the fictional town of Lillian, Ohio in 1979, a group of teens work together to create a zombie movie for the Super 8 film competition. But after a train accident, strange events start to happen throughout the town, and the group strives to overcome a tragedy while also fight off a deadly force (and authoritarian powers).
20. The New Mutants (2020)
Run time: 1 hour 34 minutes
Director: Josh Boone
Cast: Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Alice Braga
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 36%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A manipulative entity holds a group of teenagers captive for its own nefarious ends.
In this spin-off in the X-Men series, five teen mutants find themselves trapped in a secret facility that promises to cure them of their powers. Among them is Dani, whose entire community has been killed by a tornado. Soon, she discovers that she holds the power to tangibly manifest people’s worst fears. But the longer she and her fellow inmates reside in the facility, the more they start to question why they're being held. Talk about intense.
21. Ender’s Game (2013)
Run time: 1 hour 54 minutes
Director: Gavin Hood
Cast: Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 62%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A young man is thrust into a violent situation, controlled by a government layered in deception and violence.
When a group of vicious aliens attack planet Earth, a gifted young man named Ender Wiggin (Butterfield) is recruited to join a military program that prepares him to defeat the aliens in an upcoming war. However, as he moves through the ranks and passes the simulations with flying colors, he must soon face a devastating truth.
22. The Hunt (2020)
Run time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Director: Craig Zobel
Cast: Ike Barinholtz, Betty Gilpin, Emma Roberts, Hilary Swank
Rating: Rotten Tomatoes - 57%
How it’s similar to The Hunger Games: A fierce young woman must beat the odds to survive when she becomes a prime target in sadistic game.
A group of strangers wake up in a clearing and discover that they’re actually being hunted for sport—but the tables turn when one of them manages to outsmart the hunters. The satirical film boasts a fierce young female lead who survives against all odds, while also offering some spot-on commentary about the political divide in America.
What Movies Inspired The Hunger Games?
The major inspiration for The Hunger Games isn’t a movie, but rather Greek Mythology. In School Library Journal, Collins says, “It’s very much based on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, which I read when I was eight years old. I was a huge fan of Greek and Roman mythology. As punishment for displeasing Crete, Athens periodically had to send seven youths and seven maidens to Crete, where they were thrown into the labyrinth and devoured by the Minotaur, which is a monster that’s half man and half bull.” She likens her heroine to a futuristic Theseus, who volunteers to kill the Minotaur. The style of the games is compared to that of the Roman gladiators.
The author also shares in School Library Journal that the idea became more concrete one evening when she was channel surfing the television, and ended up flipping between a reality show and footage from the Iraq war. “I was really tired, and the lines between these stories started to blur in a very unsettling way. That’s the moment when Katniss’s story came to me,” Collins recalls.
Recapping Movies Like The Hunger Games
These 22 movies like The Hunger Games range from children’s book adaptations like The Giver and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to more intense (and sometimes R-rate) flicks like Mad Max: Fury Road, V for Vendetta and Battle Royale. Some feel eerily similar to Suzanne Collins’s trilogy, with plotlines involving teenagers, an oppressive government and some sort of high-stakes (and potentially deadly) game, like The Maze Runner. Others have characters that embody Katniss’s personality: resilience, determination, strength, grit and a strong moral compass.
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