'The Hunger Games' Opens in St. Charles, Nationwide Friday

Are you ready?

will join movie theaters across the country with a midnight showing of The Hunger Games.

There was quite a stir when actors from stopped at the Westfield Mall a few weeks ago, and for good reason. A lot of folks think this movie series will be the next big thing in teen fantasy flicks, following in the footsteps of the and  series. Both drew throngs of fans to the St. Charles theater.

The midnight showing of is a national event, with another option for a midnight showing see at the IMAX theater in Batavia. The movie opens nationwide Friday.

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Geneva Patch Editor Rick Nagel recently shared some thoughts on his families experiences with the young-adult book on which the movie is based:

At our house, Tricia wants to see the midnight show badly. But there's school Friday, and we're heading out for a spring break vacation on Saturday, so we're resisting letting her go to the midnight show. So far, we're holding our ground.

As I've mentioned before, we listened to the book on CD a year ago on spring break when we drove to Disney World. It's an excellent book—fast-paced, even gripping toward the end—and it made time fly during the drive south.

It's also a reading experience we shared as a family, so that makes it special, and puts a little harder tug on all of us to see the movie ASAP.

The clips you see in the trailers are very much as I pictured the scenes in the book.

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