The Hunger Games may have enjoyed record-breaking box office success over the weekend and been praised around the globe but it's also found itself at the center of an unexpected race row. The Huffington Post reported on the emergence of several comments on Twitter, in which fans of the original books had complained that some of the characters had been played by young black actors and actresses.
One such comment, posted on the Jezebel website, read "Kk call me racist but when I found out rue was black her death wasn't as sad ihatemyself" posted by a user named jashperparas, whose account now appears to have been deleted. Another user, Maggie MCDonell (account also now deleted), posted a message that read "Why does Rue have to be black? Not gonna lie, kinda ruined the movie." The original text, written by Suzanne Collins, describes Rue (played in the film by Amandla Sternberg as "having dark brown skin," which would suggest that the casting directors of the movie had done a fairly accurate job, despite one Twitter user adopting the hashtag "sticktothebookDUDE"
Despite the race-related criticisms levelled at the movie, it still experienced a stellar debut weekend at the box office, raking in over $95 million in box office sales in the USA alone. And this isn't the first time that the actors in the movie have felt pressure from fans of the book to provide an exact representation of Collins' characters. Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Katniss Everdeen has also revealed that she was accused of being "too fat, too pretty and too blonde" to play the role.