The film stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland.

In the film, Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Hutcherson) become targets of the Capitol after their victory in the Games inspire uprisings in Panem.

The film, often considered the best in the series, received positive reviews from critics, with praise for Lawrence's performance, its themes, action sequences, musical score, screenplay, visual effects, and emotional depth.

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark have settled into a life of material comfort and emotional unease back in District 12 following their joint victory in the 74th Hunger Games.

To suppress the rebellion, he demands that she and Peeta feign love during the Victory Tour, threatening to destroy District 12 and kill their families if they refuse.

Gale is publicly whipped for trying to intervene in their beating of civilians, leading to a violent confrontation that results in Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch's involvement.

As the only living female victor from District 12, Katniss is forced to compete, and at the Reaping, Effie draws Haymitch’s name, but Peeta immediately volunteers in his place.

In a last attempt to halt the Games, Peeta lies during his pre-Games interview that he and Katniss had already married and are expecting a child, leading to a further outcry by Capitol's citizens.

Beetee proposes a plan to lure the remaining Careers to the wet beach and electrocute them using the lightning strikes recurring every 12 hours.

Unable to find Peeta and hearing a cannon (which later turns out to have signaled Brutus's death), Katniss nearly attacks Finnick, suspecting his betrayal, but he reminds her to "remember who the real enemy is."

Simon Beaufoy was hired to write the script for the film and wrote two drafts[6] before leaving after Gary Ross, director of The Hunger Games decided not to direct the sequel.

[11] Two days later, it was reported that Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3, Little Miss Sunshine) was in talks to re-write the script for Catching Fire.

[17] When X-Men: Days of Future Past lost its original director[18] and shooting for the film was delayed till April 2013,[19] Jennifer Lawrence was no longer needed to be filming in January 2013 and the shooting timeframe for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was extended to March (including several breaks due to the holidays and awards season).

[34] After the Christmas break, filming resumed for two weeks in mid January for some of the main cast and was placed on hold for awards season.

[37] Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth were in Ringwood, New Jersey shooting District 12 scenes involving snow for the beginning of the film on January 31 and February 1.

With the base camp set up at Executive Park off North Druid Hills Road, filming also occurred at the Goat Farm Arts Center.

Coldplay were announced as the first official artist to be featured on the Catching Fire soundtrack album, with the song "Atlas", released worldwide on September 6, 2013.

[50] Other artists featured on the soundtrack include Of Monsters and Men with "Silhouettes", Sia featuring The Weeknd & Diplo with "Elastic Heart", The National with "Lean", The Weeknd with "Devil May Cry", Imagine Dragons with "Who We Are", Lorde with "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", The Lumineers with "Gale Song", Ellie Goulding with "Mirror", Patti Smith with "Capitol Letter", Santigold with "Shooting Arrows at the Sky", Mikky Ekko with "Place for Us", Phantogram with "Lights", and Antony and the Johnsons with "Angel on Fire".

All songs written and composed by James Newton Howard, except "We're a Team" (co-written by Coldplay band members: Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, and Chris Martin).

[53] On November 16, 2012, the first teaser trailer was released with The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 and revealed the official logo and tagline for the film.

On January 11, 2013, Entertainment Weekly released a 2013 Preview edition of their magazine, with the first look of Lawrence as Katniss and Claflin as Finnick on the cover as well as several stills showcasing scenes from the film.

[54] On February 22, both Hitfix and the official Facebook page debuted two viral posters of the Victory Tour featuring Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss) and Josh Hutcherson (Peeta).

[56][57][58][59][60][61] Alongside the announcement of the teaser trailer premiering at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards, Lionsgate revealed a new website called TheHungerGamesExplorer.

The website's critical consensus reads: "Smart, smoothly directed, and enriched with a deeper exploration of the franchise's thought-provoking themes, Catching Fire proves a thoroughly compelling second installment in the Hunger Games series.

[110] Reviewing on Roger Ebert's website, Susan Wloszczyna of USA Today awarded the film three out of four stars, praising the acting of Jeffrey Wright, Amanda Plummer and Jena Malone and referring to the challenges of the arena as "visually intriguing."

He praised director Lawrence for "taking a more muscular approach" and "sensibly downplaying" the love triangle, noting that "neither [Peeta nor Gale], quite frankly, are fit to lay a pinky on [Katniss'] quiver".

[112] A negative review came from Sophie Monks Kaufman of Little White Lies, who praised Lawrence's performance but criticized the "dilution of the ingredients that made The Hunger Games so gripping."

She also found fault with the "lumbering" plot, the "hamminess" of President Snow and Plutarch Heavensbee and the "lackluster and unconvincing script culled from a dramatically difficult book".

Denby found the second act "attenuated and rhythmless" and criticised the "incoherent" finale that "will send the audience scurrying back to the book to find out what’s supposed to be going on".

In July 2012, Lionsgate announced that two films based on the final book in The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay, were scheduled to be released.