As we know (and kinda love), Suzanne Collins has become the best-selling author on Kindle for The Hunger Games trilogy. However, one of the e-reader’s features, the ability to highlight a notable passage, has also been overtaken by the widely read young adult series. Amazon has posted a list of Kindle’s all-time most highlighted passages, and eight out of 10 of them come from The Hunger Games. So, it’s official: readers of The Hunger Games really like the words in The Hunger Games!

Joss Whedon, in the midst of publicity for both The Cabin in the Woods and The Avengers and everything else in between, has said that a planned spinoff of Buffy the Vampire Slayer about Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) is not entirely out of the question. Though there is a chance that it’ll be a character played by Head who isn’t Giles, and maybe it’ll be on the BBC. But Whedon’s on it. Trust him.

We admit it! We greeted the announcement of a Hunger Games Barbie with a little skepticism. Okay, a lot of skepticism. The secondary marketing for the movie (which took first place at the box office for the third weekend in a row this weekend, beating Titanic‘s 3D rerelease and yet another American Pie movie, grossing more than $450 million globally so far) has ridden a surprisingly satirical line by speaking to its audience as if they were citizens of the hedonistic, voyeuristic Capitol; casting those who would excitedly anticipate The Hunger Games as those who would excitedly anticipate the Hunger Games.

A Katniss Barbie, however, seemed outside of that particular merchandizing plan. We feared the transformation of Katniss Everdeen into a Barbie doll in much the same way that Katniss is transformed into a dressed up Capitol plaything, but it appears what we’ve actually gotten looks more like an action figure than anything else.

In what is not surprising, but still pretty exciting news, the sequel to The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, will be coming to the big screen in November 2013! But there are a few obstacles in their way before this movie can even be made. Don’t worry, all the stars are attached, even though Jennifer Lawrence is also signed on for another X-Men movie. There are also some questions about director Gary Ross returning. (Hint: It has to do with money.)

In The Hunger Games, when Katniss and her fellow competing tributes first emerge from the tubes that bring them above ground and into the arena, finally facing the life-or-death battle they’d been only previously been hearing about, dreading, then preparing for, a piece of music is playing that sets the perfect tone for this kind of overwhelming, visceral emotion in a futuristic world. It’s called “Sediment,” and it was not specifically made for this movie. It was first composed in 1972, by a woman who has, until now, remained pretty far under the radar. Laurie Spiegel, the composer of “Sediment,” has been a pioneer in experimental electronic music for decades, and hopefully writing about her now will make up for how we really hadn’t heard of her before very recently. We honestly can’t believe we’re just learning about her now, because what she has contributed to music is pretty amazing.

Ah, the promise of Beanie Babies: that if you bought them, and didn’t take the tags off, some day they’d be worth a lot of money.

The folks behind The Beanie Baby Hunger Games have a different sort of promise: that they will set some Beanie Babies on fire.

Considering how The Hunger Games was already setting records and selling tons of tickets before it had even opened, it is not exactly a shock that the Lionsgate flick is now setting box office records after finally hitting theaters after all this nail-biting anticipation. But we didn’t have to tell you guys that this movie was going to be huge. After all, a lot of you were probably responsible for all those pre-sale tickets, weren’t you? We don’t blame you. Just finding a parking spot last night was like a trip to the arena, save for the makeover and waxing.

The Hunger Games is already Lionsgate’s largest initial theater release in history. In the U.S. and Canada alone, more than four thousand theaters will have 10,000 copies of the movie in rotation, putting the movie at the twelfth widest box office opening in history.

Not bad for an action movie with a female lead. Reports from the rest of the world, hours ahead of us, are already breaking the records set by other blockbusters.

Ah, to be young again, and not cynical in the ways of people interviewing me on camera.

On the other hand, I’m pretty impressed that there are teenage dudes out there who’ve read the Dragon Tattoo series.

If you’re still excited about The Hunger Games even though we’re doing like a post a day on it, you might want to take a look at our contest, and if you’re not, I can only apologize and remind you that the volume of HG related posts will likely drop off precipitously after the end of this week barring the obligatory look-at-how-much-money-this-movie-with-a-female-action-lead-made-do-you-think-it-will-get-us-more-female-lead-action-flicks?-yeah-no-me-neither post.

Some creative people over at Next Movie thought it might be a good idea to imagine the characters from The Hunger Games in the style of The Simpsons. But you know what I think? I think it’s ripe for a really wicked Futurama crossover. More after the jump.