There comes a point where a fandom stops operating within a bubble and becomes main stream. Having been through the growth of the Harry Potter and Twilight fandoms, I think it’s very clear The Hunger Games is on a similar track.

Yesterday’s trailer release once again proved that the film is on a path toward worldwide success.

Like Harry Potter and Twilight, the current Hunger Games fandom is made up of those who’ve only read and worship the books. And that’s okay. Lionsgate is working to get the word out to those who haven’t read the books, but ultimately the surge in fans will come once the film breaks into the mainstream media through its box office and word of mouth success.

Speaking of books, the trilogy has been towards the top of bestseller lists for months, and on the very top for the past few weeks. Word of mouth has, if you will, caught fire. And that’s because it’s very difficult to find someone who reads the first book in the trilogy and does NOT like it. Having been so enthralled, the reader quickly heads over to his or her friends’ and pukes positivity faster than a Muttation heads to the Cornucopia. On this news, analysts have been raising their box office expectations.

Three books? “That’s not enough!,” cries Lionsgate. Their intention is to turn Mockingjay (though some wish instead they split Catching Fire) into two films which’ll afford the studio the opportunity to bank twice off of one book. It worked splendidly for Harry Potter and is likely to do just as well for Twilight, so it’s easy to see why Lionsgate too can’t resist. Having four films will also give the series time to grow. If it were only two or three films, it may not be enough time for the fandom to continue its expansion. More films give it more time to flourish.

Yesterday’s trailer showed that demand for the film is as strong as ever. We saw many reports from fans saying the trailer wouldn’t load on Yahoo!, which suggests their server momentarily struggled to keep up with demand. Then ‘The Hunger Games’ became a trending topic on Twitter in the United States. Hypable saw a huge number of new visitors come to the site.

While The Hunger Games is sure to do well at the box office, I think Catching Fire will do even better. Looking at the Twilight box office history suggests why this will happen: Twilight had a worldwide box office of of $392 million, while the sequel New Moon made an amazing $709 million. That’s because the true explosion of the Twilight fandom happened after the first film went mainstream – in other words, when it hit theaters.

So the best is yet to come for The Hunger Games, and I think there’s very little that could screw up the success. The trilogy stands on its own. It does not need Twilight comparisons (but the sex appeal certainly helps – have you seen that Hollywood Reporter photoshoot?). All it needs is word of mouth. Fans telling potential fans how great the book, and soon film, is.