AS ANTICIPATION reached fever pitch for the big-screen adaptation of The Hunger Games opening with midnight screenings last night, a central element is absent from every trailer, television ad and online video: the Hunger Games themselves, in which teenagers fight to the death while futuristic society watches on TV.

It’s impossible to imagine a commercial for a Pirates of the Caribbean movie that doesn’t show a single buccaneer or a Transformers trailer without any robots. But in a risky strategy, studio Lionsgate crafted a $US45 million ($42.7 million) marketing campaign that shows no combat.