On Halloween afternoon, the downtown Cedar Rapids Public Library will trade its usual hush for the roar of the arena. From 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 31, 2026, the library screens "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," the second film in the four-movie saga, and it wants patrons in costume. Dressing up is encouraged, and a costume contest will run during the showing. Admission is free and no ticket is needed to watch; registration is required only for those who want to compete in the contest. The film is rated PG-13.
The choice of date is not accidental. Halloween is the one day of the year when walking into a public library dressed as Katniss Everdeen, Effie Trinket or a Capitol citizen in towering pastel makeup raises no eyebrows at all, and the library has leaned into it. The screening is part of a broader fall series that will carry the library through the entire Hunger Games film saga, all the way to "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2." That run culminates on Saturday, November 14, with a larger program featuring Hunger Games-themed activities and crafts, timed to anticipate the release of the film adaptation of "Sunrise on the Reaping," Suzanne Collins's newest book in the series.
"Catching Fire" is a fitting centerpiece for a costume party. Released in November 2013, the film was directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy and Michael Arndt, adapting Collins's 2009 novel of the same name. It runs 146 minutes, which explains the three-hour window the library has blocked out, and it was a genuine phenomenon at the box office, grossing roughly $870 million worldwide on a budget reported at $130 million to $140 million. It is the installment where the costumes matter most: the tributes' parade outfits, Effie's escalating wardrobe and the Capitol's extravagant fashions are practically characters in their own right, which makes it a natural fit for a contest judged on what the audience is wearing.
The series itself has an Iowa-sized hold on readers. Collins's novels became a fixture of school and library shelves in the early 2010s, and the films turned a generation of teenage readers into people who show up when a library announces a marathon. The library's decision to run the whole saga, rather than a single title, reflects how these stories are consumed now: as a continuous arc rather than four separate movies.
The finale's timing is tied to a real publishing and film calendar. "Sunrise on the Reaping," Collins's second prequel novel, was published by Scholastic on March 18, 2025. It is set 24 years before the events of the first book and begins on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell, the Games in which Haymitch Abernathy competed. A film adaptation directed by Francis Lawrence, with a screenplay by Billy Ray and Michael Lesslie, is scheduled for release in November 2026, with a soundtrack album set for November 13. The library's November 14 program lands squarely in that window, turning a movie screening into a small piece of release-week culture.
There is a certain resonance in where all this happens. The downtown library at 450 Fifth Avenue SE, across from Greene Square, is itself a post-disaster building. In June 2008, a flood swept through Cedar Rapids and filled the city's downtown central library with eight feet of water, damaging the building and its materials beyond repair. For five years afterward, the library system made do: a 16,000-square-foot space cobbled together at Westdale Mall served as the city's main library, an arrangement that, as library director Dara Schmidt later told The Gazette, proved how much demand there was for library services in the city. The new central library, designed by OPN Architects, opened in 2013 and has since drawn national and international recognition for its design, including an American Institute of Architects/American Library Association library building award.
That history is worth keeping in mind on Halloween. A library that was once underwater is now the kind of place that hosts a costume contest for a dystopian film about propaganda and survival, with crafts on the calendar two weeks later. The screening is free, open to anyone who walks in, and rated PG-13, so younger fans should check with a parent before settling in for the full 146 minutes.
For those planning to compete, the practical advice is simple: register for the costume contest in advance through the library's event listing, arrive early enough to get a seat, and remember that the film runs until 4 p.m. Everyone else can simply show up, costume optional, and watch the Games begin.