The final instalment of The Hunger Games is to be split into two films, its producer has announced.
The decision to release the third and fourth movies in November 2014 and 2015 - targeting the lucrative Thanksgiving holiday in the US - follows a similar move by the producers of the Harry Potter films.
The announcement came after Lionsgate said Oscar-winning actor-director Philip Seymour Hoffman had been cast in the second instalment, which is due out next year.
The Hunger Games, based on a trilogy by author Suzanne Collins, is about children who are forced to fight for their lives in a Roman circus-style televised blood sport in a post-apocalyptic world.
The first movie, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth, broke North American box office records when it was released in March.
Lawrence, 21, plays Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old girl who volunteers for the 74th annual Hunger Games to take the place of her younger sister Primrose.
Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the second movie, is due out on November 22, 2013, according to Lionsgate.
In an online update it said: "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 will be released on November 21, 2014, followed a year later by The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 on November 20, 2015."
Hoffman has been cast in the role of Plutarch Heavensbee, the head gamemaker in the second movie.
The actor - whose recent movies include Oscar-nominated Moneyball and The Ides Of March - has just finished a Tony Award-nominated run as Willy Loman in a Broadway revival of Death Of A Salesman.
The second Hunger Games movie will need a new director after the first film's director, Gary Ross, announced in April that he would not be staying on for the sequels.
The blockbuster film has been hyped as a potential successor to the Twilight or Harry Potter franchises.
The latter had four different directors over its eight-movie life.
The last book in JK Rowling's record-breaking boy wizard story, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, was made into two movies released in 2010 and 2011.
Some critics were disappointed with Deathly Hallows Part 1, saying it lacked action, while the last film, the climax of the seven-book, eight movie franchise, was widely praised.
The first Hunger Games movie made \$152m (£98m) in its debut weekend in March, the biggest ever opening weekend for a non-sequel film, according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.
It has since been beaten by comic superhero flick Marvel Avengers Assemble, which made an estimated \$200m (£129m) on its opening weekend in May.
