And this has nothing to do with the box office.
Lionsgate's senior vice president for business affairs and litigation Liat Cohen has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Harry Potter Alliance's Imagine Better Project over its charitable campaign "Hunger Is Not a Game," saying the group is "piggybacking off of" The Hunger Games marketing and stating they were bothered by the "distortion" of the film's title.
That makes sense.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cohen's letter states "This is causing damage to Lionsgate and our marketing efforts," writes Cohen in the cease-and-desist letter. The letter later adds, "We have the ability to take down your sites as a violation of our trademark and other intellectual property laws. We hope that will not be necessary as this is too serious a subject."
Lionsgate also has two large organizations fighting hunger, the U.N.'s World Food Program and Feeding America, which they brought to attention in the letter, as well.
"We understand and support your cause and mission. We are on the same side. We are looking for an amicable resolution."
A source claims the studio will not pursue legal action against the charity, but wanted to clarify that there is a copyright issue involved.
"Lionsgate's partnership with the United Nations' World Food Programme as well as Feeding America, both tied to the release of The Hunger Games, is helping to generate awareness of and funds for this global issue," the studio wrote. "Our requests to other fan based initiatives center more specifically around the use of copyrighted materials which have been committed to the WFP and Feeding America. We absolutely support and encourage the efforts of organizations battling world hunger and would encourage fans to join our efforts by visiting HungerGames.com."