How much money does the Hunger Games movie need to make for Lionsgate to justify a sequel?

In an interview with Bloomberg, Lionsgate execs Jon Feltheimer and Michael Burns break down how important the Hunger Games movie is to their studio and exactly what it needs to gross at the box office for them to give a green light to a sequel.

Unlike the major studios who have amusement parks and cable networks to keep their bottom lines in the black, Lionsgate’s business is just making movies (and tv shows) and they could use a really big one right about now. Despite the success of MadMen on AMC, Lionsgate stock has dropped 45% in the last four fiscal years, and it has suffered some serious box office disappointments recently with Conan the Barbarian, The Warrior, and Abduction. So, they’re counting on the Hunger Games.

What does that translate into in monetary terms? $100 million.

If the Hunger Games movie, premiering in March of 2012, hits $100 million in domestic box office receipts, then we can look forward to an adaptation of Suzanne Collins sequel to The Hunger Games, Catching Fire. And, if we get to movie number two, then it is pretty likely that Mockingjay (split into two films, a la Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Parts One and Two) will be winging its way to us in a couple of years.

Feltheimer and Burns think they’re going to hit the $100 million mark and have a franchise on their hands. What do you think?