Is This Where We Are Headed?

I simply do not understand all the hoopla surrounding the movie "Hunger Games."
It's based on a book by a woman author and apparently was written for teens, because that's the age group that went gaga over the story about teenagers killing each other with bow and arrows in a futuristic setting in the United States.
 I don't get it.

Why or how is teenagers killing each other entertainment?

It seems to me there is gang violence involving teens throughout our country and that is real life and not entertainment, especially when the violence is deadly and makes the nightly newscast.
So why the double standard and hypocrisy among supposedly sane people regarding crap movies like this?
When I was young there was a movie called "Death Race 2000" (came out in 1975) in which race car drivers went on a cross country tour and could hit and run pedestrians to score points along the way.
That movie featured David Carradine (who was vastly popular because of the 'Kung Fu' TV series) and a blooming Sylvester Stallone (a year or so prior to his mega hit "Rocky") in the feature roles.
That movie was a bomb as it received negative reviews by the mainstream media critics.
Fast forward some 35 or so years later and a movie featuring child like figures murdering each other to entertain world leaders and the uber rich is being applauded as a great movie.
Just goes to show where modern society is headed.
Once again, double standards and hypocrisy as people clamor and debate about the real life murder of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida by a disturbed individual who NEVER should have been in possession of a handgun while crap like "Hunger Games" promotes more violence involving teens.
Maybe I am missing the boat as I get older and life's values change in my view as I gain experience in life.
Still don't understand it, I guess. But that doesn't mean I have to sit by and watch people condone/conform to the violence, whether real or "in the movies."
Once again, the money rules. 
The movie may make hundreds of millions of dollars, but they won't get one red cent from me.
I truly feel sorry for the future generation of this country as they continue down the blind path that 'civilized society' is taking them.
If life and art truly imitate each other as people say, count me out.
I want NO part of it ... if indeed that's where it's going.