The Hunger Games, the forthcoming teen-oriented film about a dystopian future in which children are forced to fight to the death on a reality TV show, has taken a seven-second cut to avoid being slapped with a 15 certificate in the UK.

Film-makers agreed to excise the footage from the final movie, and the film has been given a 12A rating by censors, which means that 12-year-olds can view the film without parental supervision. The British Board of Film Classification is said to have asked for blood splashes to be digitally removed from wounds and weapons, as well as changes to four scenes which it deemed too violent for younger viewers.

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth, The Hunger Games is expected to be the year's biggest opening when it debuts in the UK and US next week, having already set a record for first-day advance ticket sales. Hollywood is hoping Gary Ross's film will mirror the success of the Twilight films, which have made huge profits by targeting a teenage demographic and shooting annual movies on relatively slim budgets.

There are three books in Suzanne Collins's series of novels, of which The Hunger Games is the first. It centres on 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence), who lives in the future nation of Panem, a cruel successor state to the United States which subjugates its citizens via the eponymous yearly competition. Katniss volunteers to take the place of her younger sister in the games when her name is drawn from a hat and finds herself competing against 23 other youngsters from other parts of the nation, with only one permitted to survive.

Collins says she came up with the idea for the games while channel surfing between reality TV shows and footage of the Iraq war, though critics have pointed out the first novel's similarity to films such as Japanese splatter-fest Battle Royale, Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi actioner The Running Man and novels such as early Stephen King effort The Long Walk.