Eager to emulate the tough, independent resilience of The Hunger Games' lead character Katniss Everdeen and characters in other recent movies like The Lord of the Rings series, Brave and the Avengers, Denise Pilien, of Keysborough, and Faith Hastie, of Berwick, have joined a legion of archers taking on the sport.

Archery Victoria's president Irene Norman said its membership had shot up over the past four years from 777 members in 2010 to 1740 in February this year as it rode a wave of popular culture references that was drawing new members every week.

While still dominated by men, young girls are now sometimes outnumbering boys in newcomer classes.

"In every class, I ask them what makes them want to do archery and at least one will say Hunger Games or the little ones its 'I want to be Merida in Brave'," Ms Norman said.

"In 2012, it started with the Olympics and the coverage and camera work was significantly greater than it had been in past years and then we had Hunger Games, Brave for the younger ones, Avengers [Hawkeye], Arrow and Robin Hood, with Russell Crowe, and it has cascaded on from there," she said.

For the uninitiated, The Hunger Games books and movies tell the story of a Katniss Everdeen, a young girl from a dirt-poor area forced into a survival sports game in a fight to the death. The resourceful Katniss takes one great skill with her to the tournament: her archery, which she honed when catching food for her family to eat.

Denise Pilien, 13, and Faith Hastie, 12, both wear their influences around their necks - a Mockingjay pendant replica inspired by  The Hunger Games. Both began the sport more than a year ago and will compete in national championships in Penrith, NSW, in April.

"I watched a lot of movies, The Hunger Games [2012], Avatar [2009], The Avengers [2012] and watched my brother play [computer game] Skyrim," Faith, 12, said.

"I like archery because I like to feel the experience of doing it instead of just watching and playing games, it feels good," she said.

Denise read the books before seeing the movies and initially tried the sport while on camp.

"I really wanted to try it because I really wanted to experience how it really feels. It feels a bit challenging, but fun as well, and you really have to focus a lot," Denise said.

Ms Norman said last year Victoria had eclipsed NSW as having the most members, as it capitalised on the popular culture references to the sport by creating links with camps that offered the sport and used social media and online coupons to create links to clubs.

It is not just little girls and teenagers either. Ms Norman said there were women in their 30s who came to archery clubs wearing Mockingjay pins.

"Sometimes I have to explain they won't be able to get the effect they want if they use the same type of bow as in The Hunger Games," she said.

Tammy Hastie took up the sport six months ago, joining her daughter and her husband, Shaun.

"It's very much a family sport and it is kind of hot for a woman to shoot, I reckon," Ms Hastie said.