Hollywood has never been original. They see something works, they repeat it ad nauseum until it doesn’t work anymore. Case in point: superheroes, which are approaching dangerous oversaturation levels.
After Twilight, Hollywood realized that adapting YA books works, and did their best to replicate that success… but lately it hasn’t been working. And if we want our favorite YA novels to ever show up on screen, we have to prove to Hollywood that adapting YA novels will still bring them money.
This all happened before, with middle-grade book adaptations. Harry Potter made obscene amounts of money, and all the studios wanted their own Harry Potter. So they mined children’s book shops for something to make a franchise out of. For a while, they received passable results: Series of Unfortunate Events made $118 million, Holes made $67M. There was one runaway success in 2005: the first Chronicles of Narnia actually made more than that year’s Harry Potter movie!
From 2005 to 2008, the middle-grade adaptations consistently grossed between $70 million and $85 million at the domestic box office (Eragon, Bridge to Terabithia, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and The Golden Compass). While no Harry Potter, these results were enough for Hollywood to keep trying new properties, even if those franchises never saw a continuation. But then 2009 happened.
Between the Octobers of 2008 and 2009, three middle-grade adaptations all bombed spectacularly: Inkheart ($17 million), Cirque du Freak ($13 million), and City of Ember ($7 million). Hollywood balked, and in the four years since, the only middle-grade book adaptation released was Percy Jackson.
That was when the YA adaptations were ascendant. The Twilight movies were staggering successes, pulling in about $300 million each at the box office (the same number Harry Potter was getting). The studios scrambled to get their own YA franchises to rake in the cash. I Am Number Four was first out of the gate in 2011, but with only $55 million, was not quite good enough.
Lionsgate hit the jackpot, though, with Hunger Games in 2012. Hunger Games raked in $408 million, far surpassing both Harry Potter and Twilight as the new crown jewel of book adaptations. So in 2013, studios all attempted to launch YA franchises that would see similar success. And the results were catastrophic.
Beautiful Creatures made $19 million. The Host made $26 million. The Mortal Instruments made $31 million. And the final nail in the coffin (pardon the pun) was Vampire Academy last month, with less than $8 million. These are the kind of numbers that put a screeching halt to middle-grade book adaptations in 2009. And now it appears that the same could happen to YA. There is only one potential YA franchise starter on the schedule: Divergent.
If Divergent fails, that’s it for the YA genre. Hollywood will chalk Twilight and Hunger Games up as a fluke, convinced there is nothing of value in YA adaptations and all your favorite series that are optioned for film will never see the big screen. Gallagher Girls, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Matched, Legend, Infernal Devices, The Raven Boys… all will languish in development hell because Hollywood would lose money on them.
This is why YA fans need to unite, and go see Divergent in theaters, to prove to Hollywood that adapting YA novels isn’t a futile endeavor. I can understand why the 2013 releases bombed – having seen all except The Host, I can tell that both the quality and the faithfulness were hit or miss. But Divergent is quite faithful to the book, and has the effects and quality actors to entice the non-readers. And it needs to cross the $100 million mark with relative ease to be considered a success.
If you’re going to see it, drag a friend along! If you’re on the fence because Allegiant disappointed you, remember how you loved the first book and support it. If you haven’t read the books, give it a chance. If you don’t care for The Secret Life of the American Teenager playing Tris, let’s hope she surprises us. In short, if you love YA novels and want to see them on the screen, go see Divergent!
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