'Divergent: Ascendant' No Theatrical Release. May Turn Into A TV Series; YA Series To Continue As TV Series[VIDEO]
ByThere have been many movie franchises that ran after the teens market in the past decade. So have been successful - the Twilight saga comes into mind. But there are some that have done their best, but it seems that the market is not naive anymore to what makes a movie good.
Hollywood has also made quite the habit of optioning books that are more likely to attract a much younger movie audience. Some book options that turned into movie gold were the "Hunger Games" books that spawned into a 4 movie juggernaut, and the aforementioned, Twilight Saga, which seem to have struck a chord with a younger core audience, and became a profitable movie franchise.
In a report by Panarmenian, Lionsgate is looking into bringing the "Divergent Series: Ascendant" into a made for television film with a possibility of a spin-off, immediately dismissing any theatrical release date. The third installment of the Divergent franchise was supposed to be released in June 2017, but after looking into poor box office numbers, those in charge felt that it audiences were losing interest in the property. Their core audiences seems to have been less impressed with each passing sequel. This would sound like a logical thing to do, but according to knowledgeable sources, nothing is still confirmed.
In a Deadline interview with "Divergent" Series lead actress Shailene Woodley about 'Snowden,' The actress expressed that she was caught off guard by the news of the discontinuation of the third Divergent film, and also states that she can't confirm whether she will take part in the TV series if ever it pushes through.
Back in 2014, the first Divergent film's domestic gross was $151 million, with it grossing $288.9 million worldwide. The sequel however, did very poorly, with just $66.2 million domestic, and $179.2 million worldwide. The decline in interest is greatly felt just by the numbers alone.
Lionsgate is considering to launch its "Divergent" TV series to Starz since it just acquired the network in a $4.4B deal, both in terms of cash and stock just last month.The idea of a TV series based on the "Divergent" films would be a much better fit for the franchise, since they would have more time to develop characters, which was the main critique of all the films, albeit in a much more constrained budget. All films were based on the Veronica Roth book series, and will most likely carry over to the TV series if all becomes official.