As we discussed yesterday, the particular blockbuster strain of dystopian YA franchises seems to be circling the drain. While "The Hunger Games" kicked off with fantastic numbers, by time it got to its two-part finale, audiences began to drift away. "The Maze Runner" saw the same effect from its first movie to its second, but perhaps most notable of all has been "The Divergent Series," which saw its third entry, "Allegiant," 44% below the previous installment "Insurgent." That's a huge miss, and Lionsgate is already looking to do damage control as they move toward filming the series finale, "Ascendant."
THR reports that the studio plans to roll back the budget on the final movie. It's not yet determined how much it will cut, but Lionsgate certainly will not be spending the $110 million it did on "Allegiant." Meanwhile, there is lots of blame going around about why the franchise has failed to work, from pointing to...
