Though Harry Potter ended strong in 2011, with the final film in the wizarding series earning a franchise-best $1.3 billion, its upcoming spinoff film, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” has had to reintroduce audiences to the world of Hogwarts. The cast of the film seems none-too-enthused about the change in venue. Instead of ending the series as planned with one final film, Lionsgate, the studio behind “Divergent,” hopes to wrap things up as a television movie that will segue into a separate small screen series. By the time part three, “The Divergent Series: Allegiant,” hit theaters, fans had moved on, and the penultimate episode racked up a measly $179.2 million worldwide.
That dystopian adventure franchise started strong, with the first chapter earning $288.9 million globally. Katniss Everdeen ended with more gas in the tank than poor Tris Prior, the protagonist of the truncated “Divergent” film series. As more time passed, the audience started to fall away. Last winter’s “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” racked up $653.4 million globally, an impressive figure, but $200 million shy of what “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” generated. All serve as reminders of the limited window Hollywood has to convert wide readerships into ticket sales, and the struggles that multi-part literary adaptations face in sustaining interest.Įven films that hit it big, such as “The Hunger Games,” have seen their audiences shrink by the time the credits roll on their finale. Many of these have made their way to theaters.
There’s been “ The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” novels, “Gone Girl,” and “The Girl on the Train.” That’s to say nothing of “ Fifty Shades of Grey,” “Eat, Pray, Love,” and Bill O’Reilly’s on-going meditations on the brutal deaths of assorted historical figures. In the ten years since “The Da Vinci Code” first made its way to screens, the zeitgeist has cycled through several different literary sensations, a number of them “girl” related. By the time the next installment comes out, people have moved on to the next thing.” We’ve been conditioned to get serialized content immediately and these long-lead sequels don’t satisfy viewers who want everything immediately. “Even a week seems too long to wait for a new episode of ‘Westworld,'” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at comScore.