My personal interest in The Divergent Series has been waning since the first film debuted and was fine if not able to inspire a strong following for a would-be YA franchise. Instead, last March's Insurgent simply maintained the initial numbers Divergent brought in and with this year's part 1 finale that is Allegiant the bridge has finally buckled--and for good reason. I wasn't a fan of the film and would even venture to say it's the worst movie I've seen this year (and I've seen Gods of Egypt), but despite the negative reviews and declining box office Lionsgate still promises one final installment in this series with next summers Ascendant (where, as of now, it will open against Brad Pitt's World War Z sequel and Tom Cruise's Mummy remake). Why they opted to split the final book in the series into two when it was clear the film adaptations weren't gaining momentum is something of a mystery, but I have to imagine they are regretting that decision now as Allegiant only grossed $29 million as compared to the previous films, both of which opened with over $52 million on the same weekends. Insurgent brought in $130 million domestically last year which was $20 million less than Divergent, but it out-performed the original film by $30 million internationally for a $297.3 million global total. Despite Allegiant opening internationally last weekend it debuted with only $25.2 million and added another $22 million from 77 markets this weekend for a current international total of $53.4 million. The budgets for each film have only gone up from one installment to the next as well and so while there is no official report for Allegiant's production budget I have to imagine it is somewhere in the $110-$120 million range. It will be interesting to see where Allegiant ends up and what Lionsgate decides to do with Ascendant given the film is already in pre-production with new director Lee Toland Krieger (The Age of Adaline, Celeste and Jesse Forever). For now though, hit the jump to see our full video review and be sure to subscribe to our channel for a new review every week!
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