The YA curse has been broken, and it was Tris and the cast of “
The Shailene Woodley-led adaptation has been hailed as a success in industry circles and won the box office for the weekend, but how well did it do in comparison to “Twilight” and “The Hunger Games”? Here’s a closer look at the opening weekend number for “Divergent.” $56 million – How much “Divergent” made in its opening weekend $96 million – How much more “The Hunger Games” made $13 million – How much more “Twilight” made 69 percent – The female portion of the audience 50 percent – The portion of the audience that had read the book “Divergent” is in theaters now.
Here’s the number you’ve probably seen associated with “Divergent” a lot today. This was the big number that “Divergent” hit this weekend, almost exactly on-target with what analysts had predicted. Solid, though nothing earth-shattering, but good enough to make it the second biggest opening of the year behind “The LEGO Movie.”
Summit Entertainment and its parent company Lionsgate, from the very start of “Divergent” was hoping to recreate the phenomenon that erupted out of the Jennifer Lawrence-led movie with a similarly themed adaptation starring an up-and-coming actress. Ultimately, this may have come down to the public’s familiarity with “The Hunger Games” and its much more straightforward story at the time of release.
This is where Summit should see some good signs. The first installment in the Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson vampire saga opened to the tune of $69 million all the way back in 2008. (Remember 2008?) With the next two movies in the “Divergent” series already schedule, Summit has some room to grow.
Since this is more niche YA fair than “The Hunger Games,” it’s not a huge surprise that the majority of the ticket buyers this weekend were young women. Half of the total audience was younger than 25.
Now, here’s a bit of a head scratcher. Though “Divergent” and its sequel have sat at the top of the YA charts for months, half of the audiences wasn’t showing up to the theater based on their love of Veronica Roth’s prose. These folks watched the trailer and liked what they saw. This figure is much lower for “Divergent” than it was for “The Hunger Games,” which saw 76 percent readership in its audience.
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