Ender's Game's #1 Opening Probably Not Enough To Earn A Sequel

[Ohio Joe]

Ender's Game was the easy champion of the weekend box office, netting $28 million and a first-place finish. And while $28 million is a hefty amount for many films, it's not that gigantic for a film with a reported budget of $110 million. And as THR reports from several analysts, it's not the kind of money that immediately leads to a sequel.

Surprisingly enough, it's among young adults-- the target audience for Orson Scott Card's original novel-- who are holding it back. Analyst Eric Handler pointed out that 54% of the audience was above the age of 25, rare for any effects heavy would-be blockbuster but especially rare for one based on a young adult novel. Handler also cites the CinemaScore of B+, which suggests that while some fans were happy enough with what they saw, not enough will recommend the film to friends or see it again. Another analyst, Matthew Harrigan, put it more bluntly: "Ender's Game has a credible $28 million U.S. opening but not a plausible start of a new franchise for Summit Entertainment and OddLot."

Like the other franchises that have made the names of Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate (now the same company), Ender's Game comes with built-in follow-ups-- Card wrote five more books starring Ender, as well as five others called the "Shadow series" about other character within the universe. That's way more content than either of Lionsgate-Summit's other hit franchises, The Hunger Games and The Twilight Saga, which means it could have avoided gross money-stretching ideas like splitting Mockingjay into two parts. But most of the Ender books were published in a vastly different, pre-Harry Potter, where new young adult books weren't published in a sea of hype and nobody thought much about would-be franchises. And, as indicated by the demographics of last weekend's audiences, even the people who did feverishly anticipate new books about Ender Wiggin have since grown up-- they may want to check out Ender's Game, but they might be waiting until their kids drag them to Catching Fire.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Ender-Game-1-Opening-Probably-Enough-Earn-Sequel-40142.html

Good. None of this raving shit bags 'works' should be promoted through film... Fuck him.

[Buddha_of_Wisdom]

1. I went to the movies last Saturday. Ender's Game was available, but I went to see Gravity.

Good movie!

[dballance]

2. I liked Ender's Game but then I read Speaker for the Dead. It was hard to get through.

I didn't find Speaker for the Dead to be very good so I quit reading Card's books at that point. Also, I didn't know he was a virulent homophobe until recently.

Given the overall blah reviews it's not going to be way up on my list to see for what a movie ticket costs these days.

[Starry Messenger]

3. What you said.

There are so many other books, great books, by great authors that deserve films.