There’s dysfunction in dystopia. “Allegiant,” part 3 of the “Divergent” series, dropped 43% in its opening weekend. Not good news for Lions Gate Films, which needs a hit and a blessing to go ahead with part 4– “Ascendant.” I can’t make any more jokes or puns about the title– Oh I could, really. But “Allegiant” took in an anemic $29.1 million. The prior film, “Insurgent,” had a $52 million weekend one year ago.
“Allegiant” was beated by the cartoon animals in Disney’s “Zootopia.” That film is up around $200 million domestic and almost $600 million international. It would almost be amusing now for Disney/Pixar to make their own dystopia animated film, although “Zootopia” might count as that.
Remember the story last week of “The Little Prince”? Paramount decided not to release it, even though it’s made $81 million around the world? Well, Netflix announced they’d take it. Meanwhile, the owner of the film, Canada’s EOne, quietly put “The Little Prince” into a few theatres around the country and did very well. No promotion, nothing. If they start running ads, they could have a hit.
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