This teen movie could have been the new Hunger Games, but the box office decided otherwise

It happens in Hollywood that certain sagas aimed at a young audience are so successful that real trends emerge. Thus, the triumph of Harry Potter inspired a whole wave of fantasy franchises for teenagers, and Twilight revived the vogue for fantasy novels (notably followed by the adaptation of Sublime Creatures, whose low box office score quickly ended its career).

So, after The Hunger Games, which was adapted from the Susan Collins novels in 2012 (and whose prequel just hit theaters), several other science fiction works for young adults, set in a dystopian world, have in turn tried to break through. In cinemas… more or less successfully.

Like Divergent or Labyrinth, it was the turn of Darkest Minds: Uprising to try its luck in cinema in 2018. Inspired by the literary series of Alexandra Bracken, this feature film by Jennifer Yu Nelson would certainly turn into a saga if the box. The office decided so.

Set in the near future and in a world where almost every teenager has been killed by a deadly virus, Darkest Minds follows the journey of young Ruby, one of the rare survivors of the epidemic.

Gifted with powerful psychic powers and considered a danger to society, he was locked away in the camp like his peers. After he managed to escape, he joined a group of young people who suffered the same fate and organized a rebellion with them to regain control of his life and fight against the oppression of his elders.

Dressed by a young Amanda Stenberg (who starred as Little Russ in The Hunger Games and who will soon be seen in the Star Wars series The Acolyte), Darkest Minds: Rebellion did not achieve the expected success after its August 2018 theatrical release.

with a rather negative press review (15% on Rotten Tomatoes, according to our colleagues at Adorocinéma)Jennifer Yu Nelson’s feature film, above all, scored too modestly at the box office.

Despite a small budget of $34 million, the film grossed only $41 million worldwide. A result that is largely insufficient for the hope of starting work on the second part.

Would you like to discover the continuation of Ruby’s adventures at the cinema?

(Re)discover the ‘Sublimes Créatures’ trailer…