'Divergent' Movie Showing & Review: Declared Successful Franchise, Cast Partying Hard
Summit Entertainment's newest franchise gamble "Divergent," was a good move as results of ticket sales reveal interest and strong reviews.
The New York Times reports that the North American ticket sales on opening weekend were pretty telling with ticket sales estimating to have hit the $56 million mark. While compared to other established contemporary franchises like the "Twilight" or "Hunger Games" series that both took in $75.9 million and $156 million on their opening weekends, "Divergent" performed spectacularly as a new series.
President for domestic distribution of Lionsgate Richie Fay says: "We needed to be exactly where we ended up. The feeling is great satisfaction." He continues, "Despite what other people were speculating, we always felt that mid-50s would be a great start for this new property - a great way to launch a franchise."
Summit, owned by Lionsgate already has planned sequels "Insurgent," for release in 2015 and "Allegiant," for 2016. The film is an adaptation of Veronica Roth's best-selling action-thriller fiction novel series that cost $85 million to produce.
The film, produced by Neil Burger, features lead characters Shailene Woodley (Tris) and male-co-star Theo James (Four) along with some industry heavy-hitters including Ashley Judd, Mekhi Phifer and Kate Winslet, Tony Goldwyn and Maggie Q.
Cast Parties Hard!
For any Hollywood cast, a strong opening weekend deserves some partying but apparently, the cast of "Divergent" was partying way before the release of the film. Starpulse reports that the crew threw wile parties while on set that on the police had to be called.
Apparently, the young actors of the film would party and nearby residents have complained to cops. Woodley revealed to Page Six: "There was a lot of partying, and I think the cops did get called a few times. When you work long hours you want to hang out on Friday night and be loud, it's not really fair to the people next door when they're like, 'It's 4 a.m., shut the f**k up.'
Director Burger confirms the stories saying the cast "were constantly on the verge of getting kicked out of their hotel."
Let's hope they've learned their lesson and will behave a bit more even when there's cause for celebration.