“Divergent,” Lionsgate’s newest young adult franchise starring Shailene Woodley, crossed the $100 million mark at the domestic box office on Thursday.
The film hit the milestone after 14 days in release, and has earned just $8 million at the international box office, with many key foreign markets still waiting to release the film. It begins rolling out in several international territories this weekend, including the United Kingdom, Italy and Mexico.
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Lionsgate was sufficiently pleased with the film’s opening-night numbers that it immediately announced it had greenlit a sequel, “Insurgent,” which will hit theaters in 2015. Filmed for a cost of $85 million, “Divergent” was relatively economical to produce in an era when most major blockbusters cost north of $100 million, but its final grosses are unlikely to match that of Lionsgate’s two largest franchises, “Twilight” and “The Hunger Games.”
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Lionsgate’s stock has dropped in recent weeks as investors appear disappointed that “Divergent” is going to be a more modest hit than those franchises, but analysts have said that the film is in line with expectations and should gross roughly $155 million domestically.
“We note that both the ‘Twilight’ and ‘Hunger Games’ book series were more established at the time of their film releases, and we see nice upside in future installments of ‘Divergent’ (‘Insurgent’ has already been greenlit) as book sales continue to grow rapidly,” JP Morgan wrote in an analyst note this week.
With its domestic gross now standing at $101 million, “Divergent” ranks as the 12th highest grossing film in Lionsgate history, behind “The Hunger Games” and its sequel, the “Twilight” films, “The Expendables,” “The Blair Witch Project,” “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Now You See Me.”
Lionsgate’s stock fell 0.52 percent to $26.78 on Friday afternoon.