The third installment in the "Divergent" franchise, "Allegiant," did not do well both in the reviews and the box office. Theo James and Shailene Woodley's latest offering is currently at 12%, with some fans of the Veronica Roth series claiming that it was the worst movie in the "Divergent" franchise.
Critics and moviegoers over at Rotten Tomatoes were clearly disappointed at "The Divergent Series: Allegiant." Many of them thought that the movie was made just for the sake of, making them feel like the production did not make much effort in both the story and the visuals.
"Divergent feels like a hasty idea scribbled on construction paper, crumpled into a ball, and ditched in a mud puddle. Even it can't tell what it wanted to say," Amy Nicholson wrote.
"Because the series' plot reveal turns out to be more confusing than compelling, and because turning a novel into two films invariably leads to inflated productions, only the most devoted fans of the book will pledge allegiance to what's on the screen," Kenneth Turan added.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lionsgate has decided to cut the budget of the fourth and final movie in the "Divergent" series, "Ascendant" because of the movie's poor performance. They were reportedly hoping that "Divergent" will follow the success of "Twilight" and "The Hunger Games," both of which were young-female-driven franchises.
"The budget for the next one will be reduced [compared to the previous film]. They haven't said by how much," the insider explained.
The outlet held that the budget for "Allegiant" was approximately at $110 million. Box Office Mojo reported that the movie grossed over $146 million in worldwide box office.
Interestingly, box office analyst Jeff Brock pointed out that "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1" also suffered a decline when it debut to only $35 million. Lionsgate, however, did not suffer as much since the first two films "overperformed" from the beginning, which is not the case for "Divergent." Brock added that splitting the final book in a series may have also contributed to its less than stellar performance.
"Not only is story momentum being truncated, but this type of corporate greed has caused something even more dire than declining grosses - it's completely destroying the brand name," he explained.