In the wake of the “Hunger Games” saga, other teen franchises have tried their luck in Hollywood, but have not always met with the same success. This is the case of “Darkest Minds: Rebellion”, released in 2018.
In Hollywood, it happens that certain sagas aimed at young audiences are so successful that they launch real trends. The triumph of Harry Potter had thus inspired a whole wave of fantastic franchises for teenagers, and Twilight had revived the fashion for fantastic romances (notably followed by the adaptation of Sublime Creatures, whose low score at the box office had quickly ended the career ).
Thus, in the wake of The Hunger Games, adapted from the novels of Suzanne Collins in 2012 (and whose prequel has just arrived in cinemas), several other science fiction works for adolescents, set in a dystopian world, had in turn attempted to break into cinemas… with more or less success.
Like Divergent or Labyrinth, it was the turn of Darkest Minds: Rebellion to try its luck at the cinema in 2018. Inspired by the literary series by Alexandra Bracken, this feature film by Jennifer Yuh Nelson could certainly have turn into a saga if the box office had decided so.
2018 Twentieth Century Fox / Andrea Hansen
Set in the near future and in a world where almost all adolescents have been decimated by a deadly virus, the plot of Darkest Minds followed the journey of young Ruby, one of the rare survivors of the epidemic.
Endowed with formidable psychic powers and considered a threat to society, she was locked up in a camp just like her peers. After managing to escape, she joined a group of young people who had suffered the same fate, and organized a rebellion alongside them to regain control of her life and fight against the oppression of adults.
Worn by the young Amandla Stenberg (who played little Rue in The Hunger Games and who we will soon see in the Star Wars series The Acolyte), Darkest Minds: Rebellion did not meet with the expected success upon its release in theaters in August 2018.
With fairly negative press reviews (15% on Rotten Tomatoes, according to our colleagues at Adorocinéma)the feature film by Jennifer Yuh Nelson above all recorded a far too modest score at the box office.
Despite its small budget of 34 million dollars, the film only grossed 41 million dollars worldwide. A result that is largely insufficient to hope to start work on a second part.
Would you have liked to discover the continuation of Ruby’s adventures in the cinema?
(Re)discover the trailer for “Sublimes Créatures”…