Lions Gate Learns Audiences No Longer 'Allegiant' To Young Adult Franchise

Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (USA) (NYSE: LGF) investors saw the writing on the wall prior to this weekend, but still hoped for a better outcome as "Allegiant," the first of the final films in the "Divergent" franchise hit theaters.

While the first two films in the series did numbers in the $50 million range, "Allegiant" couldn't quite hit the $30 million mark. Lions Gate decided to split the final film in the book trilogy over two films as it had done with "The Hunger Games" and "Twilight," but unlike with those series "Divergent" has a much more divisive ending that was not a fan favorite.

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The end result is a film with a budget of nearly $90 million dramatically underperforming and a follow-up ("Ascendant") slated for release next June. Making this even more troublesome is that the release date is shared by Universal's Tom Cruise-led "Mummy" re-boot and Paramount's Brad Pitt-headlining "World War Z" sequel.

Topping "Allegiant" was Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS)'s toon "Zootopia," which hit the hat trick topping the box office with another $28 million in earnings. The film has now crossed the $200 million mark domestically and is nearing $600 million globally… and that's not counting the UK or Japan where it still has yet to open.

This will likely be the final week for "Zootopia" at the top of the charts though, as "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" and "Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice" will both open Friday.

Image credit: Blondinrikard Fröberg, Flickr