In case you haven’t heard, The Fault In Our Stars (or TFIOS) released this summer, and has made a killing. It cost Fox $12 million to make, has ruled the boxoffice, and in 11 days made $100 million. As this article in Movienewsguide explains, “This is definitely a huge surprise because in just 11 days, it managed to exceed the overall gross of three blockbuster films, namely “Twilight,” “The Hunger Games” and the movie with the same stars having different roles, “Divergent.””
I’m thrilled about this news, first of all because I’m a big John Green fan. (John Green being the author of TFIOS book, which is, obviously, what the movie is based on.) I love John Green as an author because he’s not afraid to let his inner geek shine, and because he is incredibly adventurous and interested in using technology and inspiring change. (These are generally not traits of authors.) Want proof? Just check out the Vlog Brothers on YouTube!
I’m also greatly interested in TFIOS’s success, because this could signal a huge change in future YA movies. TFIOS is about a cancer-stricken teenage girl and is firmly placed in reality. There are no sparkly vampires, no use of magic, and no attempts to save the world. It had a small budget, and beat out flashier movies, like Edge of Tomorrow. TFIOS was pitched to be a small movie. It wasn’t supposed to be a blockbuster, it was meant to be an alternative. That’s why the media is abuzz over it–it wasn’t expected.
Directors and production houses are jumping onto the “reality-based” ship, and it looks like in the next few years we will have a solid showing of YA books-turned-into-movies that aren’t in the typical fantasy genre. I’m not convinced they will wrack in the cash like TFIOS did, but they’ll certainly be less expensive to produce than, say, Insurgent.
I’m a fantasy lover, so I do hope that fantasy stories will continue to be written and produced, but with movies like Maze Runner on the horizon, and the reboot of the Star Wars franchise, I don’t think I’m going to be left in the dark. It will be interesting to see if this shift is mirrored in books. I do wish John Green would get more credit for TFIOS’s success. The movie is fantastic because it’s taken almost word for word from an amazing book. I hope more people remember that.
Confession time: I’ve seen Maleficent and How to Train your Dragon II, but I haven’t seen TFIOS, yet. I intend to watch it on DVD in the privacy of my home so I can become a snotty mess in peace. What have you seen, Champions?