Adaptations of young adult books have generally meant box office gold over the last few years and this weekend is more of the same as Maze Runner easily killed its competition to land in the top spot. Just how much did it rake in? $32.5 million and that is with matinee sales starting off pretty slowly. It was also just announced that FOX has already set a date for the sequel— fans can expect to see Maze Runner: Scorch Trials in theaters on Sept. 18, 2015.
The film franchise s based on James Dashner's thriller about Thomas (played by Dylan O'Boyle) who is placed in a community of young men in a post-apocalyptic world. When they realize they are trapped in a maze the "runners" begin trying to escape. Of course the audience from other YA sagas' such as The Hunger Games and Divergent have turned out in droves to see the first installment with an estimated 65 percent of the film's audience on opening weekend being under 25.
Obviously FOX is aware of what sells and at this point in time these adaptations of popular books seems to absolutely be the way to go. Obviously the deal for Maze Runner's sequel has been in the works for a long time now. They waited until this weekend to divulge a release date so that fans can walk away from the first installment knowing for sure that another fix is at least on the calendar.
Did you catch Maze Runner yet? Are you a fan of many of the other YA series' that have landed on the big screen? Why do you think that this genre in general seems to be hitting so hard right now?
