Hollywood studios usually wait to see at least a full weekend of a given movie's box-office returns before approving sequels. But in the case of Divergent, Summit/Lionsgate is feeling pretty dauntless.
After the movie gained an eye-popping $4.9 million in receipts for Thursday late-night screenings alone, the studio has greenlit Insurgent, the second installment of the dystopian young-adult franchise (is there any other kind?) adapted from Veronica Roth’s best-sellers.
The sequel will begin shooting next month, and is tentatively scheduled for next March.
The early surge for Divergent suggests a $50 million-or-better weekend for the movie, starring Shailene Woodley and Theo James. Some observers are suggesting returns as high as $65 million -- making it just the latest YA hit from the studio that brought you the Twilight and Hunger Games sagas.
And you can pretty much take it to the bank that a movie version of Allegiant, the third and final book in Roth’s trilogy and tentatively set for 2016, will be greenlit too.