Summary

• Replacement dystopian movies failed to replicate The Hunger Games' success due to a decrease in genre interest.
• Ready Player One's adaptation found success despite straying from the novel's themes, but the sequel has been delayed.
• Major film franchises like Divergent and Mortal Engines failed to live up to the hype of being the next Hunger Games.

In the years leading up to and following the conclusion of the massively successful The Hunger Games movie franchise, Hollywood scrambled to find a replacement that would maximize on the popularity of the dystopian genre. In the literary world, a slew of young adult dystopian novels filled up bookstores, all utilizing some of the same fundamental world-building tropes as The Hunger Games. A few of these series were adapted for the big screen in the hopes of replicating The Hunger Games' box office success. However, at this point, the phenomenon was largely a thing of the past.

Some of these movies, released during the Hunger Games heyday, failed simply due to a lack of quality. Others may be considered successful, but perhaps differently than those with the mindset of being the next Hunger Games expected. Rather than becoming a hit franchise, they became a one-off smash hit or a strange cult favorite. However, most of the would-be Hunger Games replacements bombed because of the decrease in interest in the genre. It is generally recognized that Allegiant's box office failure marked the end of the YA dystopia sci-fi craze.

8 Ready Player One

Ready Player Two does not provide strong source material.

The novel Ready Player One by Ernest Cline seemed to be exactly what Hollywood was hoping for in the post-Hunger Games days. However, the story's themes are not as strong because escapist video game reality has a lot more to offer both the audience and the characters than the real world. The book makes a bigger point about needing to experience real life than in the movie. Despite this, the Ready Player One movie adaptation performed well with critics and at the box office. This and the upcoming second novel made a movie sequel seem inevitable.

However, Ready Player Two has languished in development for years. Hollywood has been hesitant to produce it, likely because of the novel's overwhelmingly negative reviews. Steven Spielberg has confirmed his involvement in the Ready Player One sequel, making it seem like it is still a possibility. There was once a time when Ready Player One stood to be a funner version of the Hunger Games franchise with its setting primed for endless pop culture references. Drastic changes to the plot of the second book might have made a movie series viable. Now, the pop culture train has certainly moved on.

7 Ender's Game

Ender's Game's poor box office reception ended the franchise early.

With the rushed world-building, Ender's Game gambled everything on a sci-fi dystopia premise, some famous names, and no depth at all.

When the profits from the first movie started coming in, filmmakers scavenged classic sci-fi literature for another Hunger Games. With several novels of material to adapt and a title that softly invokes The Hunger Games, Ender's Game was promising. The movie's production follows a formula that proved to be successful for The Hunger Games, with no expenses spared on production design, a cast of promising but not unheard-of actors in the younger roles, and iconic A-listers playing their superiors. However, the Ender's Game movie was destined for failure.

As Collier Jennings highlights (via collider.com), the already sub-par Ender's Game movie's chances were ruined by the controversy surrounding the series. The movie couldn't escape the shadow of author Orson Scott Card's homophobic views, especially when Card was invited to cameo in the movie. On the other hand, Ender's Game fails to use its veteran cast well, while the younger cast is also not at their best. With the rushed world-building, Ender's Game gambled everything on a sci-fi dystopia premise, some famous names, and no depth at all. Unsurprisingly, the movie destroyed any hopes of it being the next big franchise.

6 Red Sparrow

Jennifer Lawrence's next would-be franchise did not measure up to The Hunger Games.