The Maze Runner franchise is guaranteed to break a major box office milestone thanks to the upcoming release of The Maze Runner 4. 20th Century Fox found great success by adapting James Dashner’s young adult novels into movies during the 2010s, as the original Maze Runner movies made over $940 million worldwide. It came as no surprise then when Disney confirmed its intention to develop more movies in the franchise after acquiring Fox. Although development was quiet for years, confirmation has now come that a new Maze Runner movie is in development.
Details on the upcoming franchise installment are still rather sparse, other than its description as a reboot that also acts as a “sort of continuation.” The lack of details about the new entry does not decrease the inherent excitement of the chance to return to this popular franchise. The proof of the series’ popularity comes through its box office. There will certainly be expectations for Maze Runner 4 to do well, even after the sizable gap between it and Maze Runner: The Death Cure‘s ending. Regardless of how big it is, one milestone will be broken.
Maze Runner’s Upcoming Reboot Will Make It A $1 Billion Franchise
The Franchise Has Made $949 Million
There is no feasible way that the Maze Runner franchise’s box office total will not eclipse the $1 billion total milestone with the release of the next film. The franchise is only $51 million away from moving past this mark. The first three movies made over $300 million worldwide on average. With the gap to becoming a billion-dollar franchise so low, Maze Runner 4‘s box office is guaranteed to push the franchise into new territory at the very least.
| Maze Runner Franchise Box Office | |
|---|---|
| Movie | Box Office |
| The Maze Runner | $348.3 Million |
| Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials | $312.3 Million |
| Maze Runner: The Death Cure | $288.4 Million |
As long as Maze Runner 4 is made, it should have no problem making at least $51 million worldwide. The film will have a big marketing campaign behind it thanks to Disney and 20th Century Studios. There will also be plenty of curiosity to see how the series continues and potentially fixes some of the biggest changes to the Maze Runner books. The franchise has always been bigger internationally than domestically too, so the global support can help make up for any potential drop in interest.
The Maze Runner Franchise Surpassing $1 Billion Makes It’s Success Even More Rare
YA Book Adaptations Are Rarely This Big
Maze Runner becoming a $1 billion franchise puts it in an entirely different status of success. It will become one of the rare times in Hollywood that a young adult book series became a billion-dollar live-action movie series. Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games are the only other movie franchises based on YA books that have made over $1 billion at the box office, although many other YA book adaptations have tried and failed to find this success.
Even by joining this elite list of YA book adaptations, the Maze Runner franchise box office is significantly behind its counterparts. The Twilight franchise and Hunger Games movies made over $3.3 billion, while Harry Potter made over $7.7 billion. It would take many more movies in the Maze Runner franchise for it to even come close to these other hits. Yet, Maze Runner 4‘s ability to help the franchise enter the upper echelon of YA book-to-movie adaptations is noteworthy. It did what Divergent and others could not.
Maze Runner 4’s Box Office Performance Is More Important Than Passing $1 Billion
The Franchise Needs A Big Hit
As monumental as it will be for Maze Runner to become a $1 billion franchise, how well Maze Runner 4 does at the box office is more important. The original trilogy was successful on the whole, but each movie made less than the previous one financially. The decline from movie to movie is not what Maze Runner needs to be a sustainable franchise that can go beyond whatever is planned for the fourth installment. The movie must be a decently sized hit that reinvigorates audiences’ interest in the series.
With it already being a lock that the $1 billion milestone will be passed, Maze Runner 4‘s box office needs to break the downward trend. It very well could be the final entry in the franchise if that does not happen and finishes below The Death Cure‘s $288 million. That is why it is imperative for Maze Runner 4 to be a box office hit, potentially even delivering a total haul that rivals or surpasses the first movie, rather than simply ensuring it makes the $51 million necessary to make Maze Runner a $1 billion franchise.
