Will The Lightning Thief Rock The Box Office?
It happens. Sometimes we read a book and then find out someone’s making an adaptation of it into a movie. They are doing it more and more. We hear that, and can’t wait to see how the studios have taken these images we had in our minds, and put them how they envisioned it on screen. We always love to compare our visions with how it was made.
Sometimes we’re like “That’s EXACTLY how I envisioned it!” and sometimes it’s “man, they did horribly with how I thought it out. While we have high hopes for The Lightning Thief, we still have to face the facts that some books don’t do well as movies. Sometimes it’s because there’s a bunch of nobody’s in the roles, and sometimes it’s something else.
Take “The Golden Compass” for example. It had some big ticket actors and actresses like Daniel Craig, the new James Bond, Nicole Kidman, who has been in the musical romance films Moulin Rouge! and Nine. There was also Eva Green, who was the lead Bond Girl in Casino Royale, starring alongside Daniel Craig. And Sir Ian Mckellen, who played Gandalf in the epic film trilogy “The Lord of the Rings”, Ian McShane, who later voiced Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda, and Sam Elliot, who earlier that year was in the Marvel Superhero movie “Ghost Rider”. But, it still didn’t do well enough for a sequel. But that could be because it had a lot of controversy for being a pro atheist film, and as such, Anti-religion.
There was also ‘Eragon’ which was a very promising prospect for a film franchise. It’s known actors were Rachel Weisz, who starred along side Brendan Frasier in The Mummy, Jeremy Irons, who voiced Scar in Disney’s animated hit: The Lion King. And that film bombed. But there were films like The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the witch and the wardrobe which did well enough for at least 2 more sequels, likely more. And The Lord of the Rings, whose last film The Return of the King which won 11 Academy Awards, and is the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time. Not to mention, the Harry Potter series, which in the last decade has become the highest grossing film series to date with nearly five and a half billion dollars in the worldwide box office.

The Lightning Thief has a terrific chance. It has several big ticket actors, namely Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman and Sean Bean. Not to mention relatively new comers Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario and Brandon T Jackson. And, if this does well and the whole series is done, will make them household names for the rest of their lives.
What do you think? Will the Lightning Thief do well enough to become a franchise? Or will it bomb? Personally, I think it will make it, and then some. Guess we just have to wait until next month to find out!


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