10 Bandwagons Hollywood Couldn't Resist Jumping On

2. Young Adult Literary Adaptations

Ever since the Harry Potter franchise turned a literary phenomenon into a cinematic one and became one of the biggest and most popular movie series' in history, there have been dozens of similarly-themed adaptations that have made their way to the multiplex with an almost frightening regularity. A huge number of these movies have crashed and burned spectacularly at the box office, with only a small few going on to create the latest blockbuster franchise. Despite the incredibly high risk of failure that comes with the genre, the trend shows no signs of slowing down. Outside of Harry Potter, the two biggest success stories are The Twilight Saga and The Hunger Games. The adventures of the sparkly vampires and poorly-realized CGI werewolves score huge commercial success, with the five movies earning over $3.3bn at the box office. The Hunger Games quickly became one of the biggest brands in Hollywood, with the first two installments earning over $1.5bn, and the upcoming Mockingjay - Part 1 poised to do similarly huge business. The Maze Runner and Divergent both got off to solid starts this year, earning over $300m each against relatively small budgets and seeing sequels quickly enter production. However, the list of failed adaptations is a lengthy one. The Chronicles of Narnia made it to three movies and Percy Jackson got two which is better than most, but disappointing box office returns against hefty production costs currently sees both franchises dead in the water. A selection of entries in the genre that failed to make it past the opening chapter makes for some harrowing reading (deep breath now); Lemony Snicket, Stormbreaker, City of Ember, Inkheart, I Am Number Four, Beautiful Creatures, Eragon, Cirque de Freak, The Mortal Instruments, The Host, Vampire Academy and The Giver to name just a few. Still, all of this failure isn't going to stop the studios from trying, in the hope that one of these never-ending stream of literary adaptations manages to hit big.