Following an opening weekend where it reached the top spot at the box office, The Maze Runner has already announced a sequel in The Scorch Trials. Taking its title from the second installment of James Dashner’s 3-part series, The Scorch Trials has set its release date for September 18th, 2015, just a year off of Maze Runner‘s recent release, as reported on The Dissolve. Whether or not 20th Century Fox will split the last book of the trilogy, The Death Cure, into two films to be released in September 2016 & 2017 hasn’t been confirmed, but seems inevitable.
The Maze Runner avoided the fate of other YA book adaptations that failed to launch (like Beautiful Creatures or Mortal Instruments: City of Bones) by nearly eclipsing its reported $34 million budget off of domestic opening weekend numbers alone (it earned $32,512,804 according to BoxOfficeMojo‘s latest numbers). Additionally, The Maze Runner earned a bonus $49 million off of first weekend International gross, making the decision to continue this franchise a no-brainer.
The Maze Runner features adolescents stuck behind an impenetrable maze in a post-apocalyptic society consisting of only boys. The movie stars Dylan O’Brien, Will Poulter and a smaller appearance from Kaya Scodelario in a role that will reportedly feature more prominently in the sequels. Despite its financial success, the film’s currently sitting with an average 63% on Rotten Tomatoes (and even lower numbers on Metacritic). Hopefully any negative reviews of The Scorch Trials won’t do anything to hurt Maze Runner actor Will Poulter’s feelings.