‘The Hunger Games’ Movies Less Popular Than ‘Divergent’ Due To ‘Allegiant’ Sales?

Will The Hunger Games movies be less popular than the Divergent movie series based upon book sales of Allegiant?

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Shailene Woodley has a starring role in Divergent, which sounds a lot like The Hunger Games since it’s set in a dystopian world where people are divided into distinct factions based on their personalities.

To be the most popular book series is actually a high mark to beat. You might be surprised to hear that The Hunger Games book series has already surpassed J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series as one of the best-selling books of all time. And it’s not like they’re done making Harry Potter movies. There’s going to be at least more movie called Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them featuring a completely different setting and characters in a quasi-prequel to the events portrayed in Harry Potter (so, yes, that means no Daniel Radcliffe).

So just how popular is Divergent compared to The Hunger Games? When the third book in the Divergent book series, entitled Allegiant, was released in October it created a new first day sales record for publisher HarperCollins, selling more than 455,000 copies. To put these numbers into perspective, the final The Hunger Games book Mockinjay sold less than a fifth the number of books in the months leading up to the release of Allegiant.

This has movie makers excited since in the first four weeks The Hunger Games: Catching Fire made over $685 million globally on a budget of only $130 million. Lionsgate has decided they’re going to split up Mockinjay into two separate films to be released in 2014 and 2015, which is probably pretty smart considering how rushed some fans said the final book was in finishing up the plot.

Speaking of which, Divergent apparently ends on a shocker so that might generate some talk. But Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer says, “A little controversy in terms of publicity never really hurts.”

Do you think The Hunger Games will be surpassed by the Divergent movies? Which book series do you think is better?