Periodicals from The Washington Post to Variety noted unappealing characters and an inconsistent plot. Fans of the books took issue with Veronica Roth's ending of the series itself to the point she explained her reasoning on her blog soon after Allegiant was published. Adapted films have been splitting final books all too frequently, making the story stretch where it’s unnecessary. Reviews have not been favorable for the Allegiant film. Whether these numbers are directly a reflection of disinterest by fans or a decrease in production value and story construction is uncertain. Divergent’s widest release was to 3,936 theaters and Allegiant’s is 3,740. All three films have opened in close to 4,000 theaters with numbers dropping from widest release per film. The first movie in the series also released in late March 2014 bringing in $54 million the first weekend and grossing $288 million worldwide. Insurgent released in late March of last year to over $52 million and went on to gross almost $300 million worldwide. This weekend’s opening marks the lowest for any film in the Divergent series thus far. The production cost for Allegiant was estimated to be $110 million, so time will tell if the continued plan to split the last book into two movies will pay off for this series. As has been the strategy for final books in young adult series adaptations distributor Lionsgate/Summit is splitting the third book Allegiant into two parts with the newly titled Divergent: Ascendant to release in June 2017 in what can be assumed an attempt to capitalize on potential summer blockbuster dollars.

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