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Running the Maze of YA-Themed Movies

 The Maze Runner dashes into theaters this Friday. And while Thomas and his buddies are hoping to leave their green glade in the movie, its makers are hoping to make a little green. Given the movie’s young-lit pedigree (it’s based on a bestselling book by James Dashner), they probably feel like they’ve got a shot at doing just that.

Books predicated on bestselling young-adult novels are all the rage these days. You could argue Harry Potter and Twilight got the ball rolling. But things didn’t really seem to take off until The Hunger Games—released in the traditionally slow month of March—earned more than $408 million in 2012. Since then, we’ve seen a slew of movies based on young adult literature. Just this year we’ve already seen, what, five such movies? In addition to The Maze Runner, I count Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars, If I Stay and The Giver. (Let me know if I missed any.) And, of course, we’ve got The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 coming this November.

Now, not all these movies have been hits. Some have been successful (Divergent has made nearly $151 million), and some have not (The Giver, alas, stumbled to $41.7 mil). Last year, we saw lots of underperforming YA movies: While The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was the year’s top film ($424.7 million), The Host struggled to make $26.6 million. A successful YA book does not necessarily make for a hit.

Making one of these movies can be extraordinarily tricky. While flicks based on these hugely successful novels have a built-in fanbase (which makes them so appealing to Hollywood), that self-same fanbase can be extraordinarily picky, and they don’t like directors taking license with their beloved books. And trust me: You don’t want to upset teen girls with access to Twitter.

Which makes me wonder how The Maze Runner will stack up. I’ve not read the original book, but I’ve heard the movie takes some liberties with the source material.

Me, I don’t mind directors meddling a little with my beloved books, as long as it makes for a reasonably good movie. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader made wholesale changes to C.S. Lewis’ original book. I love that book, and while I don’t think the changes helped the flick much (the book, as the cliché goes, is always better), it’s still the best Narnia adaptation I’ve seen. Playing with the source material doesn’t trigger my gag reflex like it does my daughter, who expects her film adaptations to be rigorously faithful.

What say you? How do you feel about Hollywood tinkering with your favorite books?