The film stars Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Jeff Daniels, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Zoë Kravitz, Maggie Q, Ray Stevenson, Bill Skarsgård, Octavia Spencer, and Naomi Watts.
Set in a post-apocalyptic and dystopian Chicago, the story follows Tris Prior, her boyfriend Four, and their small group of friends escaping over the wall that enclosed the city.
Following budget cuts, a theatrical release for Ascendant was dropped in favor of reconfiguring the project as a television film for Starz that would be followed by a spinoff series.
Society's problems were caused by some people tampering with their offspring's genes to give them advantages, leading to the Purity Wars that destroyed most of the planet.
During a military rescue mission to a wasteland village, Four realizes that the Bureau is kidnapping children and wiping their memories.
Tris, Caleb, and Christina arrive to find the city tearing itself apart at the opening stage of a full assault by the Allegiant.
The group gathers atop the Erudite building as it watches David's hovercar, which autopilots back towards the Bureau.
Scott Mendelson of Forbes compared the decline in opening day to the third installment of The Chronicles of Narnia film series, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which had a similar amount of drop.
[22] The Divergent Series: Allegiant also struggled internationally where Lionsgate does not have operations in most countries and sells distribution rights to partners.
[19] It opened in 45 international markets a week ahead of its US debut, from March 9,[23] and will receive a scattered release worldwide.
Unlike its predecessor Insurgent, Lionsgate decided not to have a day and date release for Allegiant, instead intending to take advantage of various school holidays in international markets, and at the same time avoid competition with Walt Disney's animated Zootopia.
[28] In China, it opened in third place behind The Angry Birds Movie and Captain America: Civil War with $10.8 million.
[28] Due to its underperformance, The Hollywood Reporter called it "the second big-budget miss for Lionsgate this year after Gods of Egypt".
[33] By contrast, The Hollywood Reporter estimated the film lost the studio around $50 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.
The site's critical consensus reads, "Allegiant improves on previous entries in The Divergent Series on a few superficial levels, but they aren't enough to counteract a sense of growing boredom with a franchise that's gone on too long.
Instead of embracing or building upon its core themes and constructs, it tears them all down with a wrecking ball of CGI and nonsensical storytelling".
[38] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film a 1/4 stars, stating that "The Divergent Series: Allegiant is another one of those cynical Hollywood cash grabs that takes the third book in bestselling juvie-lit trilogy (see Twilight and The Hunger Games) and stretches that last book into two movies so audiences are tricked into paying twice for egregiously padded piffle".
[42] A theatrical sequel titled The Divergent Series: Ascendant, based on the latter half of the Allegiant book, was originally meant to wrap up the series and was originally set to be released on March 24, 2017, before being pushed back to June 9, 2017,[47] with Lee Toland Krieger directing[48][49] after Robert Schwentke backed out.
[51] In September 2016, Shailene Woodley stated on Today that the film versus television decision was not finalized, and that it was "a limbo waiting game".
[53][54] In August 2017, Starz and Lionsgate Television announced that they were beginning to develop the TV series[55] with director Lee Toland Krieger and writer Adam Cozad remaining attached from the original project.
[56] In December 2018, Starz announced they were no longer seeking to develop a television series, citing the lack of interest from the cast and network executives.