Big Expectations for Lionsgate Ahead of "Ender's Game"

Lionsgate has had an extremely successful year, yet it looks like Wall Street expects even more from the company in 2013/14. Ever since the studio bought Summit Entertainment back in 2012, its market value has more than tripled due to fan-heavy blockbusters such as Twilight and The Hunger Games. It's therefore not surprising that, ahead of their quarterly report this week, several financial analysts raised their price targets for the stock based on a very promising 2013 schedule.

Variety reported today that Lionsgate shares are at an all-time high due to the confidence that "Lionsgate can replicate the success of the first The Hunger Games movie and the Twilight franchise" with next year's Divergent and, of course, November-released Ender's Game.

A cult favorite among teen boys and young men since its publication in 1985, it's been described as "Star Wars meets Harry Potter."

You're welcome.

Of course, none of this means box office success for Ender's Game is a safe bet! At least one analyst notes that "the film remains a bit of a longshot to achieve breakout success" based on his views that the film will lose audience due to "some potentially challenging subject matter." While specific scenes were not mentioned, Variety went on the speculate that it was the book's ending (which they revealed) that might be the most disturbing for viewers.

Lionsgate, however, has a long and enormously successful history with young adult franchises and we would be extremely surprised if Ender's Game does not at least double the production cost of about $100 million at the box office.

And Lionsgate is definitely looking ahead:

[...] Ender's Game has "distinct fanboy and likely general audience appeal" with Lionsgate possibly responsible for 10% to 15% of the production cost. [Analyst Doug Creutz] also noted Lionsgate has rights to all 12 of Card's Ender's Game series, adding that not all of them are readily adaptable for film.

After Orson Scott Card's insistence that Speaker for the Dead is completely unfilmable and Asa Butterfield mentioning that nothing from Ender's Shadow was used in Ender's Game, one does wonder in which direction Summit and possibly Gavin Hood intend to take any possible Ender sequels. However, the Ender's Game "franchise," as in one or more sequels based on any of the 12 books for which Lionsgate has the rights, certainly remains a long shot at this point with no public commitment for more films from the studio.

We know one thing for sure: in whichever direction the studio chooses to go, Ender News will be here to keep you informed!