Release: Red Queen

 

Red Queen

Genre: Fantasy/Action

Director: Niki Caro

Writer: Abbie Q

Producer: Steven Spielberg

Based on the novel by Victoria Aveyard

Cast: Dafne Keen, Dominic Sessa, Rose Byrne, Wyatt Oleff, Montana Jordan, Sophie Nelisse, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Mikey Madison, David Ajala, Alisha Weir, Archie Renaux

Budget: $89,000,000

Domestic Box Office: $85,049,475

Foreign Box Office: $115,004,900

Total Profit: $4,880,084

Reaction: This one just eked into the profit margin by less than $5 million. Red Queen does however manage to be second profitable film for writer Abbie Q (more on that in this round Box Office Breakdown).

"Director Niki Caro's latest YA big screen adaptation suffers from an overly complicated story and a lack of chemistry and charisma from its two leads, Dafne Keen and Dominic Sessa. As a result, you never really buy into their characters. The production itself is top-level, but it did not do enough in my opinion to be a new breakout young adult franchise." - Ken Decker, Denver Post

"I couldn’t really get into Red Queen directed by Niki Caro with a screenplay by Abbie Q. I do like the setting and I feel like that the book it is based on has a lot of the same qualities that you can see in the Hunger Games or Game of Thrones. The world we are put in is definitely interesting to explore but my problem with this one is it’s cluttered plot and underdeveloped characters. Maybe it’s caused by the length of the movie or the way it is structured but I often felt lost in it, feeling like I was missing something to understand what’s going on." - Clark Chase, Chicago Sun-Times

"This shines with strong performances all around, especially from Dafne Keen (just off a GRA win) and Rose Byrne (back in delicious villain role), under Niki Caro's confidently solid direction, backed by Steven Spielberg's influence. However, it's hampered by an overambitious script feeling both dense yet drawn-out. It loses focus of its action & main story for the sake of multiple payoffs in the future. Red Queen ends up feeling like an adequately decent but slightly unsatisfying story without fully engaging with its true potential." - Kanta Ramsey, AV Club

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, thematic elements, and some language