The Maze Runner (film)

On January 4, 2011, it was announced that 20th Century Fox had obtained the rights to a film adaptation of The Maze Runner by James Dashner, with Catherine Hardwicke attached to direct.[3] On August 23, 2012 Wes Ball was confirmed to direct the film, with Gotham Group as producers.[4] Ball produced a 3D computer-animated science fiction post-apocalyptic short film, titled Ruin, and presented the short in 3D to 20th Century Fox. The studio initially considered a film adaptation of the short film, as it had the same tone of The Maze Runner novel they already planned to bring to the screen. Ball was then offered the chance to direct the novel adaptation.[5]

Creature designer Ken Barthelmey designed the Grievers for the film.[6] In late 2012, director Wes Ball hired him to work on the design. Barthelmey created a test design that he presented to director Wes Ball. Impressed by Barthelmey's work, Ball asked him to add a mechanical scorpion tail to the design. Barthelmey used various animal inspirations to come up with the design, including coconut crabs, caterpillars and piranhas. Besides the Grievers, Barthelmey also worked on several Maze, Beetle Blade (cut from the film) and Crank designs.[6]

For the role of Teresa, Kaya Scodelario was Ball's first choice as she was "fantastic" and because he loved her in the TV show Skins. Dylan O'Brien, the lead role, was initially rejected by Ball. Ball recounts, "Dylan was actually... I saw him early on, very early on and I overlooked him. It was a big learning experience there because I overlooked him because of his hair. He had Teen Wolf hair and I couldn't see past that and so we were looking for our Thomas and it's a tough role to make because he comes in as a boy and he leaves as a man, so it can't be like this badass action star that comes into this movie. It's about vulnerability upfront and then he comes out of it and comes into his own and then the next movies are about the leader that emerges from the group. So finally Fox says 'We just did this movie, The Internship. There's this kid that's in this thing. He's like 20 years old. We think he's kind of got something.' So I watched his tape and was like 'Wait a minute, I've seen this kid before.' I looked him up online and there was one picture of him with a totally shaved head and it's this sweet vulnerable-looking kid and I was like 'Whoa, interesting.' I said, 'Wait a minute, he's just so familiar and I looked back at my old audition tapes, which we had thousands of, and there's Dylan. That guy I said 'No, definitely not him.' So we brought him back in and we started to talk with him and I'm like 'he's the coolest dude ever.'" Blake Cooper entered the film via Twitter. Ball revealed a lot on Twitter, and many kids wanted to be Chuck. Cooper constantly bugged Ball, until Ball told him to give his tape to his casting director, and Ball was impressed by Cooper's tape and cast him.[5]

Principal photography started in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on May 13, 2013,[7] and officially ended on July 12, 2013.[8] Post-production on the film was completed in June 2014.

Composed by John Paesano, the soundtrack consists of 21 tracks and was released on September 16, 2014.[9]

Kaya Scodelario and Dylan O'Brien at a panel for the film at San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2014

Eleven character cards for the film were released in July 2013. Starting in January 2014, director Wes Ball released one image from the film once a week, leading up to the film's first trailer released on March 17, 2014.[13] A viral marketing campaign launched by 20th Century Fox began on April 16, 2014. The campaign is a website featuring the main characters while focusing on WCKD, an organization in Dashner's novel series of the same name. The website has the domain wckdisgood.com.[14]

On June 26, 2014, O'Brien tweeted that the original The Maze Runner book would be re-released with a new book cover based on the film's poster.[15] On July 29, 2014, the second trailer for the film was released exclusively on Yahoo! Movies.[16]

The film grossed $102,427,862 in North America and more than $245.8 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $348.3 million.[17]

Prior to its release in the U.S. and Canada, box office analysts predicted the film would be a box office success, citing effective marketing, good word-of-mouth publicity and a solid release date. Preliminary reports predicted the film would open with takings of over $30–32 million in North America.[18][19][20][21] According to movie-ticket sale website Fandango, The Maze Runner was the biggest seller accounting for more than 50% of early tickets sales.[22] The film was released on September 19, 2014 in the United States and Canada across 3,604 locations and over 350 IMAX theaters.[23][24] It earned $1.1 million from Thursday night shows,[25] and $11.25 million on its opening day.[26] It topped the box office on its opening weekend with $32.5 million of which 9% of the gross came from IMAX theaters.[27] Its opening weekend gross is the seventh highest for a film released in September,[28][29] and the 18th highest for a young-adult book adaptation.[30] The film earned a total of $102,272,088 at the North American box office becoming the 26th-highest-grossing film of 2014 in the U.S. and Canada.[31]

Outside North America, the film debuted in five countries a week prior to its North American release and earned a total of $8.3 million.[32] The film had a similar success overseas during its wide-opening second weekend earning $38 million from 7,547 screens in 51 markets. It opened in South Korea with $5.5 million – higher than the openings of The Hunger Games and Divergent,[33] the UK, Ireland and Malta with $3.4 million behind Gone Girl,[34][35] and China with $14.58 million behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.[36] Other high openings were witnessed in Russia and the CIS ($5.75 million), France ($5.2 million), Australia ($3.4 million), Mexico ($2.6 million), Taiwan ($2.2 million) and Brazil ($2 million).[32][33][37]

It became the third-highest-grossing film of all time in Malaysia for Fox (behind Avatar and X-Men: Days of Future Past).[38][39][40]

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes assigns the film a score of 65% based on 170 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's consensus states: "With strong acting, a solid premise, and a refreshingly dark approach to its dystopian setting, The Maze Runner stands out from the crowded field of YA sci-fi adventures".[41] Metacritic gives the film a score of 57 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[42] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of A− on an A+ to F scale.[43] According to Tim Ryan of The Wall Street Journal, critics considered the film better than most young adult book-to-film adaptations due to its "strong performances and a creepy, mysterious atmosphere".[44]

Rafer Guzman of Newsday gave the film a three out of four and described it as "solid, well crafted and entertaining".[45] Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com said she found the film intriguing, writing that "it tells us a story we think we've heard countless times before but with a refreshingly different tone and degree of detail".[46] The Seattle Times's Soren Anderson said the film was "vastly superior to the book that inspired it" and gave it a score of 3/4.[47] Tony Hicks of the San Jose Mercury News was "hooked by the combination of fine acting, intriguing premise and riveting scenery".[48] Matthew Toomey of ABC Radio Brisbane gave the film a grade of A−, giving praise to its intriguing premise saying that "it held [his] attention for its full two hour running time".[49] Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter said it was "consistently engaging",[50] and Ella Taylor of Variety wrote "as world-creation YA pictures go, The Maze Runner feels refreshingly low-tech and properly story-driven".[51]

Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post said "The Maze Runner unravels a few mysteries, but it spins even more", giving it a 3/4.[52] Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger wrote "it does leave you wanting to see the next installment. And that's one special effect that very few YA movies ever pull off".[53] Isaac Feldberg of We Got This Covered awarded the film 8/10 stars, calling it "dark, dangerous and uncommonly thrilling", while extolling it as "one of the most engaging YA adaptations to hit theaters in quite some time."[54] Rick Bentley of The Fresno Bee praised Wes Ball's direction, saying that he "created balance between a thin but solid script and first-rate action – and he doesn't waste a frame doing it".[55] Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "a well-acted and intelligent thriller/futuristic sci-fi romp".[56] Bilge Ebiri of New York magazine said he "was quite riveted".[57] Michael Sragow of the Orange County Register gave it a grade of B and said, "Ball is deft, though, at evoking claustrophobia of every kind, whether in the open-air prison of the Glade or the actual tight spaces of the Maze. And he elicits a hair-trigger performance from O'Brien".[58]

Claudia Puig of USA Today said "a sci-fi thriller set in a vaguely post-apocalyptic future must create a fully drawn universe to thoroughly captivate the viewer. But Maze Runner feels only partially formed", giving it a score of 2/4.[59] Time magazine's Richard Corliss said "like Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit-tentialism, but more crowded and with the musk of bottled-up testosterone".[60] Wesley Morris of the website Grantland said "I think I have a touch of apocalepsy – excessive sleepiness caused by prolonged exposure to three- and four-part series in which adolescents rebel against oppressive governments represented by esteemed actors".[61] Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film a 2.5 out of 4 rating and said "it's bleak business, and as it hurries toward its explosive, expository conclusion, the film becomes nonsensical, too".[62] Film critic Ethan Gilsdorf of The Boston Globe said "teens should eat up this fantasy's scenery-chewing angst and doom, and the hopeful tale of survival and empowerment (to be continued in the inevitable sequel or sequels)".[63]