I Am Number Four: The Franchise That Never Was

In the 2010s we saw an explosion of young adult novel adaptations on the big screen, spurred on by the success of 2008's Twilight. This led studios to try and cash in on the success of that film by making their own romance/dystopian/fantasy movies. Many movies in this sub-genre failed to live up to Twilight's success, such as 2011's I Am Number Four.

In this video essay I examine this film to try and understand why it never spawned a big film franchise like Hunger Games and Twilight did, and if it even had a chance to reach the heights of those series.

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[azgearguy]

Your an idiot, if a movie critic cant tell the difference between 2 action movies you should go back to work at 7 / 11 its obviously where you belong!!!

[lilyjawad]

The books go back and forth between the different characters POVs, each book focuses on a different character, the pacing of the books literally feels like a show. Making it into a movie was dumb AF.

[PoppyMorreale]

I like how you went from your Disney next big thing era to YA book to movie flop era

[mesousagaby]

Funny you mention that Alex Pettyfer looks like he's 27, because he was 21 when filming this when the love interest played by Dianna Agron was four years older than him.

[sirashley]

some random YA movie made $150 million on a $50 million dollar budget, opening at #2, WITH A FEBRUARY RELEASE, is nothing to scoff at.

[Happymali]

The main lesson from this video: The Fifth Wave was meant to be a franchise (?)

[Citizen_Krang]

Yup, I am number 4, Push, and Jumper ALL blend together in my head…I liked them all though

[WrathOfGrapesN]

The scene where Number 6 burns down the beach house, while Adele was playing was seriously cool though.

[TiaBelle]

THE WAY I *IMMEDIATELY* CLICKED!!! This was one of my favorite movies cause of my Dianna Agron obsession and I loved Teresa Palmer too. So sad this one died on arrival

[jeffkadlec]

My daughter was a teenager when this movie came out. And let me tell you, the marketing WORKED! She was so excited for this movie, and got to meet the actor at a fan event.

[jessip]

Author James Frey is a pretty controversial person as well. He's known for telling tall tales, writing a fake memoir, and using MFA students as cheap, easily exploitable ghost writers. I Am Number Four is quite possibly not even written by him. It's possible some executives figued he was much more trouble than he was worth, and that also attributed to dumping the series.

[FlotsamCity]

I literally just watched I Am Number Four with my brother for some nostalgia, we thought it was the coolest thing we'd ever seen as kids and man it's a rough watch without those tween rose tinted glasses. I'm also surprised to know Alex Pettyfer was only TWENTY throughout filming, which in hindsight really isn't that bad of an age to be playing a teenager. I'm just absolutely gobsmacked because even as a kid I could've swore he must've been 27-28.

[ryancarter]

Crying shame that this flopped. Because the books are pretty good from what I remember. I read the first 3 books of memory serves correct and loved them

[georgezp]

There was a point in my life where I realised that a lot of movies are based on books. And the first movie I looked up after I discovered that little fact, was I am number 4. I loved the books, and once I had read them, I was SO disappointed in the movie...😢

[terryf]

Push is incomparable to this. Push is an great movie with an incredible cast, probably one of the movies I have watched the most. I wish it had got more exposure at the time.

[tessaariane]

I saw a tiktok today saying that kids deserve good movies too and that a movie shouldn’t be excused by saying “oh but it’s intended for kids.”

I feel like the same goes for teenage girls. They deserve high quality media as well. That’s why Hungers games worked so well. Also they will find a way to thirst over the main characters, doesn’t matter how the movie portrays them So the whole “oh look this male character is attractive, go watch the movie” marketing is kinda pointless.
I was a teenage girl when Hannibal was big. I know what I am talking about

[Makoto]

Hunger Games was probably the only good series that chased the Twilight YA trend. So many other movies tried and flopped.
I am Number 4 looked so generic to me from the trailers.

[thafilmguy]

I personally enjoy this movie more than most but I can also see why it flopped and failed to start a franchise. My point of view is not just that it tried to be alien Twilight, but also that the whole script just screams GENERIC. There's nothing unique about any character except the way they look. The handsome, troubled protagonist trying to find himself. The pretty photographer who (of course) has a history with the main bully. The nerd who gets picked on and befriends the main character. The older mentor figure. The badass chick who likes kicking ass. Nothing sets them apart from anything we've seen before and in better stuff. There was SOOO much potential for this to be good. His powers are pretty badass and the world building seemed intriguing. I would have liked to have seen where it would have gone if they continued and left it in more capable hands.

[upsetstudios]

The Maze Runner **trilogy** deserves more recognition. I kinda wish they got a resurgence in popularity after The Last of Us. They're a pretty damn decent zombie action binge

[Waffletigercat]

This is the first movie you’ve covered that I don’t even remember an advertisement for. Wild.