For all practical intents and purposes, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones did one thing quite well, which was proving its mortality. The film was DOA, earning $14 million over it’s five-day opening and $31 million total domestically. This, compared to it’s $60 million budget, coupled with a marketing budget rumored to cost just as much, is what we call “a bomb” in common parlance. Add to that it’s lackluster critical reception and author Cassandra Clare taking care to distance herself from the film, and it makes sense that studio Constantin Films would put the sequel on hold, presumably never to be seen again.
However, because it’s the time of year when dead things rise from their graves and shamble onward to haunt the living, an exclusive story from The Hollywood Reporter states that Constantin plans to restart production on the sequel, subtitled City of Ashes, whilst admitting they may have been just a smidge overzealous with the whole YA thing:
[Constantin Head of Film and TV Martin] Moszkowicz suggested one reason for City of Bones’ misfire may have been a marketing campaign that was too narrowly focused on teenage fans, to the detriment of Clare’s 20- and 30-something readers.“The readers of Mortal Instruments are older than you might think,” he said. “That may have been one issue in our marketing, that we focused too much on a very young audience segment.”
Constantin plans to restart production on City of Ashes next year, hopefully accompanied by a marketing campaign that aggressively targets 20- and 30-somethings by fingerwagging at all you teenyboppers to quit your hanky-panky and get off our lawns.
