The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones was amongst the biggest flop of the summer. With a budget of $120 million, it made just $81 million and was universally panned by critics. Prior to the release of the first, the company was so confident that it automatically green lit an adaptation of the second book in Cassandra Clare’s series, The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes, but as a result of it flopping, it was logically delayed. However, Constantin Film has now pushed forward the sequel. Martin Moszkowicz, Constantin Film’s head of film and TV commented that “the massive fan base has responded positively to the adaptation and that Constantin is determined to continue the franchise.”
The Mortal Instruments evidently doesn’t have the fan base of The Hunger Games or Twilight but Constantin Film has plans to avoid the same mistakes on City of Ashes. The studio is currently working out exactly what went wrong with City of Bones and they’ve signalled out that they focused too much on the teenage audience and less on the 20s and 30s market. This is just one of many problems and Constantin has to tackle both the love triangle, the CGI, and the overall narrative to really create a success.
Originally published October 24, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
