Variety: Ender's Game Franchise Will More Than Likely Live On

Ender's Game debuted at No. 2 of the official Nielsen VideoScan First Alert chart this week, a ranking which tracks overall disc sales, DVD and Blu-ray combined. And there wasn't really a fair chance for Ender to take the top spot, as that was set to be taken by Disney's classic The Jungle Book, which has never before been available on Blu-ray Disc.

Variety, a well-established authority in the movie industry, took the strong disc sales as a pretty solid reason to conclude that the Ender's Game franchise is still very much alive:

Gavin Hood's adaptation of Orson Scott Card's classic novel, wasn't quite the box office smash some had expected, but its theatrical performance was strong enough – and its disc debut, high enough – that the franchise will more than likely live on in some fashion.

That's pretty good news for now, and we are trying our best here at Ender News to get you some information from the studio about the current status of Ender's Game.

Let me use this opportunity to give you an update about the movie's box office returns and how well it did in the various international markets. In North America (U.S. & Canada), Ender's Game earned $61.7 million and ranked No. 57 for 2013. That is probably not what the studio has hoped for, but it is also not as bad as some critics have suggested. As Variety puts it, "its theatrical performance was strong enough."

The film earned about that same amount of money in international markets, and it was a surprise success in mainland China where the film opened this January and earned more than $21 million so far.

Generally the story of Ender was especially popular in South-East Asia, and for all markets where the movie opened in 2013 it ranked highest in Thailand where it made No. 41 of the full year top list. Keep in mind that foreign markets are not just a carbon copy of the U.S.; there are many domestic movies ranking at the very top, so Ender's Game ending up higher than in its home market is even more positive.

Here is the full list for all international markets where the film opened in November or December, and the position of Ender's Game in the final 2013 box office list.

Thailand	(2013 Rank)  41
Ecuador	47
Singapore	50
Malaysia	53
USA & Canada	57
Philippines	58
New Zealand	67
South Korea	68
Spain	70
Brazil	75
Bulgaria	81
Ukraine	81
South Africa	82
Croatia	84
Poland	84
UK & Ireland	84
Iceland	85
Czech Republic	86
Hong Kong	91
Australia	92
Slovakia	93
Hungary	95
Egypt	99
France	101
Russia	101
Serbia & Montenegro	104
Sweden	104
Slovenia	108
Portugal	111
Germany	118
Italy	119
Finland	123
Turkey	126
Belgium	128
Norway	129
Denmark	132
Austria	142

Video: Ender and his best suited up for Space Camp!

To kick-off yesterday's release of the Ender's Game DVD, Just Jared Jr. treated us to a fun look behind-the-scenes at Space Camp -- where Asa Butterfield and some of his co-stars suited up for a unforgettable, team-building boot camp. Check it out:



Read more about their pre-filming trip to Space Camp here.

Bonus Features Video: Finding a Perfectly Fierce Ender

Yesterday, Entertainment Tonight debuted an exclusive clip from the DVD / Blu-ray bonus features in which the cast and crew talk about the huge challenge of finding the perfect Ender Wiggin -- and how they found the qualities they were looking for in the talented Asa Butterfield.



Ender's Game is available on DVD and Blu-ray TODAY.

Bob Orci Talks Theoretical "Ender's Game" Sequels

In an exclusive interview with Crave Online, producer Bob Orci recently addressed a couple questions currently weighing on the mind of every Ender's Game fan: Will there be sequels? If so, will the sequel be Speaker for the Dead? From the article:

"They have rights to certain of the books," Orci said. "I'm not sure which ones, and it's two companies so I'm not sure who controls it."

So the sequel could be another book in the Ender series, but in a different order. Card did write Ender in Exile in 2008, long after Speaker, Xenocide and Children of the Mind. A War of Gifts takes place during Ender's time in Battle School. Orci had another promising option too.

"Or it could be potentially original because in Speaker for the Dead you pick him up when he's already a man. There might be an in between step if that happens."

Speaker does jump ahead into Ender's adulthood, so an original sequel would give them the option of sticking with the cast of Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld and Abigail Breslin.

"That's why I think the rights that they worked out is it could either be one of the books or it could be original or a mix so that you can do what you need to do for a movie," Orci said.

Here's the current what's what regarding Ender's Game sequels: none of the fan sites have any idea, most of the "facts" you'll find on Twitter and Tumblr are intensely fictionalized, and anyone who might know for sure isn't talking.

Does that keep us from hoping? Of course not. And speaking for myself, I would be perfectly happy if any potential sequel involved book mash-ups or original stories involving Ender and his Battle School best. The possibilities are essentially endless -- and I'm certain, whatever happens, those possibilities are in the right hands.

Here's a big shout out to Bob Orci for helping keep the Ender fan flame alive!

Best of Ender's Game: Ender News Highlights from 2013!

January 17, 2013: The first piece of Ender's Game merchandise was unveiled, a 2014 wall calendar! Filled with loads of stills from the film and production tidbits. What could be a better way to start off the new year than grabbing one for yourself?

February 19, 2013: The Ender fansites unveiled four of the Ender's Game battle school logos, with Ender News debuting the insignia for Dragon Army.

© Summit Entertainment LLC

February 20, 2013: The next day, we unveiled a still of Ender and Petra in the Battle School messhall along with a preview of their upcoming set visit pieces. Remember how the release date for the set visit reports kept getting pushed later and later? We sure do! Read ours here.

March 1, 2013: Ender News turned 1 year old!

March 19, 2013: A sneak peak of the first Ender's Game trailer was (accidentally?) shown at the GAMA trade show in Los Vegas, to rave reviews -- and all of us not in attedence lost our minds.

March 20, 2013: Summit Entertainment launched the official Ender's Game movie twitter and and teased the website, IF-Sentinel.com.

March 25, 2013: The first teaser poster was unveiled, with a  teaser on the official production blog the day before by director Gavin Hood. He also participated in a phone interview with Yahoo! Movies and spoke extensively about the creation of the Battle Room.

April 1, 2013: The fansites and fellow members of the cast wished Asa Butterfield a very happy 16th birthday -- in pictures!

April 18, 2013: The first Ender's Game trailer debuted at CinemaCon with many of the cast members in attendance for panels, including Harrison Ford! (Videos: Harrison Ford | Asa Butterfield)

May 7, 2013: The trailer finally arrived after being teased a few days earlier via a 10-second preview -- which included an intro by Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford.

To launch the trailer, fan site admins and fans participated in a "Meet the Fleet" hangout with Asa Butterfield, director Gavin Hood, and producer Bob Orci!

May 9, 2013: It was confirmed with Summit that Steve Jablonsky would be composing the Ender's Game score, squashing all rumors that Avatar composer James Horner was attached to the film.

June 10, 2013: Aidan published the first in her series of posts following the creation of her Battle School flight suits.

June 22, 2013: We met the winner of the Ender's Game premiere tickets, Kelson Record -- whom I had the pleasure of meeting in Los Angeles later in the year!

June 25, 2013: The IF-Sentinel relaunched with 3 very cool propaganda posters, one of which you can see to the left. And did we ever figure out who the soldier is in the Next Generation poster? Crystal from EnderWiggin.net pointed out that there is a very familiar photo of Fly Molo in Ender's Game: Inside the World of an Epic Adventure...

July 10, 2013: Colonel Graff and Ender Wiggin were on the cover of Endertainment Weekly.

July 17, 2013: The character banners which hung in the Ender's Game experience at Comic-Con were unveiled to the public. (Video: Watch Asa and Hailee walk though the experience here.)

July 24, 2013: Gavin Hood and Bob Orci reenact a tender scene from Ender's Game during our interview with them after the Comic-Con panel in San Diego.

July 29, 2013: Crystal and I via EnderCast published our podcast interviews with the guys from Ender's Game: our first interview was with Conor Carroll (Bernard) and Caleb Thaggard (Stilson), the second was a huge group interview with with Aramis Knight (Bean), Jimmy Jax Pinchak (Peter), Suraj Partha (Alai), Khylin Rhambo (Dink Meeker), Cameron Gaskins (Pol Slattery), Conor Carroll (Bean), Caleb Thaggard (Stilson), and Brandon Soo Hoo (Fly Molo)

August 8, 2013: The final trailer debuted. Shoot straight, stay calm.

August 28, 2013: The Ender's Game fansites unveiled the first of their set visit reports!

Part One: The Production Art Tour
Part Two: Interview with Gavin Hood
Part Two B:: 20 Exciting Ender's Game Props
Part Three: Interview with Christine Bieselin Clark 
Part Four: The Cast Talks Stunts, Buggers, and Pop Tarts
Part Five: Interview with Stunt Coordinator Garrett Warren

September 12, 2013: Two brand new IF propaganda posters were unveiled by Summit Entertainment.

September 21, 2013: The Ender's Game soundtrack cover and details were released. Order it now on Amazon!

October 2, 2013: The IMAX poster and absolutely kickass fan collage were unveiled by Fandango!

October 5, 2013: Your Ender's Game fansites exclusively unveiled the first clip from the film entitled "Ender's Army." More clips:

Command School Ice Battle
Graff Recruiting Ender
You Will Be the Last
Ready Enough
Nothing Left at All
Welcome to Battle School

October 17, 2013: The beautiful Ender's Game posters by Mondo were unveiled and later made available on October 24th.

October 19, 2013: Ender Wiggin actor Asa Butterfield stopped by EnderCast along with producers Bob Orci and Gigi Pritzker!

October 25, 2013: We launched the Ender News Review-o-Meter where tracked all English-language Ender reviews and rated them a la Rotten Tomatoes.

October 28, 2013: Kelly and Aidan from Ender News, the ladies from other Ender fansites, and CharityBuzz auction winner Kelson all attended the Ender's Game premiere in Los Angeles. Read Kelson's report here.

© Ender's Ansible

November 1, 2013: Ender's Game hit US theaters! Read my review here -- needless to say, I loved it.

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Happy New Year, Launchies! What was your favorite fan moment in 2013?

Here's to more Ender in 2014!

And the Happiest of New Years!

"Ender's Game" DVD, Blu-Ray Available February 11, 2014

Heads up, Launchies! Earlier today Crave Online unveiled an exclusive preview of the box art and special features of the Ender's Game Blu-ray and DVD which will be available on February 11, 2014. According to the announcement, the film "will also be available on Digital HD January 28, two weeks prior to the Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD release[.]"

Check out the announcement video below featuring chats with Gavin Hood, Harrison Ford, and Viola Davis, and producers Gigi Pritzker, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. as well as loads of footage (and spoilers!) from the film and production process:


February 11th will also see the film's debut on Pay-Per-View and Video on Demand.

From the release:

The Blu-ray Combo Pack bonus materials include an exclusive 45-minute "making of" featurette called "Ender's World: The Making of Ender's Game." Both the Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD special features include deleted and extended scenes with optional audio commentary with director Gavin Hood as well as a feature-length audio commentary with producers. The Ender's Game Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $39.99 and $29.95, respectively.

BLU-RAY/DVD SPECIAL FEATURES*

-- "Ender's World: The Making of Ender's Game" 8-part featurette (Blu-ray exclusive)
-- Deleted/Extended Scenes with Audio Commentary with Director Gavin Hood
-- Audio Commentary with Producers Gigi Pritzker and Bob Orci

57 days to go. :)