On a side note two other movies based on a book were number two and three at the box office: A Walk Among the Tombstone and This is Where I leave You. I really hope hollywood would focus on other genre besides dystopian or romantic novels. I would personally think YA thriller/suspense books should be next. I also believe that a self-published YA book should be hunted down by producers as well. Recently, an unknown, self-published author by the name of Andy Weir got his book optioned into a movie. The book is called "The Martian". I really hope that more news like this would be coming soon. More unknown, self-published authors should be given similar chance like Andy Weir. I bet his story is really original and would probably bring something unique and fantastic to the sci-fi genre.
Other books (particularly YA) failed at the box office because they are copy-cat. The Maze Runner might be compared to the hunger game but it really isn't at all. You can see it's different. Hollywood should seek different and unique stories from self-published authors. Here are a few self-published books that were turned into a successful movie:
A Time to Kill, The Tales of Peter Rabbit, Oil, The Bridges of Madison County, and Legally Blonde.
There are truly talented unknown, self-published writers out there and given the chance would show how profitable their manuscript could really be.
All and all,congrats to James Dashner and I can't wait to hear more movie news on the sequel to The Maze Runner .