Box office The film grossed $102,427,862 in North America and more than $245.8million in other territories for a worldwide total of $348.3million. Prior to its release in the U.S. and Canada, box office analysts predicted the film would be a box office success, citing effective marketing, good word-of-mouth publicity and a solid release date. Preliminary reports predicted the film would open with takings of over $30–32million in North America. According to movie-ticket sale website
Fandango,
The Maze Runner was the biggest seller accounting for more than 50% of early tickets sales. The film was released on September 19, 2014, in the United States and Canada across 3,604 locations and over 350
IMAX theaters. It earned $1.1million from Thursday night shows, and $11.25million on its opening day. It topped the box office on its opening weekend with $32.5million of which 9% of the gross came from IMAX theaters. Its opening weekend gross is the seventh highest for a film released in September, and the 18th highest for a young-adult book adaptation. The film earned a total of $102,272,088 at the North American box office becoming the 26th-highest-grossing film of 2014 in the U.S. and Canada. Outside North America, the film debuted in five countries a week prior to its North American release and earned a total of $8.3million. The film had a similar success overseas during its wide-opening second weekend earning $38million from 7,547 screens in 51 markets. It opened in South Korea with $5.5million—higher than the openings of
The Hunger Games and
Divergent, the UK, Ireland and Malta with $3.4million behind
Gone Girl, and China with $14.58million behind
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Other high openings were witnessed in Russia and the
CIS ($5.75million), France ($5.2million), Australia ($3.4million), Mexico ($2.6million), Taiwan ($2.2million) and Brazil ($2million). It became the
third-highest-grossing film of all time in Malaysia for Fox (behind
Avatar and
X-Men: Days of Future Past).
Critical response Review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes assigns the film a score of 66% based on 173 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's consensus states: "With strong acting, a solid premise, and a refreshingly dark approach to its dystopian setting,
The Maze Runner stands out from the crowded field of YA sci-fi adventures".
Metacritic gives the film a score of 57 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of A− on an A+ to F scale. According to Tim Ryan of
The Wall Street Journal, critics considered the film better than most young adult book-to-film adaptations due to its "strong performances and a creepy, mysterious atmosphere". Rafer Guzmán of
Newsday gave the film a three out of four and described it as "solid, well crafted and entertaining". Christy Lemire of
RogerEbert.com said she found the film intriguing, writing that "it tells us a story we think we've heard countless times before but with a refreshingly different tone and degree of detail".
The Seattle Timess Soren Anderson said the film was "vastly superior to the book that inspired it" and gave it a score of 3/4. Tony Hicks of the
San Jose Mercury News was "hooked by the combination of fine acting, intriguing premise and riveting scenery". Matthew Toomey of
ABC Radio Brisbane gave the film a grade of A−, giving praise to its intriguing premise saying that "it held [his] attention for its full two-hour running time". Justin Lowe of
The Hollywood Reporter said it was "consistently engaging", and
Ella Taylor of
Variety wrote "as world-creation YA pictures go,
The Maze Runner feels refreshingly low-tech and properly story-driven". Michael O'Sullivan of
The Washington Post said "
The Maze Runner unravels a few mysteries, but it spins even more", giving it a 3/4. Stephen Whitty of the
Newark Star-Ledger wrote "it does leave you wanting to see the next installment. And that's one special effect that very few YA movies ever pull off". Isaac Feldberg of
We Got This Covered awarded the film 8/10 stars, calling it "dark, dangerous and uncommonly thrilling", while extolling it as "one of the most engaging YA adaptations to hit theaters in quite some time." Rick Bentley of
The Fresno Bee praised Wes Ball's direction, saying that he "created balance between a thin but solid script and first-rate action—and he doesn't waste a frame doing it". Bill Zwecker of the
Chicago Sun-Times called it "a well-acted and intelligent thriller/futuristic sci-fi romp".
Bilge Ebiri of
New York magazine said he "was quite riveted".
Michael Sragow of the
Orange County Register gave it a grade of B and said, "Ball is deft, though, at evoking claustrophobia of every kind, whether in the open-air prison of the Glade or the actual tight spaces of the Maze. And he elicits a hair-trigger performance from O'Brien". Claudia Puig of
USA Today said "a sci-fi thriller set in a vaguely post-apocalyptic future must create a fully drawn universe to thoroughly captivate the viewer. But
Maze Runner feels only partially formed", giving it a score of 2/4.
Time magazine's
Richard Corliss said "like
Jean-Paul Sartre's
No Exit-tentialism, but more crowded and with the musk of bottled-up testosterone".
Wesley Morris of the website
Grantland said "I think I have a touch of apocalepsy—excessive sleepiness caused by prolonged exposure to three- and four-part series in which adolescents rebel against oppressive governments represented by esteemed actors".
Steven Rea of
The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film a 2.5 out of 4 rating and said "it's bleak business, and as it hurries toward its explosive, expository conclusion, the film becomes nonsensical, too". Film critic
Ethan Gilsdorf of
The Boston Globe said "teens should eat up this fantasy's scenery-chewing angst and doom, and the hopeful tale of survival and empowerment (to be continued in the inevitable sequel or sequels)".
Accolades ==Sequels==