Paramount+ Just Added an Infamous Box Office Bomb That Tried (and Failed) to Be the Next Twilight

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The success of the *Harry Potter* movies started a trend of adapting books for the big screen, but the *Twilight* series sparked an even bigger wave. *Twilight* kicked off a boom in young adult adaptations, with studios rushing to turn other teen romances – often with sci-fi or supernatural themes – into films. However, most of these movies weren’t very successful and are mainly remembered as being copies of *Twilight*, rather than standing out on their own.

The movie *Beautiful Creatures* recently became available on Paramount+ in October, and it’s actually a pretty good example of a film inspired by *Twilight* from the 2010s. Although the original *Beautiful Creatures* book by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl – and the book series that followed – was popular, the 2013 movie adaptation didn’t fare as well.

Released five years after the first *Twilight* film, *Beautiful Creatures* earned a little over $60 million in theaters – just enough to cover its production costs. As a result, the complete book series by Garcia and Stohl wasn’t adapted into further movies.

Although *Beautiful Creatures* feels very similar to *Twilight*, it has some genuinely good qualities – the individual scenes are stronger than the movie as a whole. Now that it’s available to stream on Paramount+, it might be worth another look, especially considering the potential this series had if the studio hadn’t tried so hard to imitate *Twilight*.

Beautiful Creatures Isn’t Great (But Still Deserved Better)

Both *Twilight* and *Beautiful Creatures* explore supernatural worlds – vampires and werewolves in the first, and magic in the second. However, unlike *Twilight*, where a human girl enters a dangerous supernatural world, *Beautiful Creatures* focuses on a teenage boy unexpectedly drawn into a magical adventure. Warner Bros. likely saw the potential for similar financial success with *Beautiful Creatures* as they did with *Twilight*, but the film’s characters weren’t developed enough to make it truly stand out.

Beautiful Creatures introduces Ethan Wate, a teenager in South Carolina, who finds himself drawn into a world of magic when he meets Lena Duchannes, a mysterious new girl in town. Lena’s family has a reputation for practicing magic, leading to suspicion and ostracism from other students who believe they’re involved in the occult. The story draws heavily from elements of ‘Carrie’ and the ‘satanic panic’ era, and exploring these themes more fully could have given the film a different, potentially stronger, direction.

I don’t want to give away too much of the story, but it’s set in a world with a really interesting history tied to the Civil War, and Lena finds herself caught in a conflict with her own family. I think it’s a fantastic story, especially because it flips traditional gender roles and puts the power in Lena’s hands instead of a male character’s. And honestly, as someone who’s read a lot of similar stories, Lena and Ethan’s relationship is way more engaging than Bella and Edward’s – I genuinely found myself wanting them to succeed.

The movie adaptation of Beautiful Creatures didn’t quite capture the magic of the book, and plans for future films were cancelled. Still, we can still enjoy this first movie, and now it’s even easier to watch with its availability on Paramount+.

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2025-10-11 18:43