''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'' (also known as ''Percy Jackson'') is a two-film series based on the novel series of the same name by the author

Rick Riordan Richard Russell Riordan Junior (; born June 5, 1964) is an American author, best known for writing the ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'' series. Riordan's books have been translated into forty-two languages and sold more than thirty million co ...

. The series was distributed by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

, produced by

1492 Pictures 1492 Pictures is an American film production company founded by Chris Columbus, Mark Radcliffe and Michael Barnathan in 1994. The name is a play on Columbus's more famous namesake, Christopher Columbus, and his 1492 landing in the Americas. In a ...

and consists of two installments. The first film, '' Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief'' (2010), was directed by Chris Columbus and was released on February 12, 2010. The second installment, '' Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters'', was originally intended to be released in March 2013 but was instead pushed back to August 7, 2013, and was directed by

Thor Freudenthal Thor Freudenthal (; born 20 October 1972) is a German film director, screenwriter, animator and special effects artist best known for his work on ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid'' and '' Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters''. Life and career Freudenthal was ...

. While the film series was intended to match the five novel book series, and the second film laid the foundation for a third film, further films were never produced. The shortened series in total grossed nearly $430 million at the worldwide box office. The films follow the adventures of

demigod A demigod or demigoddess is a part-human and part-divine offspring of a deity and a human, or a human or non-human creature that is accorded divine status after death, or someone who has attained the "divine spark" ( spiritual enlightenment). A ...

Percy Jackson Perseus "Percy" Jackson is a fictional character, the title character and narrator of Rick Riordan's ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'' series. He is also one of seven main protagonists of the sequel series ''The Heroes of Olympus'', appearing ...

and his comrades at the demigod training ground of Camp Half-Blood. In the first film, Percy must go on a quest to save his mother from the underworld and prove his innocence when he is accused of stealing lightning from

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D� ...

. The second film revolves around Percy’s escapades as he must retrieve the legendary

Golden Fleece In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece ( el, Χρυσόμαλλον δέρας, ''Chrysómallon déras'') is the fleece of the golden-woolled,, ''Khrusómallos''. winged ram, Chrysomallos, that rescued Phrixus and brought him to Colchis, where P ...

from the Sea of Monsters, or the

Bermuda triangle The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is an urban legend focused on a loosely defined region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterio ...

, which is the only thing that will save the camp from the forces of darkness.

Films

''Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief'' (2010)

In June 2004,

acquired feature film rights to the book. In April 2007, director Chris Columbus was hired to helm the project. Filming began in April 2009 in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. The film was released on February 12, 2010. It was met with mixed reviews upon release and was a commercial success, grossing almost $227 million at the worldwide box office against a budget of $95 million. The plot revolves around a twelve-year-old Percy Jackson who discovers that he is the son of Poseidon, Greek God of the sea, and goes to Camp Half-Blood, a training camp for demigods, the half mortal children of Greek gods. When Percy's mom is kidnapped by Hades, and Percy is accused of stealing Zeus' lightning bolt, Percy and his friends go on a quest to rescue his mom from the underworld, leading them across America to find Persephone's pearls, while proving that Percy is not the lightning thief and is innocent.

''Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters'' (2013)

In October 2011,

announced a

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

based on the second book, ''

The Sea of Monsters ''The Sea of Monsters'' is an American fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology written by Rick Riordan and published in 2006. It is the second novel in the ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'' series and the sequel to ''The Lightning Th ...

''. The film was released on August 7, 2013. Percy Jackson, son of Greek god Poseidon, discovers he has a half-brother, Tyson a Cyclops, and embarks on a journey with his friends to retrieve the Golden Fleece to save a magical tree containing the spirit of Zeus's daughter Thalia Grace who died at the gates of Camp Half-Blood while saving Annabeth, Luke and Grover. This tree protects their training ground, Camp Half-Blood and reinforces their borders. They must travel to the Sea of Monsters to save the fleece, and conquer the challenges that may await them. The film grossed just over $202 million at the worldwide box office.

Cast and crew

Cast

Crew

Criticism

Rick Riordan, the author of the book series, has mentioned in numerous interviews that he has never seen the movies, to keep them from influencing the way he views the characters. During March 2016, Riordan wrote a letter asking teachers not to show the movie to students during class time. Both movies received criticism for their deviation from the source material, with the second movie being criticized for having merged the plots of both the second and fifth books of the series. In 2018, Riordan wrote a blog post detailing how limited his influence on the production of the films was, while also making public some of the e-mails he sent to the films' producers, in which he expressed concern over the ways they were altering his stories.

Reception

Box office performance

Critical and public response

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Percy Jackson Films directed by Chris Columbus 20th Century Studios franchises American fantasy adventure films American teen films English-language films Film series based on fantasy novels Film series based on American novels Films based on classical mythology Films set in New York City Films shot in Tennessee Films shot in Vancouver Percy Jackson & the Olympians 2010s fantasy films 1492 Pictures films Films produced by Karen Rosenfelt Duologies 2010s English-language films 2010s American films