# Books Made into Movies- guaranteed box office hits? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 10, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974 "2009-05-10T22:44:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/1 "2009-05-10T22:44:45Z")
Are there any movies that were guaranteed box office success because of the book sales? Will there be any future films guaranteed box office success because of the book sales? I would put forward two candidates - ‘Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/2 "2009-05-10T22:46:53Z")
_Twilight_ is a recent example. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/3 "2009-05-10T22:49:06Z")
Seeing as how most movie tickets are bought by teenagers\*, teen-lit would probably be the most fertile ground to plow…TRM (to wit, Harry Potter and Twilight) \*completely unsupportable statistic backed up only by gut instinct ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/4 "2009-05-11T01:06:58Z")
Best selling novels often make hit movies. Hollywood made a lot of money using the principle over the years. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/5 "2009-05-11T03:07:51Z")
But a book made into a movie doesn’t guarantee a hit. Especially if they screw with it too much. See **Bonfire of the Vanities** , for instance. Ralph Bakshi’s version of **The Lord of the Rings** certainly wasn’t a big hit. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/6 "2009-05-11T04:22:01Z")
For that matter, aren’t most movies based on books? You just don’t realize it for a lot of them, since the book isn’t famous. ---
**Author:** ![mrpayday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@mrpayday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrpayday)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/7 "2009-05-11T06:19:54Z")
Wasn’t there a rush to film everything Michael Crichton ever wrote after Jurassic Park? Most of them didn’t do that well, critically anyway. ---
**Author:** ![footballisplayedwithyourfeet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9f8e36/32.png) [@footballisplayedwithyourfeet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/footballisplayedwithyourfeet)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/8 "2009-05-11T12:33:08Z")
i don’t think **Love in the time of Cholera** was that big a hit ---
**Author:** ![Yodalicious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yodalicious/32/8195_2.png) [@Yodalicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yodalicious)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/9 "2009-05-11T14:15:22Z")
Jurassic Park ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/10 "2009-05-11T14:44:00Z")
If there were a surefire formula, film studios would stick to it with no deviation. Stephen King, as popular a novelist as the culture seems capable of producing, has had a handful of very good and popular movies made from his books–and a string of unwatchable turds. His direct involvement with the films has not, for the most part, been beneficial. Thomas Harris, another highly-regarded novelist, had two huge hit movies based on them ( **Black Sunday** and **Silence of the Lambs** ), a well-regarded box office dud ( **Manhunter** ) and three bloated suckfests ( **Hannibal, Red Dragon** and **Hannibal Rising** ). **Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events** had all the elements of a “can’t miss” blockbuster, but it sank without a trace and I see no signs of a sequel in the offing. Ironically, the thing that helped most in getting the film produced and distributed–Jim Carrey’s involvement–is probably the thing that most damaged it. Daniel Handler has a bunch of other film projects going, none of them under his “Lemony Snicket” identity. ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/11 "2009-05-11T18:47:09Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > If there were a surefire formula, film studios would stick to it with no deviation. Stephen King, as popular a novelist as the culture seems capable of producing, has had a handful of very good and popular movies made from his books–and a string of unwatchable turds. His direct involvement with the films has not, for the most part, been beneficial. Thomas Harris, another highly-regarded novelist, had two huge hit movies based on them ( **Black Sunday** and **Silence of the Lambs** ), a well-regarded box office dud ( **Manhunter** ) and three bloated suckfests ( **Hannibal, Red Dragon** and **Hannibal Rising** ). > > **Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events** had all the elements of a “can’t miss” blockbuster, but it sank without a trace and I see no signs of a sequel in the offing. Ironically, the thing that helped most in getting the film produced and distributed–Jim Carrey’s involvement–is probably the thing that most damaged it. Daniel Handler has a bunch of other film projects going, none of them under his “Lemony Snicket” identity. ‘Hannibal’ may be a suckfest but it made $350 million worldwide. 'Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events made $209 million worldwide. Not enough for the studios heads to think ‘Harry Potter’, but certainly not “…it sank without a trace.” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/12 "2009-05-11T19:13:52Z")
**Gone With the Wind** seemed to do pretty well. As did **Birth of a Nation** and **Three Weeks.** A best-selling book is a good target for a movie adaptation because plenty of people have heard of it but not read it. They get the summary version. Nothing guarantees success, but adapting a best-seller gives you an advantage – assuming you can make a good movie from it. If the movie sucks, then it will fail. I don’t know of any cases where a best seller was made into a good movie that flopped. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2009, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/13 "2009-05-12T03:40:28Z")
> [@Daddypants](#): > > Jurassic Park Timeline ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2009, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/14 "2009-05-12T14:35:32Z")
The Romanov Prophecy, by Steve Berry, has the makings of a good movie. In a John Grisham / Dan Brown kinda way it’s written with movie-like build-ups and suspense and action and such. And it’s been a little while since any mainstream film went to the whole Nicholas & Alexandra, Rasputin, Anastasia story. Hasn’t been much on this since the animated musical from about a dozen yrs ago? ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/15 "2009-05-12T15:17:47Z")
The very successful book **Angela’s Ashes** was turned into a very unsuccessful movie. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/16 "2009-05-12T15:19:56Z")
**Clan of the Cave Bear** did rather poorly at the box office, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![DudleyGarrett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DudleyGarrett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DudleyGarrett)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2009, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/17 "2009-05-12T15:21:34Z")
Just saying I though **Hannibal Rising** was pretty awesome! I’ll leave now. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/18 "2009-05-12T16:34:43Z")
> [@blinkingblinking](#): > > ‘Hannibal’ may be a suckfest but it made $350 million worldwide. 'Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events made $209 million worldwide. Not enough for the studios heads to think ‘Harry Potter’, but certainly not “…it sank without a trace.” The Lemony Snicket movie was based on the first three of a thirteen-part book series. I think the studio was hoping that it would do well enough that they could make more movies from the rest of the series, but it doesn’t look like they’re going to make any more. I think they would like a franchise as successful as the Harry Potter or the LOTR film series. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/19 "2009-05-12T19:19:07Z")
Kurt Vonnegut books have defied translation into film, though I personally like _Slaughterhouse Five._ ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2009, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-made-into-movies-guaranteed-box-office-hits/495974/20 "2009-05-12T19:36:42Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Kurt Vonnegut books have defied translation into film, though I personally like _Slaughterhouse Five._ Just last night I saw _Mother Night_, a film based on a Vonnegut book. I had no idea it had ever been filmed. It was pretty good, but obviously not a blockbuster. Neither was that particular book, though.