It seems to me like it has become a global phenomenon to produce movies from books. The Harry Potter books were so well received that developing them into movies was the natural course of action. This fall, part one to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be entering the theater and I can only assume that it will be huge. Right now, the Twilight Saga: Eclipse is in theaters and making big big big bucks. According to boxofficemojo.com it made $64,832,191 in just the opening weekend alone. Worldwide to date, it has grossed $645, 548,358 and that is only for being in the theaters for a little over a month. Crazy! Just as a side note, The Twilight Saga: New Moon is in third spot for one of the highest grossing films for opening weekend with $152,839,137.
Within the top 10 grossing films of all time, five of those films were literary inspired. Those being, LOTR: The Return of the King, Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, HP and Order of the Phoenix, and HP and the Half Blood Prince. (boxofficemojo.com)
Over the past ten years, there have been multiple movies that were derived from literature. Here are a some of them:
The Kite Runner, Shutter Island, Dear John, The Davinci Code, Confessions of a Shopaholic, The Road, Sherlock Holmes, The Devil Wears Prada, Secret Window, Chronicles of Narnia, & Bridget Jones’s Diary among many many many others.
Is it just me thinking this, or has this become the way to make movies? Are book writers becoming the new movie writers? I pose the question, what is your opinion on books made into movies? Do you think that producers should be able to use their creative license and change the story completely to the point where the book no longer stands in its originality? Do you ever get mad when your favorite book is slaughtered on the big screen or do you think it is alright for the movie to be tweaked? What do you think of making a profit off of merchandising off of a film made from a book (ie: t-shirt)?
Books made into Movies: What say you?
