Entertainment
Not Every YA Movie Adaptation Can Be 'The Hunger Games'
The first book in Cassandra Claire's Mortal Instruments series made its big screen debut, and so far the box office sales have been highly disappointing. I loved, loved, loved the original books, and will continue recommending them to everyone I know — but I will also be the first to tell you that not every great book makes a great movie. Sometimes things are best left on the page. Here are six other young adult books that didn't transition gracefully from the page to the screen and have the box office numbers to prove it.
Lost in Adaptation
The first book in Cassandra Claire's Mortal Instruments series made its big screen debut, and so far the box office sales have been highly disappointing. I loved, loved, loved the original books, and will continue recommending them to everyone I know — but I will also be the first to tell you that not every great book makes a great movie. Sometimes things are best left on the page. Here are six other young adult books that didn't transition gracefully from the page to the screen and have the box office numbers to prove it.
'The Golden Compass' by Phillip Pullman
The first book of Pullman’s bestselling His Dark Materials series had lots of potential as a film, but the movie cut out all of its nuance and charm. By the time we get to the CGI giant polar bear fight, it’s devolved into nothing but action sequences. Maybe that’s why it failed to even make back half of its $180 million production budget.
'A Series of Unfortunate Events' by Lemony Snicket
Filmmakers tried to take the first three books of Lemony Snicket’s depressing yet hugely successful series and condense them into a single movie. The result: Not good. Though the film made $118 million at the box office, it still fell well short of its $140 million budget.
'The Cat in the Hat' by Dr. Seuss
If Hollywood could please stop making Doctor Seuss books into movies, that would be fantastic. Unfortunately, there are still plenty they haven’t gotten around to bungling just yet. Cat in the Hat actually passed the $100 million mark, and came close to earning back its $109 million in production costs with box office sales, but never quite did.
'The Three Musketeers' by Alexander Dumas
Okay, so kids don’t really read The Three Musketeers anymore, but it’s still an adventure story that I maintain would be perfect for 10-year-old boys. But that demographic was only able to contribute $20 million in box office sales against a production budget of $75 million.
'The Other Boleyn Girl' by Phillipa Gregory
Phillipa Gregory managed the unbelievable feat of making young adults interested in history. Her most well-known book about the Henry VIII court became a movie starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansen — but even their combined star power couldn’t make up for the muddled script that just didn’t have the magic of the original. The movie only managed to make about two-thirds of its production costs in box office sales.
'Eragon' by Christopher Paolini
Though Christopher Paolini’s trilogy-turned-quartet is thought by some to be overrated, the books are still largely preferred over the movie. Eragon had a $100 million production budget, but only $75 million worth of people bothered to go see it in theaters, which is really $75 million too many. The movie was a mess from start to finish. Seeing it was one of the few times I've seen multiple people get up and walk out of the theater. After sitting through the rest, I say good for them.
