Book to Movies

With many movies that are coming out recently stemming from books such as the Hunger Games, The Hobbit and Divergent, it would seem that all the audiences around the world want is movies based on their beloved books. But how did the subject of book to movies become so popular in today’s society, when it seems like the last thing we want to do is read?

            In light of today’s technological advancements, books are not going away without a fight. Many popular series generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, with authors such as Suzanne Collins and J.K Rowling becoming almost as famous as Hollywood stars. Any time a popular book comes out it would seem like all of the books fans want is a movie adaptation. And many times they get that with a large chunk of all movies coming out in this generation having its base in a book or work of literature. Some of these movies perform somewhat bland, with them slowly falling away in a sea of forgetfulness, while others such as the Hunger Games and the Hobbit, climbing to worldwide fame and praise.

              What perplexes me is the audience’s reaction after seeing a movie based on their loved book. I’m sure that you have heard the saying “It was all right, but the book was way better”. When asked what they could do to change it and make it better the most common response is usually “They forgot so and so” or “They left out these three details that TOTALLY destroyed the storyline….”. Now while I understand why these parts were left out most of the time, I do agree that sometimes the movie strays a little too far away from the source material. But the big issue is that many people just assume that the movie is going to be a complete word for word retelling of the book, just on a screen with pictures. What they don’t understand is that if movies would do such a thing, it would result in 5-6 hour long movies that would take hundreds of millions more to produce, and would also take up many more months to complete. The Harry potter production took about a 4 years of off again filming, but if I were to follow the books monumental size, it would have probably added at least a year, maybe even two. It bothers me that all people do is whine about when their book is going to be made into a movie, only to complain about it when it finally does.