Do you have people in your life who, when watching a movie or television show, always say the phrase “the book is so much better than the movie”? If so, then I sincerely apologize, as I am one of those people. However, in today’s surge of book-to-screen adaptations, can you really blame us? This boom of adaptations has resaturated streaming platforms and theatres, where almost all the content we consume originated from a book.
Now this is nothing new, as some of the most famous franchises originated as books before they were film franchises that framed our childhood and early adolescence. For example, the Harry Potter movies, adapted from novels written by J.K. Rowling, and the Hunger Games movies, adapted from novels written by Suzanne Collins.
Books have long been a source of inspiration for Hollywood, but recently, thanks to online communities like BookTok, the excitement surrounding potential book-to-screen adaptations has intensified. Readers want to experience their favourite books on their screens, and because of this demand, Hollywood is making more adaptations than ever before.
Shows and movies like Daisy Jones and The Six, Bridgerton, People We Meet On Vacation, The Housemaid, and many more are all a product of this demand. This surge is not just a trend but a reshaping of the way we tell stories by merging commerce, culture, and audience engagement across different forms of media.
Adaptations have always been present in Hollywood, but you may be asking yourselves why there is a current surge now? One aspect of the hunger for this type of content is the constant competition among streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, Apple TV, and many others. It also has to do with the synergy between the publishing industry and Hollywood, as they work within the same pipelines when it comes to bestseller lists, rights auctions, and general publicity.
While all these are understandable reasons for the surge, the main explanation is Hollywood’s hunger for security. Hollywood has become increasingly risk-averse when it comes to the film and TV industry. Books are able to offer them pre-sold audiences and built-in fan bases. As a result, it is an economically smart and safe investment compared to original screenplays. And it can be used as a springboard to more content, as it holds more franchise potential than original screenplays.
As an avid reader myself, it is one of the most satisfying experiences to witness a character you have grown to love and a world you wish you could be a part of come to life visually. Readers automatically become viewers of film or TV show adaptations, resulting in a cross-media immersive experience.
This phenomenon is also breaking down barriers, allowing for more representation on our screens. It is common for characters to be recast differently from their descriptions in the book when they appear in an adaptation. For example, this was done in the hit show The Summer I Turned Pretty, as the books featured a white preteen and followed her journey through adolescence, but the adaptation featured a Korean-American protagonist, putting more diversity on our screens. The potential modernization of certain books allows for their diversification to be translated onto our screens.
While this phenomenon continues to grow, several critiques can be made.
Firstly, there is always the risk of fatigue as every bestseller continues to get optioned. Readers love to see books they’ve read come to life, but Hollywood must continue to recognize the distinction between creativity and repetition. They also need to ensure that this boom in book-to-screen adaptations does not crowd out or overshadow original screenplays and stories, even though they pose a greater risk.
Another factor to consider is that today’s generation of content consumers are very vocal in their opinions. If the film adaptation is produced in a way that’s not to their liking, they will make it known, and the adaptations will receive backlash when they fail. An example of this can be seen with the movie adaptation of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book franchise. So many fans were upset by the films, and their feelings of injustice were carried through for over 10 years, resulting in yet another adaptation, but this time in the form of a TV show.
It’s only through its current adaptation that fans of the books feel as though a grave wrong has been righted. This may be a comfort to some readers and die-hard fans because if they adapt your favourite book the first time and enough people hate it, they may get it right the second time around.
Overall, the book-to-screen boom is more than an economic safety net for Hollywood; it is a process that is redefining how we experience stories. As long as audiences continue to crave immersive, multi-content experiences and storytelling, adaptations will remain a central part of Hollywood’s strategy.
This era does not signify the death of originality but instead reflects a new ecosystem where stories can exist in both books and our screens simultaneously, enhancing our culture.