Books vs. Movies

Films adapted from books are often criticized for lacking ‘substance’ and compensate for this discrepancy with explosions and elaborate camera work. Books, on the other hand, demand a bit more respect from the general public. Many believe that concocting a script is an unsophisticated mode of writing, a copper to the gold of a novel. My presentation aims to showcase this truth.

Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone

The novel was written by J.K. Rowling and was first published on June 30, 1997.

The movie, directed by Chris Columbus and distributed by Warner Bros., premiered on November 14, 2001.

The Book

According to BBC News, as of June 2008, Harry Potter

and The Sorcerer's Stone has sold over 400 million copies since it's first publication in

1997. The book has also been translated into 67 different languages, including Latin

and Ancient Greek. It has won several awards, including the

National Book Award, the Gold Medal Smarties Prize,

and the Parenting Book of the Year award. It is also an ALA

Notable Book.

The Movie

According toThe-Numbers.com (a website dedicated to box-office data

and movie news), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

grossed $317,557,891 total in the United States and

$976,457,891 worldwide. The quoted production budget was $125,000,000 and advertising

budget was $50,000,000. These figures make Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone one of the

highest grossing filmsof all time.

Why the book was better.... According to Guido Girgenti, a student, who read the

movie and later saw the film, the book was better because "the first time I read the books I was imagining in my mind how I thought it looked. After I saw the movie, all I could imagine was scenes from the movie. I don't really like that. It takes away from my experience, and the point of reading a book is to imagine your own world where anything is possible.”

Kyle Opod, a movie critic, states that “Much is left out. The problem is that the amusing details are much of what make Harry Potter such a special story. A whole universe is created in Rowling's series, in which a magical society exists within our own ordinary "muggle" world and is kept secret by a bureaucracy with its own rules, history and politics. The way magic is treated in her books, not as something medieval but as very similar to the way our own contemporary world works, is a large part of their charm...[The movie's] lack of fullness, and its dependence on the book, might actually increase the popularity and endurance of Rowling's series by making those who see the film yearn for more, which they can get from the real thing.”

Twilight

The novel was written by Stephenie Meyer and was first published on Oct. 5 2005.

The movie, directed by Catherine Hardewick and distributed by Summit Entertainment, premiered on November 21, 2008.

The Book According to the LA Times,

25 million copies of “Twilight” have been sold worldwide and has been translated into over 20

languages. Twilight has won numerous awards and

honors, including the New York Times Editor's Choice,

Publishers Weekly's Best Children's Books of 2005, the ALA “Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults” and “Top Ten Books for Reluctant Leaders”

and it has also been a New York Times Best Seller.

According to USA Today, it was the best selling

book of 2008.

The Movie The-Numbers.com states that Twilight's total US box-

office gross was $191,465,414 and it's total

worldwide box-office gross was $382,511,081. The

Hollywood Reporter quotes the total production budget

as $37,000,000. The film, directed by Catherine

Hardewick and distributed by Summit Entertainment, sold more than $90 million

worth of box-office sales (in the US) within it's first 7

days in theaters.

Why the book was better.... In a poll entitled “Tell Us: Is the Twilight movie better

or worse than the book?”, the majority of US Magazine readers (78.57%) believe that thebook was better.

Russ Bickerstaff, a columnist for BoxOfficeProphets.com writes: “The film version of Twilight consistently fails to deliver on the novel's potential for visually dynamic cinema. Glossing over much of the interaction between the two leads, the script fails to deliver the emotional intensity of the romance at the heart of the story.”

In a review on IMDB, a commenter writes: “All in all, with Twilight, as bad a movie as it may be, I couldn't help but stay interested in it because of the electric chemistry between the leads. That alone kept me in the seat the whole time. It is technically one of the worst films of the year, but the entertainment factor in the above respect keeps it out of the company of movies like Disaster Movie and College...[T]he film went 'half way' with some subplots, either starting and dropping them, or randomly starting them halfway through an individual subplot...”

The Verdict

Movies... Cut Out Details Don't Fully Explain

The Plot Don't Explore Sub-

plots Usually Cut Out

Storylines Cost More

The Verdict

Books... Inspire Imagination Are Fully Detailed Convey Full Emotion Can Be Enjoyed

Anywhere Can Be Read

Multiple Times Cost Less Than

Movies