A Look At the YA genre’s relationship to film
From Harry Potter to Now
It has been a common practice for Hollywood to adapt classical books onto the big screen, bringing memorable childhood classics like Alice in Wonderland or Peter Pan to life. However, since the increasing craze surrounding the series Harry Potter and its first installment to hit theaters in 2001 (Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone), the adaptation of the genre of young adult fiction has rapidly gained attention and fame since then.
The Young Adult Fantasy
The Harry Potter franchise in the film industry spanned from 2001 to 2011, earning about $6.5 billion in its success, and becoming one of the highest-grossing films; the brand itself is worth $25 billion according to Times. With J.K. Rowling’s success, the young adult fantasy genre captured the hearts of a generation of escapists, whether it be escaping in the words of a book or the images on the silver screen. While fan-favorite series like Chronicles of Narnia, The Golden Compass, The Series of Unfortunate Events, were also adapted into movies, they did not reach the level of box office success and fan craze that Stephanie Meyer’s The Twilight Saga received.
According to the numbers, the vampire romance series grossed $3.3 billion worldwide, and propelled Meyer’s success despite the varying critiques and reception of both the book series and film series. Other popular young adult series, such as The Mortal Instruments and Percy Jackson and the Olympians, sought to replicate the success of Harry Potter and Twilight based on the fan following, however, the screen adaptations failed significantly. While Harry Potter continues to remain one of the more noteworthy book adaptations, dystopian fiction and John Green’s coming-of-age books have further increased the craze of young adult fiction, and thus the rising appeal to the genre.
The Young Adult Dystopian
As both the Harry Potter and Twilight franchise reached the end of their series, the era of dystopian young adult fiction came to life. The 2010s have been riddled with tension in the social-political terrain with the looming threats of nuclear weapons and rising tensions between government and state; novels and movies highlighting a dystopian and/or post-apocalyptic world became addictive. The success of Suzanne Collins dystopian trilogy, Hunger Games, became the next grossing young adult adaptation with its first installment that was released in March 2012, just as Twilight was reaching the end of its five part film adaptation.
According to the numbers, Hunger Games grossed about $2.9 billion worldwide. Collins series touched on the corruption of government, the factions between social and political classes, and the depiction of the animalistic side to humans when faced with life and death. Much like how the Harry Potter series raised the recognition to the young adult novels and the fantasy genre, the Hunger Games is arguably the series that skyrocketed the gripping fascination with dystopian and post-apocalyptic stories.
The Hunger Games series was wrapped with its last installment, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2, in 2015, thus exalting the performances and success of the series; as well as booming Jennifer Lawrence’s fame. When it came to young adult dystopian fiction, there wasn’t another adaptation that was able to reach the success of The Hunger Games series. Dystopian young adult adaptations such as Ender’s Games (2013), I Am Number Four (2011), The Fifth Wave (2016), and The Giver (2014), added to the dystopian genre, but failed in success when it came to the box office and fan reception.
Veronica Roth’s trilogy Divergent, and James Dashner’s series, Maze Runner, are dystopian adaptations to screen that have gained box office praise; although, still not as much as Hunger Games. Maze Runner has grossed about $920 million in the box office with its recent and final release to the series, Maze Runner: Death Cure, grossing $259 million. The Divergent series were among fan favorites next to Hunger Games in terms of the young adult novel adaptations, but it flopped based on box office success with it grossing about $765 million.
Also, as the dystopian young adult series start to fade, we turn to look at the most commonly known genre of the young adult fiction: coming-of-age.
The Young Adult Coming-of-Age
The coming-of-age genre target audience has always been young teens to young adults, as the genre touches on the growth of this age group. While Harry Potter also focused on the growth of its characters, from their childhood to adulthood through the series, its genre was more confined to the magical fantasy and adventure than the tribulations of youth to adulthood. Adaptations like The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants (2005) reflects the earlier young adult coming-of-age genre to film. The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants grossed about $42 million worldwide with its heartwarming tale of the strong bond of friendship between four girls, despite juxtaposing personalities and distances.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower movie adaptation was released in 2012 and grossed $33 million worldwide. Stephen Chbosky, the author, wrote the screenplay and directed his own film adaptation of his novel, successfully at that. While The Perks of Being a Wallflower didn’t receive the box office success that John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars received, Chbosky’s adaptation sets the stage for the young adult coming-of-age adaptations with his combination of teen angst and dark humor.
John Green’s success as a young adult novelist, with the addition of his success of the adaptation The Fault in Our Stars (2014) grossing $307 million worldwide, breaks through in the genre in Hollywood. Despite another adaptation of his novels, Papertown (2015) not being as successful with it grossing $85 million, the discussion of further adaptations of his novels (such as Looking for Alaska) continue to push his name as recent generations favor young adult novelists.
Note: Here is a list of young adult books to film if you would like to see the stats of their box office success.
The Young Adult Adaptations to Look Out For
There are few young adult novels to screen adaptations that every reader and lover of the genre should look out for:
Everyday – February 23rd, 2018
Everyday by David Levithan is a young adult fantasy romance in which the protagonist, the mysterious A, falls in love with sixteen-year-old Rhiannon. However, there is one catch with A: every day A inhabits a different body, regardless of gender, without their control. Levithan novels have been widely receptive in the LGBT community, with his focus on writing involving young adult fiction with homosexual and queer boys. He has even coauthored with John Green in writing Will Grayson, Will Grayson.
Love, Simon – March 16th, 2018
Based on Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. The Homosapien Agenda, the film Love, Simon is about the protagonist, Simon Spier, who is a closeted gay teen and his struggle with acceptance when he is outed to his whole school. Love, Simon is being claimed as the first major gay Hollywood film with 20th Century Fox who will be producing it. The film will hopefully set stage for more young adult LGBT major Hollywood films to be produced.
Ready Player One – March 29th, 2018
Ernest Cline’s dystopian young adult novel, Ready Player One, is anticipated to be a success with the action-packed futuristic adventure that the book tells and the trailer highlights. Ready Player One is set in the year 2045 following protagonist, Wade Watts, in his journey for a prized Easter Egg in a virtual reality game that will earn him fame and fortune. With the film being produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, Ready Player One is already buzzing with the promise of success.
-Lina