6 ms·

> Billions and billions spent on making movies as polished as possible, yet "I thought the book was better" is what we always hear. How many people watched gam

> Billions and billions spent on making movies as polished as possible, yet "I thought the book was better" is what we always hear. How many people watched game of thrones? How many people read all of the published books in a song of ice and fire? The book might be better but movies and TV are a lot more popular.

kingkawn 5y ago
After how it ended I’d argue that they are way less popular now than any of the books
- finebalance 5y ago
  It's kind of astounding how rapidly the series has disappeared from the mainstream. Couldn't have bungled it up worse had they tried.
  - stuart78 5y ago
    I think that happens to just about all Dramatic shows. Same for Mad Men, Breaking Bad and other popular shows. Without the scarcity of yore, we have a constant buffet of alternatives, so who has time to rewatch (or catch up). In contrast, The Office, Friends and Seinfeld are apparently still bringing people back, perhaps because it is comforting to spend time with those characters and the viewer doesn’t need to make a big commitment.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    Not that I loved how it landed I think it’s more that GoT was about as close as we get to a cultural touchstone as you get these days. Which is a far smaller audience than prime time used to be. A hit show on HBO would probably be canceled on network TV with similar audience numbers. But the moment is over and now it’s just another show in a vast universe of streaming options.
  - LegitShady 5y ago
    its like Disney Star Wars - even if you like star wars, knowing how badly it's been bungled makes putting the time into watching it again or being excited about it seem like waste of effort. The payoff isn't there.
  - pezezin 5y ago
    They recently started shooting the prequel... in my home town! I hope it's good, but in any case my friends and I will watch it for the lulz.
DeusExMachina 5y ago
I could not find much data but it seems that the finale of Games of thrones had 19 million viewers [1], while the books sold 90 million copies [2]. Since I guess the latter are cumulative over all the five books, it looks like books and series have a similar performance. Looking at something similar, the Lord of the Rings had around 80-90 million viewers (very rough estimation from the global box office [3]) while the book sold 150 million copies [4], so the books seem to have fared better. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_of_Thrones_episodes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_of_Thrones_episod... [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#cite_note-independent-5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#cite_no... [3] - https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0120737/?ref_=bo_tt_tab#tabs https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0120737/?ref_=bo_tt_ta... [4] - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-arts-tolkien-novel-idUSL1626402420070416 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-arts-tolkien-novel-idUSL1...
- capableweb 5y ago
  While this data is interesting, it doesn't say how many people watched or read something, only those who paid to watch/read something, which is very different. I've purchased all of the books you've mentioned, but watched the films/series via other means that won't show up in the statistics, and I'm not alone in doing so or vice-versa. Books like Lord of the Rings gets passed through generations and loaned around as well, so I'm sure the number of people who've read LotR is a lot higher than the number of people who bought the books.
  - another_story 5y ago
    Not to mention libraries.
    - hansel_der 5y ago
      not to dispute your point, but netflix is a library
      - capableweb 5y ago
snovv_crash 5y ago
How expensive was it to produce the movies compared to the books? What was the ROI as a ratio?
unglaublich 5y ago
The books took one person a lifetime to create. The series took billions of dollars and hundreds of lifetimes, even though the story was already there. The books were extremely effective.
noir_lord 5y ago
Books tap directly into the imagination in a way that films (very) rarely do. The most amazing special effects in the world can't match my imagination for fidelity and if they did, they'd still not be mine. I've noticed that the book to TV/movies I like aren't because they are good adaptations so much as they are close to what I imagined. It's rare that happens but when it does it makes the TV show a deeply enjoyable, Season 1 of Altered Carbon and all the seasons of The Expanse did/do it but not much else in the last 5 years has.
- MattRix 5y ago
  If you see Dune in a theatre with good enough sound and screen (ex. IMAX), it’s an incredible experience in a way a book could not be. Not saying it’s “better”, it’s just different in a fundamentally incomparable way.
  - abakker 5y ago
    The movie is missing so much of the detail that made the book great, though. I agree, incomparable, really. IMO, the best movies are NOT adaptations.
    - alternatetwo 5y ago
      The best adaptations are short stories, like Predestination, from All you zombies. They also didn't meddle with the logic there, since the writers already found it perfect.
      - ProjectArcturis 5y ago
        Yeah, it's a lot easier to do a faithful 100-minute adaptation of a 50-page story than a 300-page book.
      - imbnwa 5y ago
        The Mist comes to mind, a novella originally IIRC
- 5y ago

kingkawn 5y ago

After how it ended I’d argue that they are way less popular now than any of the books

finebalance 5y ago
It's kind of astounding how rapidly the series has disappeared from the mainstream. Couldn't have bungled it up worse had they tried.
- stuart78 5y ago
  I think that happens to just about all Dramatic shows. Same for Mad Men, Breaking Bad and other popular shows. Without the scarcity of yore, we have a constant buffet of alternatives, so who has time to rewatch (or catch up). In contrast, The Office, Friends and Seinfeld are apparently still bringing people back, perhaps because it is comforting to spend time with those characters and the viewer doesn’t need to make a big commitment.
- ghaff 5y ago
  Not that I loved how it landed I think it’s more that GoT was about as close as we get to a cultural touchstone as you get these days. Which is a far smaller audience than prime time used to be. A hit show on HBO would probably be canceled on network TV with similar audience numbers. But the moment is over and now it’s just another show in a vast universe of streaming options.
- LegitShady 5y ago
  its like Disney Star Wars - even if you like star wars, knowing how badly it's been bungled makes putting the time into watching it again or being excited about it seem like waste of effort. The payoff isn't there.
- pezezin 5y ago
  They recently started shooting the prequel... in my home town! I hope it's good, but in any case my friends and I will watch it for the lulz.

DeusExMachina 5y ago

I could not find much data but it seems that the finale of Games of thrones had 19 million viewers [1], while the books sold 90 million copies [2]. Since I guess the latter are cumulative over all the five books, it looks like books and series have a similar performance. Looking at something similar, the Lord of the Rings had around 80-90 million viewers (very rough estimation from the global box office [3]) while the book sold 150 million copies [4], so the books seem to have fared better. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_of_Thrones_episodes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_of_Thrones_episod... [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#cite_note-independent-5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#cite_no... [3] - https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0120737/?ref_=bo_tt_tab#tabs https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0120737/?ref_=bo_tt_ta... [4] - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-arts-tolkien-novel-idUSL1626402420070416 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-arts-tolkien-novel-idUSL1...

capableweb 5y ago
While this data is interesting, it doesn't say how many people watched or read something, only those who paid to watch/read something, which is very different. I've purchased all of the books you've mentioned, but watched the films/series via other means that won't show up in the statistics, and I'm not alone in doing so or vice-versa. Books like Lord of the Rings gets passed through generations and loaned around as well, so I'm sure the number of people who've read LotR is a lot higher than the number of people who bought the books.
- another_story 5y ago
  Not to mention libraries.
  - hansel_der 5y ago
    not to dispute your point, but netflix is a library
    - capableweb 5y ago

snovv_crash 5y ago

How expensive was it to produce the movies compared to the books? What was the ROI as a ratio?

unglaublich 5y ago

The books took one person a lifetime to create. The series took billions of dollars and hundreds of lifetimes, even though the story was already there. The books were extremely effective.

noir_lord 5y ago

Books tap directly into the imagination in a way that films (very) rarely do. The most amazing special effects in the world can't match my imagination for fidelity and if they did, they'd still not be mine. I've noticed that the book to TV/movies I like aren't because they are good adaptations so much as they are close to what I imagined. It's rare that happens but when it does it makes the TV show a deeply enjoyable, Season 1 of Altered Carbon and all the seasons of The Expanse did/do it but not much else in the last 5 years has.

MattRix 5y ago
If you see Dune in a theatre with good enough sound and screen (ex. IMAX), it’s an incredible experience in a way a book could not be. Not saying it’s “better”, it’s just different in a fundamentally incomparable way.
- abakker 5y ago
  The movie is missing so much of the detail that made the book great, though. I agree, incomparable, really. IMO, the best movies are NOT adaptations.
  - alternatetwo 5y ago
    The best adaptations are short stories, like Predestination, from All you zombies. They also didn't meddle with the logic there, since the writers already found it perfect.
    - ProjectArcturis 5y ago
      Yeah, it's a lot easier to do a faithful 100-minute adaptation of a 50-page story than a 300-page book.
    - imbnwa 5y ago
      The Mist comes to mind, a novella originally IIRC
5y ago