2014 Top 10 Books: Film Adaptations Fuel Young Adult Novel Sales

There’s no fault in these stats. Nielsen’s list of the year’s top selling books reinforces how important film adaptations are to driving sales of young adult novels.

Nine of the 10 top selling books of the year were tied into a film adaptation or film franchise of some kind, with various publications of John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars,” first published in 2012, occupying three of the 10 slots. The success of Green’s novel and its film adaptation, which earned more than $300 million in global box office this year, propelled his 2007 title “Looking for Alaska” into the tenth spot, marking the only standalone, non-film-related novel on the book list.

Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” and its successive sequels “Insurgent” and “Allegiant,” claimed the second, third and fourth spots on the list, with “The Long Haul,” the latest entry in Jeff Kinney’s “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series, came in sixth. Building on the success of two previous television adaptations of his similar historical nonfiction books, Bill O’Reilly captured the ninth spot with “Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II’s Most Audacious General.”

Nielsen also released the year’s top 10 DVD/Blu-ray titles. Here again, franchises rule. “Frozen,” which took the top spot, “Maleficent” and “Lone Survivor” were the only three in the top ten sellers not to be associated with a larger franchise. Disney was the biggest winner, with its films taking four of the top ten spots; in addition to “Frozen” and “Maleficent,” the studio’s Marvel universe films “Thor: The Dark World” and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” came in at sixth and seventh, respectively.

The full lists of Nielsen’s top sellers of 2014 in DVD/Blu-ray and print books can be found at Nielsen.

Top 10 Print Books of 2014

1. “The Fault in Our Stars,” John Green. Penguin. 2014 edition
2. “Divergent,” Veronica Roth. Harper Collins
3. “Insurgent,” Veronica Roth. Harper Collins
4. “Allegiant,” Veronica Roth. Harper Collins
5. “The Long Haul,” Jeff Kinney. Abrams
6. “The Fault in Our Stars (Movie Tie-In),” John Green. Penguin.
7. “Gone Girl,” Gillian Flynn. Random House
8. “The Fault in Our Stars,” John Green. Penguin. 2012 edition
9. “Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II’s Most Audacious General,” Bill O’Reilly. MacMillan
10. “Looking for Alaska,” John Green. Penguin

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