In February 2012—the month before The Hunger Games movie came out, 70,000 kids were reading the book, according to the Accelerated Reader. In April—the month after—that number had risen to 180,000. The same sort of jump was seen in The Lorax and other big-budget, book-based movies.
“I think when there’s a movie out, what we’re seeing in the data is that kids are drawn to it,” says Eric Stickney of Accelerated Reader. “Maybe it’s a social thing, they want to be able to talk about the movie and the book with their friends.”
There are exceptions, however. The Giver and The Great Gatsby saw no uptick in readership because of the movies. Experts speculate that’s because these books typically are assigned by teachers as part of their curriculum, not outside-the-class, fun reads. (The Atlantic)
Paul Asay has written for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for PluggedIn and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He recently collaborated with Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, on his book The Good Dad. He lives in Colorado Springs with wife, Wendy, and his two children. Follow him on Twitter.