The 10 biggest book adaptation flops

One of the ten biggest book-to-film flops--adaptations that were a critical/audience failure and a box office failure--Gabe Habash named for PWxyz, the news blog of Publishers Weekly:

The Scarlet Letter (1995)

Net Losses (inflation adjusted to 2012): $54,324,802

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 14%

Representative Review Quote: “If you’ve read the book you won’t know the ending. Let’s just say that Indians with flaming arrows come to the rescue. They manage to keep a straight face, which is more than anyone in the audience will be able to do.” -New York Times

One of America’s great novels has been adapted over 10 times (including, most recently, as Easy A), but only the 1995 version can boast 7 Razzie Nominations, including Worst Screen Couple (“For Demi Moore and either Robert Duvall or Gary Oldman”) and a Win for Worst Remake or Sequel. And that much discussed ending? This is what Demi Moore had to say about it: “”In truth, not very many people have read the book. The ultimate message of Hester Prynne would have been lost if we’d stayed with the original ending.”

Bonus points for that funky music in the trailer.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Scarlet Letter is among Sara Maitland's top ten books of the forest, Susan Cheever's six favorite Massachusetts books, John Mullan's ten of the best reformations in literature, and Paul Auster's five most important books.

Also see: Fifteen top film adaptations of literary classics; Five great books that worked as films; and The Daily Telegraph's top 25 book to film adaptations.

--Marshal Zeringue