The best and worst YA book film adaptations

A lot of YA books are part of series, and many of those series were turned into film franchises. The Hunger Games is one of those. Overall, the franchise was fairly successful from a quality perspective and definitely from a money-making standpoint. Jennifer Lawrence’s stardom truly began with her turn as Katniss Everdeen. Also, shoutout to the book’s author, Suzanne Collins, who wrote for Clarissa Explains It All back in the day.

This is another film series, but a bad one. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson have turned out to be good actors, but the Twilight films are brutal. It doesn’t help that the books the movies are based on are really poorly written. Chalk it up to the source material, perhaps.

Most of these films are from the new millennium. This is an old-school one, though. The Outsiders has an impressive young cast, including early roles for the likes of Tom Cruise and Rob Lowe. Also, it’s directed by some guy named Francis Ford Coppola, which helped.

Look, it sucks that the COVID-19 pandemic happened and damaged the film industry. People couldn’t go to movies, and theatrical releases were canceled. However, it may have been for the best that Artemis Fowl was dropped on Disney+ and disappeared into the ether. The consensus is that Artemis Fowl was a brutally bad film, a true outright disaster.

We don’t recall hearing much about the Enola Holmes books, but they got adapted into a Netflix film in 2020. The story focuses on the teenage sister of the famed Sherlock Holmes. It helps that Enola is played by Millie Bobby Brown, who rose to fame on Netflix as Eleven on Stranger Things.

Peter Jackson bought the rights to the steampunk YA novel Mortal Engines, and he co-wrote the script, but he notably did not direct it. What resulted is one of the biggest flops of all time. The movie had a reported budget somewhere between $100 and $150 million. We understand not wanting to have the official number get out, given that the film generated only $83.7 million at the box office. Throw in marketing, and Mortal Engines put a hurting on Universal. Also, it’s about moving steampunk cities. It’s weird.

Garry Marshall made some lousy romantic comedies. He also made some charming films. The Princess Diaries is a favorite of many millennials who were tweens or teenagers when it came out. It was also notable for the star, an unknown young actress named Anne Hathaway who would go on to big things (and a sequel where she makes time with Chris Pine).

It’s OK if you don’t remember Vampire Academy. Most people don’t. It was barely seen, making a mere $15.4 million worldwide. In the United Kingdom, it went straight to DVD. To think, Mark Waters had previously directed Freaky Friday and Mean Girls.

Look, it’s a funny name for a movie, we’ll acknowledge that. However, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is solid as far as coming-of-age tales go. Yes, it’s about quasi-magic pants, but it’s charming and even earned a sequel.

In the frenzy of YA adaptations, I Am Number Four was one of the first big flops. The title doesn’t help, and Alex Pettyfer didn’t exactly become a star after headlining the movie. By the way, the book the movie was based on is credited to James Frey, the A Million Little Pieces guy.

This movie is as twee as the title might indicate. You may roll your eyes a few times. However, if your eyes don’t also well up with tears, your heart must be ice cold. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a smidge heavy-handed, but not so much that it aggravates you, which lifts it high above many a YA weepie. This one actually has laughs in it, too.

Melissa Joan Hart. Adrian Grenier. Yeah, that doesn’t say “successful romantic comedy,” does it? Based on a book titled How I Created My Perfect Prom Date, Drive Me Crazy was an attempt for both stars to make it in film, and it didn’t work for either of them.

Louis Sachar got to adapt his own novel for Disney, which probably helped Holes become a critical success. It also starred a young actor named Shia LaBeouf. Now, these days, LaBeouf is a complicated figure, at best. There’s a reason he became a known name, though. It pretty much started with Holes.

When a film that stars Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland had its release delayed from 2019 until 2021, it doesn’t bode well. Indeed, Chaos Walking proved to be a total fiasco. Part of that delay was reshoots due to bad test screenings, but they never managed to salvage it. Even though it starred Rey and Spider-Man, Chaos Walking was a huge flop.

The romantic comedy has largely fallen out of theaters. To the extent it still exists, you can find them on Netflix. To All the Boys I Loved Before was enthusiastically received by fans of the genre and probably created some new ones among teenagers. There have since been two sequels.

Somehow, two YA adaptations flopped and had the word Mortal in the title. As you can probably guess, this was the first film in a planned series based on the Mortal Instruments books. However, City of Bones was such a critical failure (and commercial disappointment) that they nixed plans for City of Ashes.

Greg Berlanti is primarily known for his TV work, but he succeeded with this foray into film directing. Love, Simon gained attention as it is a romantic comedy with a protagonist that is a gay teenager. Reviews were quite positive, with Love, Simon even drawing comparisons to John Hughes’ beloved (but overrated) teenage romcoms.