“Lord of the Rings” Author J.R.R. Tolkien's Book-to-Screen Adaptations Have Made $851M! See Who Else Has Topped $500M

Movie versions of 'Beauty and the Beast,' 'Shrek' and 'Jurassic Park' have also made eye-popping box office numbers

Some late authors’ books are still hitting big numbers even years or decades after their deaths.

Five deceased authors have hit unbelievable box office numbers with adaptations of their books, and between them, they have made nearly 3 trillion dollars — or $2,875,378,109!

A new study from WordFinderX found that J.R.R. Tolkien, William Steig, Lewis Carroll, Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont and Michael Crichton have reached historic heights with their widely popular books and movie adaptations.

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Adaptations of renowned author Tolkien’s books have made an average of $851,214,668 at the box office worldwide. Since his death in 1973, nine of Tolkien’s novels have been adapted for the silver screen. 

The Lord of the Rings trilogy came out more than 20 years ago, kicking off Tolkien's hold on the box office. The Return of the King was released in 2001, followed by The Two Towers in 2002 and The Fellowship of the Ring in 2003.

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While Tolkien wrote the books between 1937 and 1949, director Peter Jackson adapted both trilogies, including the Hobbit trilogy: An Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of the Five Armies, which were released in 2012, 2013, and 2014, respectively.

The six films also join the animated features, including the 1977 adaptation of The Hobbit, 1978 The Lord of the Rings and the 1980 version of The Return of the King.

The runner-up to Tolkien is author William Steig, the mind behind family favorite Shrek, which garnered a staggering $745,890,108 at the box office!

Along with the popular story about the lovable ogre, Steig also wrote Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Abel's Island and Doctor De Soto. But his story about the lovably crass ogre has lead to three sequels — with another on the way — and two spinoff films focused on recurring character, Puss in Boots.

The entire Shrek franchise includes the first film, which was released in 2001 — 11 years after Steig wrote the children’s book — Shrek 2, which premiered in 2004, Shrek the Third, which hit theaters in 2007 and Shrek Forever After, which followed three years later.

Steig released the first of his books in 1932, and he died in 2003.

Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, lands right in the middle of the list, with a total of $442,632,338. Carroll, who died in 1898, published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865 and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, in 1871.

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Alice’s adventures were adapted throughout the 20th century, from live-action short films to feature-length animated films. Most notably, the story was adapted by Walt Disney Animation Studios into a feature that came out in 1951.

Then, nearly 60 years later, Tim Burton adapted both books for live-action films, in 2010 and 2016.

Much like Carroll, Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s works are from centuries ago and were also adapted in the 20th century by Disney. The French author who penned Beauty and the Beast has posthumously made $434,703,232.

Leprince de Beaumont first published the unlikely love story in 1756, and since then, 15 feature films, several plays and many more TV episodes inspired by the story have hit the airwaves. But it is the 1991 animated feature that made history when it became the first animated movie to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

In 2017, Disney adapted the film once more as a live-action movie — which starred Emma Watson and Dan Stevens as the leads.

Michael Crichton is the fifth author to posthumously earn staggering box office numbers, with a total of $400,937,763. Crichton, who has the largest oeuvre on this list, released his first novel, Odds On, in 1966. He died in 2008.

A number of Crichton's books made it to the big screen, perhaps most notably Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. Since Spielberg's two Jurassic Park films, four more have been released with one more in production.

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Other adaptations of Crichton's include The Andromeda Strain (1971), Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1972), The Terminal Man (1974), The Great Train Robbery (1978), Rising Sun (1993), Disclosure (1994), Congo (1995), Sphere (1998) and Timeline (2003).

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