When Adaptations Go Wrong: 15 Book-to-Movie Flops

1. "The Host" (2013)

Stephenie Meyer switched from vampires to aliens. Maybe she should've stuck with vampires. $63 million at the global box office, compared to its $40 million budget – meh. Earth gets invaded by parasitic aliens, and love conquers all, yada yada. The film turned a somewhat interesting sci-fi premise into a tangled mess of teen romance and wooden performances. No wonder you know all about "Twilight " (even if you don't want to), but never heard of "The Host", probably.

2. "Eragon" (2006)

Dragons, right? After "Game of Thrones " it feels like you can't really mess that up. Oh, wait. You can. Meet Eragon, a farm boy turned dragon rider. The book was a young adult sensation, but the film adaptation? A bonafide turkey. How turkey? Let's talk numbers. A budget of about $100 million pulled in $249.5 million worldwide – enough to cover production costs, but not nearly enough to warrant a sequel. Plot turns hasty, relationships with the consistency of runny oatmeal, and dragon-lore diluted to the viscosity of water.

3. "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (2003)

An ode to the literary characters of yore, featuring Captain Nemo and Dr. Jekyll, among others. An action-adventure tale that – pardon my French – screwed the pooch. Just over $179 million in the global box office, against a budget of $78 million. Not an outright failure, but critically? Ouch. Alan Moore must have squirmed; his gritty comic book series transformed into a cheeky, soulless romp. Moore would later disown it, and, well. Nobody could blame him, I guess?

4. "The 13th Warrior" (1999)

Remember when Antonio Banderas played an Arab poet sent to help a gang of Vikings? Yeah, neither does anyone else. Based on Michael Crichton's "Eaters of the Dead," the film was a full-on disaster. Box office? A meager $61.7 million against a whopping $160 million budget. Plot, you ask? Well, a poet turned warrior battles an ancient, cannibalistic tribe. Despite a decent cast, it got chewed up and spat out by critics, much like the Vikings in the movie.

5. "A Sound of Thunder" (2005)

Ray Bradbury wrote a short story about time travel and the butterfly effect. The film took that concept, stretched it like taffy, and produced a jaw-dropping mess. $11.7 million at the box office against a budget of $80 million. Gulp. The plot? Kill a butterfly in prehistoric times, and the future turns into a Jumanji board game. Despite the intriguing premise, it was marred by disastrous special effects and the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

6. "Queen of the Damned" (2002)

Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles are legendary; ask any goth teen. But the adaptation? Anne probably wanted to suck someone's blood. The movie made a modest $45 million with a $35 million budget, not exactly a hit. Lestat becomes a rock star and wakes up an ancient vampire queen. It was a cheese-fest, diluting the nuanced, philosophical tones of the book into a B-grade vampire flick.

7. "The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising" (2007)

Based on Susan Cooper's acclaimed series, this film was supposed to be an epic tale of a boy realizing he's an immortal warrior. Box office said: not so fast. The end result? $31.4 million against a $45 million budget, a flop for sure. Not all that surprising. After all, they Americanized the protagonist, diluted the plot to a mere shell, and the final product was as flat as a pancake.

8. "Inkheart" (2008)

Here's a story about a guy who can make book characters real by reading out loud. A charming idea, but the adaptation was duller than dishwater. With a $60 million budget, it barely scraped $62.4 million globally. The magical narrative of the book translated into a lackluster film, where characters were about as engaging as a calculus lecture.

9. "The Cat in the Hat" (2003)

A children's classic morphed into a cringe festival starring Mike Myers. $ 134 million at the box office might not sound too shabby, but when you put in the production and marketing costs, it's more a tale of caution than success. Dr. Seuss's whimsical story of a mischievous cat turned into an awkward, creepy comedy. Imagine taking a beloved childhood memory and then watching it tumble down a hill; that's this movie.

10. "The Golden Compass" (2007)

Philip Pullman's epic trilogy, "His Dark Materials, " gave us Lyra Belacqua and her badass polar bear. The movie? It flatlined, no two ways about it. Box office? $372.2 million globally, not bad – but the production cost was around $180 million, so not great either. Its biggest problem? Hollywood sugarcoated Pullman's anti-religious sentiments. A coming-of-age story turned into a CGI-heavy spectacle. If you were hunting for theological nuance, all you got was a polar bear in armor.

11. "Artemis Fowl" (2020)

Remember Eoin Colfer's clever, tech-savvy criminal mastermind? The movie doesn't. A Disney Plus original that was originally supposed to hit the theaters, but God, it tanked. No official numbers on budget or box office, but reviews? Dreadful. Our anti-hero Artemis morphs into a misunderstood genius. Kidnap a fairy for gold? More like saving his dad and the world. Ugh.

12. "Jumper" (2008)

So you can teleport. Where would you go? The movie didn't really know either. $80 million budget, $222 million worldwide box office. Sounds good until you realize it's based on a much-loved science fiction novel by Steven Gould. A young man discovers he can "jump" to different places, but the storyline stumbles more than it leaps, barely scratching the surface of the original material.

13. "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" (2009)

Vampires, again. But these aren't your run-of-the-mill bloodsuckers. Darren Shan's book series was a unique take on vampire lore. The film? A mediocre carnival act, raking in just $39 million against a $40 million budget. A teenager gets turned into a half-vampire and joins a freak show. An intriguing foundation crumbled by a lack of focus and jumbled subplots.

14. "The Giver" (2014)

Lois Lowry's masterpiece got a lukewarm adaptation. It made $67 million with a $25 million budget, so it wasn't a total bomb. But a story about a society that eradicates emotions to create "utopia" was turned into a teen drama. The gravitas? Gone. Poof.

15. "Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief" (2010)

Rick Riordan's Greek-mythology-packed series became a movie that made $226 million worldwide, not shabby. But on a $95 million budget and a ton of marketing, it was a letdown. Percy finds out he's Poseidon's son; cool, right? Too bad the movie decided to go on a rogue adventure, diverging so much from the book that it lost its original soul. No wonder "Percy Jackson" fans are still bitter about it.