The Success of Michael Crichton's Novels in the Media Industry
One only has to look at the astonishing opening weekend of Paramount
Pictures' action adventure thriller Congo which was universally panned by critics, to be reminded of the power of the person who created the underlying material: Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton. The film's whopping $24.6 million opening, which shocked insiders, underscored the value to Hollywood of an exclusive club of best-selling writers (Eller 3).
Michael Chrichton's novels all have their similarities. He seems to follow a pattern which is working very well for him. He picks a hot-button subject and uses it to lend his novels a glossy veneer of topicality. He casts his novels with some really detestable villains so attentive readers will automatically know who to root for. He ends each chapter on a scary, cliff- hanging note to make sure that readers will keep reading, regardless of the characters vapidity. He includes many frantic chase scenes or race-against-the- clock scenes that will translate graphically onto the screen. He puts plenty of technical, pseudo-specialist talk into his characters' mouths to give readers the illusion that they're learning something as they quickly flip the pages
(Kakutui 3).
Michael Crichton has definitely made a boom in the entertainment industry. Whether it is his top grossing movies or his top rated television shows like E.R. which took a leading twenty prime-time Emmy nominations last year including best drama (Carter 23).
Crichton's latest movie Congo, which had a great opening weekend, was one of his successes. This movie was based on a book that Crichton wrote in the early 80's, long before he became the entertainment powerhouse that he is now.
Chrichton's novels seem to be written for big screen translations (Brom 14).
Publishers say that they can't recall a time since Jaws and The Exorcist, two decades ago, when movies gave such a boost to the books that inspired them
(Romney 5). Michael Chrichton indefinitely tops this long list of authors.
Crichton's novels cover many subjects such as genetic engineering in
Jurassic Park, sexual harassment in Disclosure, or Japan's threat to America in
Rising Sun (Denby 12). I think that it is this wide variety of subject matter that keeps his readers coming back for more.
Crichton's biggest success by far was the novel Jurassic Park. This book made a sales record in both the novel and on the screen (Turan 11). It ended up grossing over $913 million total in ticket sales and holds the privilege of being the top selling live action movie ever on home video (Wall
Street Journal B5). It was such a success that its director, Steven Spielberg,