If you clicked on this article, then you are probably an avid reader, but don’t we all know that one person who’d rather be doing everything else but read?
According to Reading At Risk, a survey of literary reading in America, the total book reading is declining significantly, although not at the rate of literary reading. The percentage of the U.S. adult population reading any books has declined by -7 percent over the past decade which dropped dramatically over the past 20 years. Less than half of the adult American population now reads literature.
The film industry on the other hand seems to be on the other side of the field. From Zippia, the movie industry continued to grow slowly throughout the pandemic. The industry is expected to have a CAGR of 4.1% from 2018 to 2025. Doesn’t this already show more people leaning towards films than books?
According to Frontier Economics, an incredible 70% of the world’s top 20 grossing films are based on books. That means that books still carry some sort of significance to the world since someone must have read the book to be able to adapt it into a film.
That being said, some actors would have to read the book to be able to understand the emotions they should act out, and the rationale behind their character’s actions. Scriptwriters have to read the book in order to construct the script itself, directors read too to have a general understanding of the story and how to work with the aesthetics around it. But even so, people who watches the film may have read the books first.
A reason why books are adapted into films in the first place is aroused from the desire to watch the characters come to life. Without books, there would never be this desire.
Books are not only wanted by the people who read it before the adaptation into a film, but also the people to read the books after watching the adaptation. If the movie had a interesting enough plot, I believe there would be some people out there who would want to purchase the book to understand the characters and the story even better.
This brings me to my next point. In my opinion, films would never be able to explain the scenes better than the books. With films, it is all up to personal interpretations whereas books usually explains it in words. Personally, that is one of the reasons I prefer books over films. As someone who finds it difficult to interpret emotions, books are much more enjoyable for me to both understand and empathise.
Furthermore, unlike books, to watch a film you require having an electronic device which also needs frequent charging. Once that device runs out of battery, films are no longer easily assessable unlike books where you can read anytime anywhere. Thus, some people still lean towards books rather than films.
Most films also often omit certain scenes from books which makes some viewers feel like the films are missing out of certain important scenes. Because of this reason, people would also specially seek out those books in order to have the full experience.
Therefore, through these reasons films will never fully replace books, or cause books to be redundant amongst today’s society. However, it is an imminent fact that films are definitely becoming more and more popular. So although it is untrue that films will completely eradicate the want for books, its ever-augmenting growth will not be stopped. What do you think?
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