The upcoming movie adaptation of CS Lewis’s book, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is expected to set a new precedent. Far from sitting back and watching, publisher HarperCollins is working closely with filmmaker Walden Media, unleashing a massive, worldwide marketing drive for the books, timed to coincide with the film – and not only for The Chronicles of Narnia, but most of Lewis’s other books as well.
“This is a giant blockbuster for us,” said Susan Katz, president and publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books. “The Chronicles of Narnia was already important and big for us, but now with the movie it’s taking on a new life of its own. We have 25 movie tie-in editions – it’s a huge event.”
Sales of The Chronicles of Narnia have been rising since last spring, when the movie trailer of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was released.
“We’ve been happily surprised by how strong sales of the Narnia books have been,” said Joe Monti, children’s buyer for Barnes & Noble. But it’s not only Lewis’s children’s books that are selling well. “It’s also his non-fiction,” said Monti. “It’s surpassed our expectations at every stage.”
HarperCollins is pumping out 170 CS Lewis-related book titles in more than 60 countries – including 140 related to The Chronicles of Narnia. The number represents a vast variety of editions and companion volumes. Lewis’s own books are only the beginning. Besides various editions of The Chronicles of Narnia, there’s a six-volume box set of Lewis’s mostly Christian books for adults, including Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, Miracles and The Problem of Pain. There’s also a new adult biography titled The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of CS Lewis by Lewis scholar Alan Jacobs.
Then there are the extras, which include A Year With CS Lewis: Daily Readings from his Classic Works; the Mere Christianity Journal, a faux-leather-bound study guide with excerpts and blank pages for reader reflections; Beyond the Wardrobe: The Official Guide to Narnia; and Companion to Narnia, an alphabetised reference book to the world of the Narnia books. And there are not one but two glossy photo books about the making of the movie.
HarperCollins and Walden Media have been working closely together on the marketing surrounding the new film, sharing artwork and promotional plans and co-ordinating timing. Cary Granat, chief executive officer of Walden Media, says: “The more they are able to get people to read the books, the bigger the base to grow the film. As more people want to see the film and read the books, it will extend the franchise. It’s a cultural phenomenon that needs to be managed at all levels.”
However well planned, it’s doubtful such a sprawling programme could work with anyone but Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963), who published more than 100 books. An Oxford don and medievalist, his uniquely diverse output makes him – if such a thing is possible – a potentially bigger literary phenomenon than his Oxford friend and colleague JRR Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Unlike Tolkien, Lewis wrote for a wider range of readers, both children and adults, including a science fiction trilogy and an agonised memoir of the death of his wife, A Grief Observed (that love story has already been made into a movie, 1993’s Shadowlands, with Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger).
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is not the first co-ordinated effort between a publisher and a filmmaker. Boston-based Houghton Mifflin – US publisher of JRR Tolkien – worked closely with New Line Cinema on the three blockbuster movies based on The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Houghton began to see a huge bump in sales as soon as the first movie trailer was released in 2001. Tolkien’s books have sold about 80 million copies, going back to The Hobbit in 1937. About 25 million of those were sold between 2001 and 2003, when the three movies were released.
No one knows how big sales of CS Lewis books will be as a result of the film, but if the Tolkien explosion is any indication, it may prove hard to overestimate.