Movie Watch
A new batch of tie-in editions hit our lists this week, for films due out in the next few months.
Opening in a handful of theaters December 25, and in wide release January 6, Hidden Figures is based on Margot Lee Shatterlee’s history of the African-American women who worked as NASA mathematicians and engineers in the segregated South, a book our starred review called “crucial to understanding subsequent movements for civil rights.” A tie-in edition debuts at #15 on our trade paperback list, just three months after the book’s debut on our hardcover nonfiction list at #10. The hardcover edition has sold 23K print copies, and the tie-in sold 9,281 print copies its first week.
The film adaptation of W. Bruce Cameron’s 2010 debut novel, A Dog’s Purpose—“a tail-wagging three-hanky boo-hooer,” as our favorable review of the canine-reincarnation story put it—opens January 27. Tie-in editions debut this week at #10 in trade paper and #4 in mass market, for a total of 22.7K print copies sold.
The Shack, based on William P. Young’s megaselling inspirational novel and starring Octavia Spencer (who also plays a main role in Hidden Figures), opens March 3. The mass market tie-in edition pubbed a couple of weeks ago and got a 220% boost last week, debuting this week at #18 on our list. A 2008 trade paper edition, which has sold 5.7 million copies, is up 115%. And the trade paper movie tie-in edition, which just missed hitting our list, is up 70%.
(See all of this week's bestselling books.)
Movers & Shakers
The Shack saw some of the greatest gains in print unit sales of any book this week, and it’s not the only title catching the attention of shoppers in the run-up to the holidays. HBO recently released the trailer for its forthcoming miniseries based on Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (which will begin airing Feb. 19, 2017), punching up sales of the 2015 trade paperback. Another 2015 release, The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook, also had a strong week on top of already healthy sales; Forbes just ranked author Rosanna Pansino the 5th highest paid YouTube Star for 2016.
| Adult Fiction | Increase |
|---|---|
| The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead | 88% |
| End of Watch by Stephen King | 55% |
| Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty | 50% |
| Shoe Dog by Phil Knight | 164% |
|---|---|
| The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook | 118%. |
| The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee | 108% |
New & Notable
Tools of Titans
Tim Ferris
#2 Hardcover Nonfiction, #6 overall
Arnold Schwartzenegger contributed the foreword to the latest motivational business title by the author of The 4-Hour Work Week.
Michael Lewis
#4 Hardcover Nonfiction, #9 overall
The journalist behind Moneyball and other bestsellers “deftly explores a timeless and fascinating subject—human decision-making—through the intellectually intimate collaboration of two influential psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky,” our review said.
Melissa Hartwig
#16 Hardcover Nonfiction
Hartwig’s first solo effort since her professional and personal split from Whole 30 cofounder Dallas Hartwig offers 150 recipes for followers of their weight-loss program.
Top 10 Overall
| Rank | Title | Author | Imprint | Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Double Down (Wimpy Kid #11) | Jeff Kinney | Amulet | 117,964 |
| 2 | Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (screenplay) | J.K. Rowling | Scholastic/Levine | 91,645 |
| 3 | Killing the Rising Sun | O’Reilly/Dugard | Holt | 85,724 |
| 4 | Island of Glass | Nora Roberts | Berkley | 65,324 |
| 5 | Harry Potter and the Cursed Child | J.K. Rowling et al. | Scholastic/Levine | 63,289 |
| 6 | Tools of Titans | Timothy Ferriss | HMH | 62,938 |
| 7 | The Magnolia Story | Gaines/Gaines | W | 61,844 |
| 8 | The Whistler | John Grisham | Doubleday | 58,097 |
| 9 | The Undoing Project | Michael Lewis | Norton | 54,669 |
| 10 | Take Heart, My Child | Earhardt/Kim | Aladdin | 51,764 |
All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.
