An astonishing four out of five Best Picture nominees at this year's Academy Awards are based on books. With these nominations a boon to studio and publisher, we looked at the most commercially successful movies in the U.S. ever to come from the publishing world. The results were not always what you'd expect: Lord of the Rings doesn't occupy the top three slots, all but two of the books were published before 1992, and many come from imprints with literary reputations, such as Knopf and Houghton.
| MOVIE | GROSS | |
| 1. | Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (J.R.R. Tolkien, Houghton) | $358M |
| 2. | Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton, Knopf) | $357M |
| 3. | Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (J.R.R. Tolkien, Houghton) | $340M |
| 4. | Forrest Gump (Winston Groom, Doubleday) | $329M |
| 5. | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (J.K. Rowling, Scholastic) | $318M |
| 6. | Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (J.R.R. Tolkien, Houghton) | $314M |
| 7. | Shrek (William Steig, FSG) | $267M |
| 8. | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (J.K. Rowling, Scholastic) | $261M |
| 9. | How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Dr. Seuss, Random House) | $260M |
| 9. | Jaws (Peter Benchley, Doubleday) | $260M |
| 10. | The Exorcist (William Peter Blatty, HarperCollins) | $205M |
| Source: Internet Movie Database | ||
