The power of three

Last night, after watching Hunger Games with Ia and Chrissie, we naturally talked about the film from the points of view of a person who read the book (Ia) and people who didn't. (Chrissie and myself.) Like most book-to-film adaptations, the book readers prefer the book and found the movie wanting. But for those unfamiliar with "Hunger Games, the book," we liked the film because it had the right combination of action and cheese.

And speaking of cheese, after watching this film, I observed a pattern among the successful book-to-film series. After having seen a gamut of these, (Twilight, Harry Potter, Cirque Du Freak, Percy Jackson, Chronicles of Narnia, etc.) I noticed one factor that was common among the ultra successful franchise films.

They all had love triangles built into the story.

"The Hunger Games" had Katniss, Peeta and Gale. A love triangle that translated well on screen since the audience often reacted to the cheese that ensued whenever Katniss and Peeta would share a scene together.


Needless to say, "The Twilight Saga" was built on the love triangle of Bella, Jacob and Edward. Let's face it, despite all the fangs and fur that goes around that film, the reason why people lined up for the first 4 films is to see ever-constipated Edward, ever-brooding Jacob and ever-sulking Bella fall head over heels for each other.


And yes, the one that started them all. In the first few films of "The Harry Potter series," there was a cute love triangle between Harry, Hermione and Ron. Of course, it was just puppy love when it started, and it faded away by the time the 3rd movie came around. But there was this scene in part 1 of "Deathly Hallows" where Ron's jealousy over Harry and Hermione's closeness was shown. Proof that there is still some tension between the 3 characters even after 10 years.


Even the earlier movie series like Star Wars had that angle in Luke, Leia and Han Solo. But of course, we later found out that Luke and Leia were twins. If they continued down this path, it would've been incest.

The series with none of this wasn't exactly successful: The Chronicles of Narnia, Cirque Du Freak, Percy Jackson - they did modestly in the box office, but the clamor for them isn't as high as the three abovementioned films.

Then, of course, there are notable exceptions like "The Lord of the Rings trilogy." But that's a league of its own.

I wonder what the next successful book-to-film franchise will be. I'm curious to see whether there's a triangle forming there as well.