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.

The Undoing Project

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.

The Whole 30 Cookbook

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.