It’s been a while since we’ve looked at book-to-screen adaptations, but with the Oscars airing recently, we thought this would be a great time. Especially since this year, half of the 10 feature films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in 2026 were based on books.
These movies were Frankenstein (Frankenstein by Mary Shelley), Hamnet (Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell), One Battle After Another (based on Vineland by Thomas Pynchon), Train Dreams (Train Dreams by by Denis Johnson), and Marty Supreme (based on The Money Player by Marty Reisman). Due to the lack of data available on The Money Player, we decided to take a look at the performance of rest of the four titles between 2025 and March 2026, the month the Oscars were held, to see what, if any impact all this buzz around the movies might have had on Canadian book buyers and borrowers.
Important Dates
Some dates to consider as we look at the data below are:
January 22, 2026: Full list of 2026 Oscar nominations announced.
March 15, 2026: Oscar winners announced.
Additionally, to try and get a sense of how the performance of these titles were impacted throughout the movie release cycle, we noted three key dates for each of these movies; (1) when the first teaser was released; (2) the theatrical release date; and (3) the date that the film was released for streaming.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Perhaps one of the most anticipated book adaptations, first up is Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein.
As seen in the graph below, from January to April 2025, we can see moderately consistent sales for this classic title. The first key date was on May 31, 2025, when the first teaser for the movie was released. Immediately following this, we see a huge spike in sales. Sales peaked in July 2025, with a 5% increase over sales in May following the first teaser, before starting to decline at the beginning of fall 2025.
The next date to note was October 17, 2025 which was the film’s theatrical release, followed by the film premiering globally on Netflix on November 7, 2025 which is when we see the next increase in sales. After seeing it’s second peak in November, the sales drop off, steadily declining back to near what they were at the beginning of 2025.
When considering borrowing habits however, the bump in loans and holds after the release of the first teaser is not anywhere near as dramatic as sales. Instead, both saw a more steady increase from July to October 2025, climbing their way to their peak in November 2025, when the movie was available for streaming. Through this steady growth, Frankenstein saw a tremendous 261% increase in loans and a 381% increase in holds between May, following the teaser, to November.
Holds and loans, both peaked following the Oscars in March 2026, reaching their highest points, signifying continued growing interest for library patrons.
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
Similar to Frankenstein, the graph below shows relatively steady sales for Hamnet. Unlike the sudden spikes we saw in the case of the last title, Hamnet saw a steady climb as soon as the first teaser for Chloé Zhao’s film was released on August 26, 2025. This climb continued until November, when the movie got its theatrical release, sending sales to an all-time high in December. Overall, the title saw a 3,127% growth in sales between the release of its first teaser and the theatrical release.
After this peak, the sales head back into a steady decline. With the film being made available to stream on March 6, 2026, we are yet to see that’s impact on sales.
Once again, unlike sales, Canadian borrowing behaviour tell us a different story. Though we do see a similar boost in holds and loans with the release of the first teaser — compared to August, loans saw a 222% increase and holds saw a 408% increase by November, before the theatrical release. Similar to Frankenstein, we see a renewed interest in loans as we near the Oscars, ending on an upward trend into March 2026.
Vineland (One Battle After Another) by Thomas Pynchon
Perhaps due to the fact that the movie One Battle After Another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, does not share the name of the book, sales for Vineland were not impacted by the release of the first teaser in March 2025. Instead, the title saw a steady growth starting June 2025 as we neared theatrical release in September 26, 2025.
The sales for this title climbed into its first spike in October 2025, seeing a 1,913% increase in comparison to March 2025, when the first teaser was released. The title saw its second spike and highest sales in December, which is when the film debuted exclusively on HBO Max.
As the sales began declining in 2026, there was another small increase in sales between February to March and, unlike the other titles, continued growing into March 2026.
Loans saw a slightly steadier growth, with a slight drop in November, before they grew a substantial 477% reaching their highest point in March 2026 following the Oscars. On the other hand, holds saw a dramatic increase of 286% following the theatrical release, peaking in November during streaming release.
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
Staying on track with the trend we’ve seen so far, sales for Train Dreams began seeing a slow and steady growth, starting July 2025, when the first teaser was released. Following its theatrical release in November 7, 2025 and its release for streaming on November 21, 2025, sales reached their highest point in December, experiencing a growth of 2,161%. Though in the first two months of 2026 sales declined, we do see another increase in March 2026 around the Oscars.
Train Dreams saw more varying numbers in loans, before they began climbing starting October 2025, a month before the film’s release. Like the other titles, this growth in loans remains steadily increasing into March 2026. Both loans and holds for Train Dreams peaked during Oscar month, March 2026, experiencing a 1,300% and 1,864% growth respectively in comparison to July 2025, when the first teaser was released.
Curious for more data on book sales and loans? Keep your eyes peeled on our blog and sign up for the research newsletter to be the first to know about our upcoming research studies. To find more data on what Canadians are reading, buying, and borrowing, visit our research page to look at our most recent reports and keep an eye out for the upcoming ones for more up-to-date information!
Stay tuned!
How did being nominated for the Oscars in 2026 impact book sales, loans and holds among Canadians?