Why are there novelizations of films?

Simple. 1. The storyline is delivered in much greater detail with words, which many people enjoy reading. 2. Books sell. :)

there are tons at borders you can get one of the Indiana Jones seires

I was going to say the same thing as spendywatson!

Some people (more intelligent beings) like reading.

The novels that are derived from films make use of the characters, settings, and feel of the movie and create stories with deeper plots than can be shown on the big screen.

Novels have many benefits over films, such as expressing the thoughts of characters or twining multiple plot threads together.

but isn’t that why people are driven write original screenplays?

One does not negate the other.

For the same reason they make video games from movies: it sells and marketing people could care less about quality.

@jaeger maybe you don’t understand my question. I’m not asking why some read novels and some watch films, I’m questioning the necessity of a book that is essentialy limited to only what can be derived from a completed film and what interest would motivate a person to read what is primarily a visual experience.

I actually answered that, believe it or not.

• Characters that have been created
• Settings
• Mood and demeanor of the movie

Because of these elements, people like to see the characters in deeper, more entwined plots; which is provided in the novels based on the films.

I have a t-shirt that says “Don’t judge a book by its’ movie”. My partner has a t-shirt that says “I’ll wait for the movie” (we differ on our entertainment tastes).

A novelization is like any
offshoot product (e.g. a Simpsons-movie doll or a Batman poster) – a quick way to
cash in on established marketing. Probably some novelizations are really good, but I don’t think they’re usually impelled by artistic ambition.

The author’s fee for writing the novelization is likely to be such a small blip in the marketing budget as to be unnoticed by the people throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars around, and it’s one more marketing channel to tell people about the movie.