e, no small percentage of which are likewise based on previous ideas and formulas. “Art is theft,” as Picasso reportedly said, but at least Hollywood dispenses credit every now and then.

Without exceptional books there would be far fewer impressive films. Just ask directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Francis Ford Coppola, all of whom based some of their finest films on novels. Each talented director delivers their own take on the work, often to the author’s chagrin. Look no further than Stephen King’s openly critical stance on Kubrick’s adaptation of “The Shining.”

In other cases, the directors stay impressively true to the source material. Some examples might include Luchino Visconti’s “The Leopard” or the Coen brothers’ “No Country for Old Men,” to name just a couple. It still goes to show, however, that the mere visualization of a novel can affect how the content might be perceived. What was once the stuff of personal imagination has now been made flesh and the indelible images might prove hard to shake. And who wants to shake them when they come from masters of the craft?

Putting the printed page up on the big screen is a tradition as old as cinema itself. To honor that tradition, Stacker compiled data on all top-rated movies to come up with a Stacker score, i.e., a weighted index split evenly between IMDb and Metacritic scores as of July 8. 

To qualify, the film had to be based on a book, including novellas, comic books, and short stories; have an IMDb user rating and Metascore; and have at least 5,000 votes. Ties were broken by Metascore, further ties were broken by IMDb user rating, and final ties were broken by user votes. Going from great to greater, here are the 100 best movies based on books. 

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