In 1963, Maurice Sendak published a little book called Where the Wild Things Are, about the wild adventures of a boy named Max who is sent to bed without dinner. Max dons a wolf costume and becomes leader of some weird creatures, and the entire story is told with just ten brief sentences.
Many of us still treasure it.
Tonight, as you may know, marks the book’s long-awaited film release. Adapted by a pair of Terapeak faves, director Spike Jonze and author Dave Eggers, the film may well have been geared toward adults as much as (or more than) children… Though of course we’re not complaining. And neither, according to this 30-day total sales trend, are eBay buyers:
Perusing some of the closed listings, many are original copies of Sendak’s book, with first editions routinely fetching several hundred dollars (a hard cover sold for $1,175 USD!). But Wild Things is also one of those gold mines for merchandisers; we’ll bet everything we’ve got that Max and monster costumes will be popular this Halloween, as will Wild Things toys and stuffed animals come holiday time.
We’re also pretty pumped for Eggers’ novel adaptation — released last week in both hardcover and fur-covered formats!
As for the movie itself, we’re not quite sure what to expect. We like that the monsters are in costumes, and not CGI. We like that Karen O. from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is doing the music. We like the idea of watching something new and feeling young again… And we like that the wait for this thing is finally, finally over.
