We often see our favorite books brought to the big screen, but it’s not uncommon to see storylines unfold the other way around—where movies are continued or expanded in books. Star Wars, George Lucas’ masterpiece sci-fi franchise, has generated six theatrical releases and an astounding amount of popular fiction. For example, Alan Dean Foster's Splinter of the Mind's Eye has sold nearly 40,000 books in the last 12 years and Steve Perry’s Shadows of the Empire (1996) has sold more than 91,000 paperback copies*.

The Star Trek brand has gone literary as well, spawning hundreds of novels and fanfiction adaptations since the 1960s—some of which have been penned by Star Trek actors and writers. William Shatner, for example, Captain Kirk to Trekkies, co-authored a series of Star Trek books with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens from 1995-2007. And Star Trek: The Academy - Collision Course, the final work of the adult fiction series, has sold over 26,000 units to date.

Pirates of the Caribbean, the swashbuckling film, has inspired Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow, a 12-book series authored by Rob Kidd and published by Disney Press between 2006-2009 about the Captain before his days as a pirate. The series has sold nearly 24,000 box sets, and the first book in the series, The Coming Storm, has sold more than 154,000 paperbacks. Afterward, Kidd went on to write a second series titled Pirates of the Caribbean: Legends of the Brethren Court, detailing adventures of Captain Sparrow as a young man. Most recently in 2011, Ann C. Crispin’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom novel continues the story, and has sold 3,800 units.

*Since Nielsen started tracking physical book sales in 2001.

For additional entertainment insights, click here.