The Complete Bibliography
Dan Brown has published nine books since 1998 — eight adult novels and one children's book — and sold more than 250 million copies in 56 languages along the way. Six of those novels follow Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon; three are standalone thrillers written earlier in his career.
Individual lifetime sales for every title aren't tracked as consistently as box office is — publishers report the series total more often than book-by-book figures. What's well documented: The Da Vinci Code remains the outlier, having sold roughly as many copies on its own as the rest of the series combined.
"Nothing ever is as it first appears in a Dan Brown novel." — Jason Kaufman, Brown's longtime editor at Doubleday
Books to Film: The Da Vinci Code (2006)
- Director
- Ron Howard
- Screenplay
- Akiva Goldsman
- Release
- May 19, 2006
- Runtime
- 149 min
- Budget
- $125,000,000
- Worldwide gross
- $801,300,000
Sony fast-tracked the adaptation of The Da Vinci Code almost as soon as the novel became a cultural phenomenon, and the film opened the Cannes Film Festival in May 2006 before its wide release two days later. Ron Howard directed from a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman, with Tom Hanks stepping into the role of Robert Langdon opposite Audrey Tautou as cryptologist Sophie Neveu.
Reviews were mixed — critics found the film's talky plot a tough translation from page to screen — but audiences didn't care. It opened to $224 million worldwide, the second-biggest global opening of all time at that point, and went on to become the second-highest-grossing film of 2006.
| Actor | Character | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Hanks | Robert Langdon | Harvard symbologist |
| Audrey Tautou | Sophie Neveu | French cryptologist, Langdon's ally |
| Ian McKellen | Sir Leigh Teabing | Holy Grail historian |
| Alfred Molina | Bishop Manuel Aringarosa | Opus Dei bishop |
| Paul Bettany | Silas | Opus Dei monk |
| Jean Reno | Captain Bezu Fache | French police captain |
| Jürgen Prochnow | André Vernet | Paris bank manager |
Books to Film: Angels & Demons (2009)
Even though Angels & Demons is the first Langdon novel chronologically, the film arrived as a sequel — Sony and Ron Howard reunited the entire creative team, with Tom Hanks reprising Langdon opposite Ewan McGregor as the Vatican's camerlengo. The story sends Langdon racing through Rome to stop the resurgent Illuminati from destroying Vatican City with stolen antimatter.
Critics considered it an improvement over its predecessor, and it performed solidly, though not quite at Da Vinci Code levels — it finished as the ninth highest-grossing film of 2009.
| Actor | Character | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Hanks | Robert Langdon | Harvard symbologist |
| Ewan McGregor | Camerlengo Patrick McKenna | Acting head of the Vatican |
| Ayelet Zurer | Vittoria Vetra | CERN physicist |
| Stellan Skarsgård | Commander Richter | Head of the Swiss Guard |
| Pierfrancesco Favino | Inspector Olivetti | Swiss Guard inspector |
| Armin Mueller-Stahl | Cardinal Strauss | Dean of the College of Cardinals |
| Nikolaj Lie Kaas | The Assassin | Hired killer working for the Illuminati |
Books to Film: Inferno (2016)
The third and, so far, final Langdon film sends Tom Hanks' character across Florence, Venice, and Istanbul with amnesia, chasing clues left by a billionaire bioengineer planning to unleash a plague to solve overpopulation. Felicity Jones joined as Dr. Sienna Brooks, with Irrfan Khan and Omar Sy rounding out the cast.
Inferno was a clear step down commercially and critically from its predecessors — the smallest budget, the smallest gross, and the coldest reviews of the trilogy — and no fourth Langdon film has followed. That gap is part of why the jump to a Netflix series for The Secret of Secrets is such a notable change in direction.
| Actor | Character | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Hanks | Robert Langdon | Harvard symbologist |
| Felicity Jones | Dr. Sienna Brooks | Doctor treating Langdon's amnesia |
| Omar Sy | Christoph Bouchard | Head of the WHO task force |
| Irrfan Khan | Harry Sims | Head of a private security firm |
| Sidse Babett Knudsen | Elizabeth Sinskey | Director-General of the WHO |
| Ben Foster | Bertrand Zobrist | Billionaire bioengineer and antagonist |
Box Office, Compared
All three films were directed by Ron Howard, all three starred Tom Hanks, and all three lost some ground commercially versus the last — a steady decline that likely factored into Netflix and Brown's decision to try television instead of a fourth theatrical outing.
The Secret of Secrets: Dan Brown's First TV Series
Netflix ordered a series adaptation of The Secret of Secrets before the novel even reached shelves — a first for Brown, whose five previous Langdon books all went the feature-film route (or, in the case of The Lost Symbol, a short-lived Peacock series that served as a prequel story rather than an adaptation of this book). This is the first Langdon adaptation built directly from a brand-new novel rather than an earlier one, and Brown's first time co-creating and executive producing a screen adaptation of his own work.
The currently untitled series follows Langdon as he races against time to rescue a missing scientist and recover a manuscript that could upend humanity's understanding of the mind, blending Brown's usual mix of ancient conspiracy with a newer thread of futuristic science.
| Actor | Character | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Morgan Spector | Robert Langdon | Harvard symbologist |
| Rebecca Hall | Katherine Solomon | Scientist and Langdon's romantic partner |
| Cherry Jones | Heide Nagel | U.S. ambassador in Prague |
| Corey Stoll | Everett Finch | Former CIA agent |
| Rob Delaney | Jonas Faukman | Editor drawn into the conspiracy |
| Abbey Lee | Sasha Vesna | Research assistant to Dr. Gessner |
"He's the perfect fit for Robert Langdon — a brilliant academic whose curiosity, intelligence, and intellect are the tools of his trade." — Carlton Cuse, showrunner, on casting Morgan Spector
Brown has quietly built one of publishing's biggest franchises — nine books, 250 million copies, three Hollywood films with three different budgets and three declining box-office results. The move to Netflix isn't a downgrade; it's a bet that Langdon's dense, research-heavy plots finally have the room an eight-hour series can give them that a two-hour film never could.