By Georgia Davies
Stephen King is the award-winning author behind such horror classics as The Shining, Pet Cemetery, and It. King has also written fantasy and fiction that wasn’t horror. More of King’s books have been adapted into films than any other living author. This is especially true when it comes to horror movies.
King rose to fame after his debut novel Carrie was published for the first time in 1974, written when he was just a 26-year-old teacher and laundry worker. He changed the horror landscape from his predecessors, moving away from shadowy alleys and half-seen horrors towards buckets of blood and intensely graphic imagery.
With over 50 Stephen King novels having been adapted into films and collectively raking in over $2 billion, King is a big money-maker in Hollywood. Classics such as the time-honored The Shining, Stand By Me, and not to mention the Academy Award-nominated The Green Mile make up some of Stephen King’s greatest accolades.
Still, how many of those movies/miniseries were a success is open to debate. Not all of the adaptations have had quite the same success; and the age-old Hollywood problem of a movie gaining high audience ratings, but not necessarily translating into box office success, reigns true for Stephen King as well.
Everyone loves The Shawshank Redemption, right? The movie, often listed within the greatest films of all time, has critic audience ratings which push an incredible 90% but raked in just over $50 million at the box office, showing that popularity doesn’t always pay. Nevertheless, Stephen King’s latest movie It topped $500 million at the Worldwide Box Office and has officially become the top grossing horror film of all time.
Financial broker Moneypod has created this infographic to show the hits and the misses of Stephen King films. Where does your favorite rank, was it a box office (h)It or a miss?
Stephen King in Film? by Moneypod.