It (2017) (1 Viewer)

[Brett_B]

I saw these at the theater when they came out and I'd lump them into the "Dud" trash pile for sure.

Pet Sematary
Firestarter
Cat's Eye
The Running Man
The Stand
Cujo

I didn't realize that The Stand was released in theaters. I only saw the miniseries on TV.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I didn't realize that The Stand was released in theaters.

It wasn't. You were right - it's a four part made-for-TV miniseries.

 

[Tino]

I saw these at the theater when they came out and I'd lump them into the "Dud" trash pile for sure.

Pet Sematary
Firestarter
Cat's Eye
The Running Man
The Stand
Cujo

The Stand was a TV miniseries. An excellent one I thought too.

 

[Alf S]

Sorry. Meant to scratch that out of my cut and paste. Disregard that one.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Sorry. Meant to scratch that out of my cut and paste. Disregard that one.

Yeah, I've had trouble tweaking my selections. Usually I leave off the first letter at the beginning.

 

[Tino]

The Shining producer explains ending changes

Diane Johnson: The ending was changed almost entirely because Kubrick found it a cliche to just blow everything up. He thought there might be something else that would be metaphorically and visually more interesting … The talkiness [of the book] was also discussed. A lot of the script was pared down during filming, too — especially for Wendy, who had many more things to say in the script than she did in the film.

http://ew.com/movies/2017/03/30/shining-ending-explained/

 

[Stan]

I think you'll probably be in the minority on The Shining. While Kubrick's version only had a slight resemblance to King's novel, it has become a seminal horror classic. The TV miniseries, while closer to the novel, was overall not very well regarded.

Now as far as King's books translated to movies, quality did vary, but in fairness, the ratio of good to ok movie to duds seems favorable. I'll try to break it down:

Superlative to Pretty Damn Good:

Carrie
The Shining
The Mist
Stand by Me
Misery
The Shawshank Redemption
The Green Mile
The Dead Zone

Decent to Mediocre (but still watchable):

Pet Sematary
Firestarter
Christine
It
Cat's Eye
The Running Man
The Stand
Cujo
Creepshow

Duds:

Children of the Corn
The Mangler
Maximum Overdrive
Sometimes They Come Back
Dreamcatcher
The Lawnmower Man
The Shining (TV Miniseries)

Obviously there are some blanks to be filled in as I haven't seen every adaptation.

We all have our opinions

The Shining movie, way to the bottom of the list. The mini-series, one of the best adaptations.

The Running Man, also to the bottom. The others, we're basically in agreement with those. Except maybe "The Stand", even with its flaws, one of my favorites.

"Carrie" is showing its age, but shows like "Misery" and "Shawshank" will go on forever.

 

[TravisR]

The Running Man, also to the bottom.

I haven't seen The Running Man in decades but I remember disliking it so much that I was happily surprised by how much I enjoyed the book when I read it a few years ago.

 

[Stan]

I haven't seen The Running Man in decades but I remember disliking it so much that I was happily surprised by how much I enjoyed the book when I read it a few years ago.

Kind of the opposite, I read the book first and loved it, so was terribly disappointed by the film/tv version.

One of my favorite stories, I completely space out on the title, but it was about "walking", just teens or young people walking (also going back decades, so fuzzy memory), as little by little they dropped out. Not sure if that ever made it to film or if it would even work.

 

[TravisR]

One of my favorite stories, I completely space out on the title, but it was about "walking", just teens or young people walking (also going back decades, so fuzzy memory), as little by little they dropped out. Not sure if that ever made it to film or if it would even work.

You're thinking of The Long Walk. Years ago, Frank Darabont said he has the rights to do it as a movie.

 

[dpippel]

So, how 'bout that IT movie?

 

[Alf S]

My 15 year old has designated me as the guy to take her and her friend to see this (assuming her parents are ok with it of course). I hate scary movies like these. LOL

 

[WillG]

We all have our opinions

The Shining movie, way to the bottom of the list. The mini-series, one of the best adaptations.

The Running Man, also to the bottom. The others, we're basically in agreement with those. Except maybe "The Stand", even with its flaws, one of my favorites.

"Carrie" is showing its age, but shows like "Misery" and "Shawshank" will go on forever.

I haven't seen The Running Man in decades but I remember disliking it so much that I was happily surprised by how much I enjoyed the book when I read it a few years ago.

How could you not like this

 

[Lou Sytsma]

‘It’ Trailer Scares Up Worldwide Traffic Record In First 24 Hours With Near 200M, Smokes ‘Fate Of The Furious’

 

[TravisR]

^ Wow, I guess I dramatically underestimated how much people want to see It. I realize it's probably one of the most popular books of the last 30-some years but I didn't think it would be that big of a deal.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

^ Wow, I guess I dramatically underestimated how much people want to see It. I realize it's probably one of the most popular books of the last 30-some years but I didn't think it would be that big of a deal.

I'm not necessarily convinced that all of the trailer views will translate to dollars. I feel like I've seen this particular trailer linked to in more articles, in a wider variety of places, than I see most trailers. If that experience isn't just anecdotal and this trailer is being covered in places that don't normally cover trailers, that will increase the number of links and hits, which will drive the number up.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

I'm not either in terms of hits translating to dollars but anyway you float it, it's an impressive attainment for a 41 year old book especially in the current cinematic landscape dominated by superhero and Star Wars movies.

WB must be licking their chops.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'm not either in terms of hits translating to dollars but anyway you float it, it's an impressive attainment for a 41 year old book especially in the current cinematic landscape dominated by superhero and Star Wars movies.

I'd almost argue the opposite point - it probably did so well because it's a property that a ton of people are familiar with, even if they never read the book. I only read the book in 2011, but I was very familiar with the imagery just from having seen pictures and posters from the miniseries version throughout my life. It's one of King's most acclaimed and best selling books, and perhaps even more importantly in this context, the miniseries version was also a big hit. So it makes sense to me that in our current cultural environment of remakes/reboots/adaptations, this would be a success.

For what it's worth, superhero and Star Wars movies are the same thing when it comes to their current popularity. It's not so much that their superheroes, or that it's space - the Fast & Furious movies are also doing huge business with the same crowd, so it doesn't have to be a movie with stuff that couldn't happen in real life or stuff with sci-fi/fantasy themes. It's the idea that it's familiar storytelling. People going to the movies these days mostly don't want to audition new ideas. They want to see something they know in advance they'll like. I think there are a lot of potential ideas for why that is (my own guess is cost - going to the movies used to be cheap, and now it's practically a major investment - if you're going to spend that much money to go out, you want to know you're going to enjoy it), but whatever the reason, the familiar is doing better than the unfamiliar. I think also given the huge amount of quality TV that's coming out that's often done more like feature films broken into pieces rather than traditional TV episodes, people want to go to theaters for something BIG. Whether that's the expansive space scenics of Star Wars, the superpowers of a superhero movie, the car stunts in Fast & Furious, the CGI in The Jungle Book remake, etc., etc.

So while on the surface, "It" might seem totally different to those franchises, in my eyes, it's actually being made and marketed at the same crowd and for the same reasons as those bigger films.

(If a "Dark Tower" trailer got those kind of views, I'd be more impressed because it's not King's most famous work and is difficult to summarize in two minutes or less. But I also worry that much of what make the Dark Tower unique and fun has been done and redone by so many people since the books were published that that movie won't seem fresh, even if King was the first to cover a lot of the ideas in it.)

 

[dpippel]

I'm not either in terms of hits translating to dollars but anyway you float it, it's an impressive attainment for a 41 year old book especially in the current cinematic landscape dominated by superhero and Star Wars movies.

WB must be licking their chops.

Anyway you... float it??? Bwa-ha-ha.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

I'd almost argue the opposite point - it probably did so well because it's a property that a ton of people are familiar with, even if they never read the book. I only read the book in 2011, but I was very familiar with the imagery just from having seen pictures and posters from the miniseries version throughout my life. It's one of King's most acclaimed and best selling books, and perhaps even more importantly in this context, the miniseries version was also a big hit. So it makes sense to me that in our current cultural environment of remakes/reboots/adaptations, this would be a success.

So while on the surface, "It" might seem totally different to those franchises, in my eyes, it's actually being made and marketed at the same crowd and for the same reasons as those bigger films.

(If a "Dark Tower" trailer got those kind of views, I'd be more impressed because it's not King's most famous work and is difficult to summarize in two minutes or less. But I also worry that much of what make the Dark Tower unique and fun has been done and redone by so many people since the books were published that that movie won't seem fresh, even if King was the first to cover a lot of the ideas in it.)

Great points but they only cover a percentage of the hits in my mind. Horror has a faithful following but in comparison to other genres it's a small one. Certainly Tim Curry's Pennywise and King's uncanny ability to capture our deepest fears with the Georgie paper boat/sewer grate sequence have became so ingrained in our minds which also can account for some of those hits too.

The social climate does seem ripe for horror these days - witness films like Don't Breathe and Get Out for example.

Maybe the realization that the budget and restrictions of network TV at the time gave us an IT that was rather hobbled, built a desire for a no holds barred telling. This version, which can go for broke as a theatrical release, may be so popular because it is the wish fulfillment to see the true version of the story.

Also, the Stranger Things phenomenon is in play here too. When I watched some trailer reactions - time and time again the Netflix series was referenced.

So there's a lot of factors at play here and , even with all of them added up - it is still staggering that the IT trailer took the trailer viewing crown and took it handily.

If the Dark Tower trailer gets even half of those kind of numbers, I'll be flabbergasted. It has no cultural touchstones like IT does and only a subsection of King fans have even read the books.

But the Dark Tower is the more anticipated prospect for me because of the scope of the story and the unknown quantity - especially since how it is being approached as a sequel instead of a direct adaptation. IT is familiar with a finite story line whereas the Dark Tower has so many possibilities and ties into so many other King stories, especially Salem's Lot.

IT will be probably end up being the better movie but the Dark Tower has my heart.

I'd love for the Dark Tower to get to the rest of the ka-tet and Oy, who would win many hearts and out-groot Groot to boot!