Can IT be the first great Stephen King adaptation in years?
Positive buzz is building to something special
The frightening new trailer for IT should excite fans with its sinister depiction of Derry, Maine and the special group known as the Losers’ Club. But if you aren’t clued in to the Stephen King’s source material, only the imagery sans context and the King name are there to draw you in. Is that enough to make IT click with general audiences? While IT isn’t the most expensive movie ever ($35–45 million), the flick does need to perform well to justify the expense.
Luckily, the box office tracking is in and the numbers are frighteningly good. Some people think it could break the September opening weekend record of $48m. Even the lower projections for IT would still handily cover the budget in a weekend and change. No one is losing their shirt on this one, and it could certainly climb to record-breaking heights, provided the hype remains strong.
The first round of early screenings just began this week. While the embargo doesn’t drop until September, there are vague reactions out there. Personally, I also attended a screening. If I may be a little coy, I’ll only reveal that fans of the novel should find it faithful.
The real question — and the real factor for a $50m opening — is what does everyone else think? We haven’t even had a well-reviewed or lucrative adaptation of his material in about 10 years. Does America still want to watch Stephen King movies?
According to a recent article, Stephen King is the living author with the most adapted works. He’s still a few hundred films off from Bill Shakespeare, but 34 movies ain’t bad. And that article didn’t count sequels or TV versions— if you start adding on Children of the Corn III into the mix, his record gets a little longer. So in that regard, he is a very popular author.
Unfortunately for King, not all of his books have made the transition to screen with ease or financial success.
July saw the release of The Dark Tower, an adaptation of King’s sprawling fantasy series. The movie bombed with critics (18% on the old Tomato Meter) and audience members alike ($19m opening weekend).
The Dark Tower was never given a real chance to succeed. It limped into production after years of torturous development, falling through the hands of many talented filmmakers (JJ Abrams, Ron Howard). Eventually it did snag dual casting coups of Idris Elbra and Matthew McConaughey, but that was all it had going for it. The Dark Tower could never compress 7 books of material into a satisfying film. The pressure of starting a franchise was just too high. In contrast, IT chose to split the +1000 novel into two films. Although some people will be miffed to watch a “Part One,” the split is one of the more justifiable of such choices in recent years. The narrative is much more positive for IT, and that’s half the damn battle.
The film has had some difficulties (Cary Fukanawa dropping out) but that’s not what people are talking about. They’re talking about Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise the Clown. They’re talking about new trailer record. They’re talking about the differences from the prior 1990 miniseries adaptation.
Ultimately, I can’t quite proclaim that IT will end up on the top or bottom of King’s Rotten Tomatoes list. I do absolutely think that it will end up amongst his biggest films at the box office though. Adjusted for inflation, The Shining made an impressive $140m or so which is a likely end mark for IT. (Thanks, Scott Mendelson).
If that number seems a little small, it’s because Stephen King adaptations aren’t that popular in the grand scheme. There are a lot of them, but they don’t perform any better than most horror movies. The ceiling for horror films (around $100 million domestic) is the ceiling for a Stephen King film too.
If IT goes crazy, the reason will be simple: IT’s bigger than just a Stephen King adaptation. The film is shaping up to be a cultural phenomenon. Take the revitalizing success of Stranger Things and slap a huge budget onto one of the horror writer’s most iconic works and you get IT.
Once upon a time, The Exorcist had people waiting days for a chance to get spooked. Let’s hope that IT revitalizes the box office to even a small degree. Ticket sales are down and there’s something comforting about a scary movie bringing people back to the theater. Right?
