Few authors have enjoyed seeing their publications turned to film more than Stephen King. His very name conjures up feelings of fear and dread. A few dramatic stories aside, King is the King of horror. Still, over the years there have been plenty of bad films with his name attached to them, and fans often wonder, has Stephen King lost his edge? Are there more hits or misses regarding the success of his films? We here at Real to Real will attempt to answer that very question.
First, we have to establish a criteria. We'll evaluate each film, in chronological order, and score it in three catagories. 1) Tomato Meter. This is a fair way to gain a quick insight to how the film was received by movie critics. It gathers up all relevant reviews and gives it an overall score. 2) We'll also judge the fan response. Critics and fans don't always agree, and movie goers certainly have a say. 3) Box office return. From a financial stand point, a movie that fails to meet its investment domestically is deemed a failure. We'll show both the amount +/- of money gained or lossed +/-, as well as the margin of investment vs gross. For example, if a movie made five times gross what the production budget was, it would be represented as "x5." Films that do not disclose a budget will receive an "n/a". With three categories, majority rules. If at least 2 of 3 swing one way, to be fair, that's how the overall will be scored, a hit, or a miss. For fairness, we exclude made-for-tv films, short films, and anthologies that use more than one writer. Here we go.
Title Tomato Meter Movie Goers Box Office Overall
Carrie 91% (hit) 70% (hit) +32Mill (hit) x18.7 (hit)
The Shining 88% (hit) 91% (hit) +22Mill (hit) x2 (hit)
Cujo 59% (miss) 52% (miss) +16Mill (hit) x4.2 (miss)
The Dead Zone 89% (hit) 72% (hit) +10Mill (hit) x2 (hit)
Christine 65% (hit) 63% (hit) +11.5Mill (hit) x2 (hit)
Children of the Corn 39% (miss) 49% (miss) +13.7Mill (hit) x18 (miss)
Firestarter 41% (miss) 56% (miss) +0.1Mill (miss) x1 (miss)
Cat's Eye 65% (hit) 52% (miss) +6Mill (hit) x1.8 (hit)
Silver Bullet 50% (miss) 59% (miss) -1.6Mill (miss) x0.7 (miss)
Maximum Overdrive 18% (miss) 54% (miss) -2.6 Mill (miss) x0.7 (miss)
Stand By Me 91% (hit) 93% (hit) +44Mill (hit) x6.5 (hit)
The Running Man 63% (hit) 59% (miss) +11Mill (hit) x1.4 (hit)
Pet Semetary 50% (miss) 60% (hit) +45Mill (hit) x4.9 (hit)
Graveyard Shift 13% (miss) 32% (miss) +1Mill (hit) x1.0 (miss)
Misery 90% (hit) 83% (hit) +41Mill (hit) x3 (hit)
Sleepwalkers 17% (miss) 39% (miss) +15Mill (hit) x2 (miss)
The Dark Half 61% (hit) 43% (miss) -4.4Mill (miss) x0.7 (miss)
Needful Things 27% (miss) 47% (miss) n/a (miss)
Shawshank Redemption 89% (hit) 98% (hit) +33Mill (hit) x2.3 (hit)
The Mangler 22% (miss) 24% (miss) n/a (miss)
Dolores Claiborne 82% (hit) 75% (hit) n/a (hit)
Thinner 17% (miss) 39% (miss) +1.1Mill (hit) x1 (miss)
Apt Pupil 53% (miss) 57% (miss) -5.2Mill (miss) x0.6 (miss)
Green Mile 80% (hit) 93% (hit) +76Mill (hit) x2.2 (hit)
The Rage: Carrie 2 16% (miss) 45% (miss) -3.3Mill (miss) x0.8 (miss)
Hearts In Atlantis 50% (miss) 63% (hit) -7Mill (miss) x0.7 (miss)
Dreamcatcher 30% (miss) 43% (miss) +7.7Mill (hit) x1.1 (miss)
Secret Window 46% (miss) 69% (hit) +7.7Mill (hit) x1.1 (hit)
Riding The Bullet 29% (miss) 38% (miss) -4.9Mill (miss) x0.02 (miss)
1408 78% (hit) 61% (hit) +106Mill (hit) x5.2 (hit)
The Mist 73% (hit) 64% (hit) +7.5Mill (hit) x1.4 (hit)
Okay, so let's crunch the numbers. The list of Stephen King motion pictures has 15 hits, and 16 misses. Of the 15 hits, 11 were across the board hits, represented in green. Of the16 failures, 8 failed across the board, represented in red.
Let's also take a look at the overall regarding the Tomato Meter. If we added all the percentages together and averaged them, Stephen King Films has an overall rating of 54%. That means critically, Stephen King motion pictures have failed. If we apply the same principle to general audience results, the overall rating is 59%.
So it would seem that Stephen King has put out more failures than hits. But this doesn't make him a failure. These are films based on his novels and short stories. So much more goes into the success or failure of a film than simply the novel it's based on. Directors, actors, screenplays, editing all play a part.
Still, the argument of "are Stephen King movies successful or not?" has been answered, the best it could.
I told you you'd miss at least one or two... a quick look a the list without doing any research tells me that Lawnmower Man and Lawnmower Man 2 aren't on the list!
ReplyDeleteNow... research.
Children of the Corn II: Final Sacrifice was also released theatrically. As was Pet Semetary II. The Night Flier TOTALLY tanked in theaters but was a theatrical release.
I'm sure you don't want to include No Smoking since it was a foreign film even thought it was based on the Stephen King short story Quitters, Inc.
And I'm also sure that you don't want to include direct-to-DVD releases so I won't go there.
Besides that, great list and I agree. When SK films are good, they're REALLY good. When they're bad (and they can be BAD) they're REALLY bad. More misses than hits but the hits hit so hard...
Interested to see how the above suggestions alter the outcome, especially since, I believe, most of them were financial, if not critical, successes.
Pet Semetary 2, Children Of The Corn 2 and Lawnmower Man 2 were sequels, they were NOT movies based directly off of a novel or short story of his. King never wrote a Pet Sematary 2 or CotC 2, nor did he do their screenplay.
ReplyDeleteAs for the original Lawnmower Man, it was NOT a Stephen King movie. Early versions of the film claimed that they were related to a Stephen King work. King did write a short story called "The Lawnmower Man", but it was completely different to the movie. King sued the film makers, and had his name removed from the film. I gave The Rage: Carrie 2 a pass and allowed it in this list due to the fact that Amy Irving returns and reprises her role, plus the director was allowed to use footage from the original Carrie. This at least adds a sense of continuity, as CotC2 and PS2 do not have re-occuring characters & actors.
So yes, I've done my research.
Ohhh....forgot. Night Flier. If you're curious, it had an estimated budget of $1million. Its domestic take? A pitiful $125k.
ReplyDeleteAccording to IMDB it was released on 95 screens, which tells me that it is NOT a theatrical release, save for maybe a few art house theaters or private screenings before going direct to DVD.
I know you're the kind of guy who loves splitting hairs, but I cannot in good conscious consider 95 screens a "theatrical release." But, to humor you, its tomato meter is "not rated yet" as only 4 critics rated it. But after reading them, you could say it's a 25%. Movie Goers are at 37%. Epic fail across the board.