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The Enduring Appeal of Stephen King Adaptations Has Made Him a $3 Billion Box Office Legend

Why Stephen King, the legendary author behind The Shining and Cujo, is just as popular with filmmakers and showrunners today.

With Mike Flanagan’s “The Life of Chuck,” based on a story from King’s 2020 collection “If It Bleeds,” just hitting theaters after having won the Audience Award at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival and several more high-profile adaptations on the way, including a “Carrie” TV series and a new version of “The Running Man,” the 77-year-old author is as popular as he’s ever been. The movie was released in 1995 and starred Kathy Bates in her second iconic King character (after her Oscar-winning turn as Annie Wilkes in “Misery”), as a hardscrabble woman accused of killing her employer (which leads to an examination of her equally dark past). But Gilroy had to figure out how to give the original story a narrative structure that would work for the movie – he invented the visit from Dolores’ tough-as-nails daughter Selena (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh), who comes home to aid her mother.

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