Stephen King by the Box Office

Sky Movies has an interesting slide slow titled "Stephen King By The Box Office."  It looks at 34 of King's movies, and tells us how it did at the box office.  Each movie not only lists what it took in at the box office, but tries to adjust for inflation.

The site notes, "Box office figures from BoxOfficeMojo.com. Inflation calculated with the USInflationCalculator.com."

Here's the breakdown:

• $134,711 , Riding The Bullet. The article notes, "The film bombed at the box office after receiving a deserved critical panning and holds the unenviable record of the lowest grossing Stephen King adaptation to date"
• $125,397 , The Night Flier.  (Sky Movies adjusts for inflation, giving it $182,467)
• $1,781,383 , The Mangler
•  $8,863,193 , Apt Pupil
• $7,433,663 , Maximum Overdrive.  I like this from the article, "Picking up two Razzie nominations for King and the film’s star, Emilio Estevez, the film was universally panned. However, despite even King writing it off as “the worst adaptation of his work”, it managed to reclaim $7,433,663 of its $9 million budget- just under $16 million in today’s money."
• $10,611,160 , The Dark Half
• $11,582,891, Graveyard Shift
• $15,315,484, Thinner.  WAIT. . . Thinner made it this far up on the list?  "Thinner performed reasonably upon release, helped by the fact that it was attached to Michael Jackson’s short film, Ghosts, also co-written by King."  Oh, that explains it.
• $15,185,672, Needful Things
• $12,361,866, Silver Bullet "Silver Bullet divided opinion at the time but has slowly gained something of a cult following over the years."  count me in the cult.
• $13,086,297, Cats Eyes
• $14,568,989, Children of the Corn.  Don't we wish that had been the last dollar that franchise would make?
• $24,361,867, Dolores Claiborne.
• $17,080,167, Fire Starter
• $30,919,415, Hearts in Atlantis
• $28,341,469, The Shawhank Redemption
• $20,766,616, The Dead Zone
• $21,017,849, Christine
• £30,524,763, Sleepwalkers (say it ain't so!)
• $21,156,152, Cujo
• $21,028,755, Creepshow
• $32,100,816, The Lawnmower Man  "This sci-fi horror baffled audiences and divided critics at the time, but it still opened at number two in the box office behind Wayne’s World and spawned a sequel in the form of 1996’s Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace."  For the record, I really hated  this film.  I feel good about that.
• $38,122,105, The Running Man
• $59,006,619, Carrie 2013 "the film has already done decent business in the US and looks set to easily clear the $60 million mark."
• $57,293,715, The Mist
• $75, 715,436, Dreamcatcher.  No, I can't explain that.  "Even with a cast of names including Morgan Freeman, Damian Lewis and Jason Lee, the film dive-bombed at the American box office, although it did break even upon worldwide release."
• $57,469,467, Pet Sematary.
• $33,800,000, Carrie 1979
•  £61,276,872, Misery.
• $52,287,414, Stand By Me
• $92,913,171, Secret Window
• $44,017,374, The Shining
• $131,998,242, 1408.  This surprised me, since it's a film I really didn't think was very strong.  However,  it sure did make  strong showing at the box officer.
• $286,801,374, The Green Mile.

The full article is at skymovies.sky.com

Schull and Riding The Bullet

Bennet Loudon has an interesting article about Jon Schull, the inventor of softlock. The company went under, but Schull's technology was used to distribute Stephen King's ebook, Riding the Bullet. While the internet was yet young, Schull started the company to create a means of releasing "digital products on the web and ensure compensation for the owner."

SoftLock’s success peaked in 2000 when it was one of only a few technologies used to distribute Stephen King’s ebook Riding the Bullet online, one of the first mass market ebooks. But soon after, investors no longer wanted to inject capital into the operation, which meant he could no longer pay his 70 workers and the company shut down.

The professors plan was to do research, and allow his students to run the business.  What he learned was that students aren't always good capitalist.  I guess Alex P. Keaton wasn't in his class.

The full article is at democratandchronicle.com

Notes On Garris' RIDING THE BULLET

I'm watching, and enjoying, Riding The Bullet.  The film was directed by Mick Garris.  This is not a review.

1. After working out tonight, I went with a friend to pick someone up. I elected then to walk home. I'm trying to lsoe weight. The walk home, at around 11pm, had me passing several small town bars and throught he "heart" of our small town. A small town is both beautiful and spooky at night. That walk got me to thinking about the creepy journey in Riding The Bullet.  The encounter with the dog in Riding the Bullet is what always scares me when walking in these parts.  Even in town Coyotes make their presence known! 

2. I really like hte scene where the grim reaper appears, and the images on the wall come to life.  Very nice, and spooky.

3. The characters are nicely done.  They feel real.  The acting is natural -- which means it's good acting! 

4. There is a morbid fixation on death here!  It is handled with a mixture of horror and comedy.  I hope humor was intended!

5. The movie is set in the 70's.  So far, the only really awkward thing is that it doesn't really feel like the 70's.  It feels like the 90's trying to be the 70's.  Because it's hard to really reporduce just how. . . icky . . . the 70's were.

6. I've been to a LOT of funerals,and I don't thinkt he movie -- or any movie -- ever captures the real tone of a funeral.  Though every funeral is unique, I have never seen one in a movie I felt was realistic. 

Garris said, "Death deepens you when it’s close to you. I mean, it’s not really meant to be an arthouse film or anything; it’s meant to be an entertainment that hopefully has a bit more of an emotional connection than most “horror” movies, and emo horror movies, if you will."

I agree.  So I don't understand why film makers find it so difficult to ever capture the sense of a funeral on film. 
7. There are so many dreams and visions and flashbacks it gets frustrating to try and track with "prime reality."  Vision of a guy grabbing Alan and asking if he needs a ride reminds me of Pet Sematary's ghost.  Here's another vision -- papa just showed up as a haunting apparition.  There are visions within the memory scenes. . . visions within visions.   A dog attack. . . but it was only a vision.  To be followed by a vision of mama.  What this movie needs is another vision.  Wait!  We just got another. . . ! 

8. Garris told Bookgasm, "Watching the movie for the very first time, when the print had just come from the lab the day before, with an audience of 700 people, with my mother and sister in the audience, was nerve-wracking and emotional, much more so than anything I’d made before or since."

9. I like the feeling of journey as Alan tracks cross country to be with his mother. 

10. Alan talking to himself . . . with himself represented as a second person. . . is effective.

11. I love roller coasters!  Love to ride them, learn about them, experience the top of a hill thrill.  Magic Mountain has some great coasters. The idea of a demon on a roller coaster is awesome!  I've thought of it often, before I was aware of this work.  A haunted rolelr coaster is cool because once you're on a coaster, you're strapped in and stuck -- perfect opportunity for unfriendly spirits to mess with you. 

12. In the book, Lilja's Library, we are treated to some interesting insights to the larger King universe.  Lilja writes,

"Garris has also put in some hints that this is based on a King story.  First, you an see a car that looks incredibly like Christine, which turns out to be Goerge Staub's car.  Chrstine was a 1958 Plymouth Fury and int he movie they use on from 1960, but who'll noitce?  Also, Garris himself plays a doctor at the end of the movie and his wife Cynthia (who has been in many of his films including the dead woman in the bath tub in The Shining) plays the nurse called Annie, a tribute to King's Misery." p.396

Here is an interview with Mick Garris whicn includes some discussion of Riding The Bullet.

Cliff Robertson dies

Cliff Robertson, who played Peter Paerk's Uncle Ben in the Spider Man movies, died today.  Robertson had a long career that included The Twilight Zone (A Hundred Yards Over The Rim), and several movies.  He was the lonely farmer in Stephen King's "Riding The Bullet" who offered to give Alan that nice ride.