It’s the middle of the month and two brand new movies have leaped onto Netflix’s streaming platform and quickly taken over the Top 10, and they both happen to be based on work by Stephen King. As of this writing, both 2017’s IT and 2007’s The Mist are currently scarring audiences all around the United States and they’re side by side on the Top 10. IT has been hovering in the Top 2 for the past few days but has now slipped down to #3, sitting right next to The Mist which is the #4 movie in the United States.
The Mist was originally released in theaters back in November of 2007, the third adaptation of King’s work by director Frank Darabont. Upon its debut the film didn’t exactly set the box office on fire, but many audiences found themselves traumatized by its conclusion, something that the movie is now doing for Netflix’s viewers. IT debuted in 2017, ten years later, and its runaway success not only brought fourth a highly anticipated sequel but saw the movie become the highest grossing horror movie of all-time at the box office, among other records.
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IT‘s success was also responsible for kickstarting the current wave of Stephen King programming that has seen the debut of remakes of Pet Sematary, Firestarter, and plenty more on the way. Despite the success of the IT movies, and an upcoming TV series set in the dreaded Maine town, King has previously said he has no intention of returning to the world of Pennywise the killer clown in a new book.
“Well, I don’t have a relationship to Pennywise now,” King previously told Bloody Disgusting’s The Losers Club Podcast. “Because I have no intention of going back to IT… it’s in the hands of people who are doing this… Andy and Barbara [Muschietti] are going to do ‘Welcome to Derry,’ they’re talking about it anyway. And they’ve got sort of a handshake deal, I think, with HBO Max.”
Both IT and The Mist aren’t the only King adaptations that are available on Netflix either as the streamer has produced their own movies from the master of horror as well including: Gerald’s Game, 1922, and In the Tall Grass. Netflix is now working on an adaptation of Mr. Harrigan’s Phone as a feature film and a TV series adaptation of The Talisman, which has Stranger Things creators Ross and Matt Duffer attached.
(Cover photo by NETFLIX / Scott Eisen/Getty Images for Warner Bros.)
