

Osgood Perkin’s horror comedy, The Monkey, has helped Stephen King reach a particular box office milestone. Based on a short story of the same name King wrote for his 1985 anthology book Skeleton Crew, the film has grossed nearly $53 million at the worldwide box office. With this box office total, Stephen King adaptations have reached a cumulative total of $3 billion. This milestone isn’t surprising considering how many iconic films have been made from his work, from horror classics like The Shining, Carrie, and Christine to dramatic classics like The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me.
The highest-grossing King adaptation, 2017’s It, did most of the heavy lifting towards this box office milestone, grossing $700 million worldwide. The follow-up, 2019’s It: Chapter Two, which adapted the second half of King’s novel, didn’t do as well but still grossed an impressive $473 million worldwide.
King’s box office success will only continue with the release of The Life of Chuck, written and directed by Mike Flanagan, who has helmed many other King adaptations, from the Netflix movies 1922 and Gerald’s Game to the sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep, released in 2019. With the film’s stacked cast featuring actors like Tom Hiddleston, Karen Gillan, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Mark Hamill, as well as the film’s People’s Choice Award win when it premiered at TIFF last September, the film could be an audience favorite when it releases in theaters in the United States on June 6th, and make the cumulative total of Stephen King adaptations even bigger.