It feels like you can barely turn around these days without bumping into a Stephen King adaptation on either the big or small screen, and there are currently twelve movies and seven TV shows in development based on the prolific author’s work, while the second version of The Stand will debut on CBS in December.
Given the volume and rate at which his books are translated into live-action, the various projects over the decades have been wildly inconsistent, from classics like The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile to infamous disasters including Dreamcatcher and The Dark Tower. The single most lucrative Stephen King movie, however, coincidentally happens to be one of the very best, and with Halloween just around the corner, Andy Muschietti’s It has been dominating Netflix‘s Top 10 most-watched list today.
The supernatural and psychological horror rode a huge wave of online buzz to massive box office success, raking in over $700 million globally to become the highest-grossing movie the genre had ever seen. Audiences and critics were both gripped by the emotionally driven and frequently terrifying story, while Bill Skarsgard’s phenomenal performance instantly elevated Pennywise into the pantheon of horror’s most iconic characters. Chapter Two was a little less successful from both a critical and commercial standpoint, but that hasn’t stopped the double header from seizing the imagination and ascending to legendary status.
It currently ranks as the fifth most popular title on Netflix around the world, and as we move closer to the spookiest day of the year, there’s every chance that the chilling blockbuster will move even higher up the list as subscribers actively seek out the titles that are most likely to give them nightmares.