How Stephen King Became Hollywood's Scariest Safe Bet

I had one of those very modern moviegoing moments this summer: three trailers in a row for Stephen King adaptations. By the time 'The Running Man' revealed its 'based on the novel by Stephen King' card, someone behind me sighed, 'Is every movie coming out a Stephen King movie?' They were kidding, but I get it. We’ve had four King films and two King shows roll out this year, and the next wave is already lining up.

Why the King boom makes sense right now

Start with timing. King set 'The Running Man' in 2025, and Edgar Wright’s new version leans into the part that now feels uncomfortably current: a broke guy volunteers to be hunted on a dystopian game show and accidentally lights a fuse under class revolt. Media manipulation, economic inequality, violence packaged as entertainment — yep, still hits.

King’s knack for accidentally predicting the future isn’t a one-off. If you read 'The Stand' after COVID, you start side-eyeing his publication dates. That timeliness is a big reason you keep seeing King on screens. 'It: Welcome to Derry' co-creator Jason Fuchs, for instance, thinks Pennywise works because the character weaponizes fear to turn people against each other — a theme that felt fresh when King wrote it and, arguably, even sharper now.

The business of fear (and why studios can’t resist)

There’s also the studio math. King’s premises pitch themselves in one sentence, and he mostly writes in a genre that still fills theaters even when everything else is wobbling. Horror is cheaper than fantasy, animation, or sci-fi, easier to market, and reliably profitable. Dr. Pete Falconer, who teaches Film and TV at the University of Bristol, puts it this way in essence: you’re not minting billions, but a well-made low-to-mid-budget horror movie will bring back a solid return. Hollywood has not forgotten that 'It' (2017) cost about $30 million and hauled in nearly $720 million worldwide.

People first, monsters second

Spend any time with King and you notice the scares ride shotgun to the people. The coming-of-age stuff in 'It' lands as hard as the cosmic clown. Osgood Perkins’ 'The Monkey' — the one about a dad desperately trying to keep his old toy from slaughtering his estranged son — plays like a grief-soaked character study that just happens to have Final Destination-style kill mechanics.

Julia Marchese, who co-hosts 'The Losers’ Club' podcast, argues that the secret sauce is friendship and love. If King didn’t make you care, the carnage wouldn’t sting. She told me about wearing a 'The Long Walk' shirt to a screening and being stopped by two teenage girls clutching a battered copy of the 1979 novel. On TikTok, 'The Long Walk' has basically become an obsession for adolescent girls, partly because it’s about boys actually being vulnerable with each other — crying, saying 'I love you' — which still feels kind of radical onscreen.

The 2017 spark, and one gnarly rat problem

The current wave really kicked off in 2017: Andy Muschietti’s 'It' conquered the box office, Sony dropped 'The Dark Tower', and Netflix served up both 'Gerald’s Game' and '1922'. Funny thing about '1922' — even though it’s now considered one of the better King adaptations, writer-director Zak Hilditch says nobody wanted it at first because it’s not pure horror. He kept getting the same notes: What is this exactly — period piece? Crime? In other words: pass.

Then producer Ross Dinerstein — who’d been shepherding Netflix’s lower-budget horror output — set up a meeting with Ian Bricke, who ran the streamer’s Original Independent Film team at the time. That unlocked just enough money to make Hilditch’s rat-infested Nebraska nightmare a reality. Hilditch describes the whole thing like a miracle streak: if he hadn’t connected to the story, if his other projects hadn’t flamed out, someone else (he jokes maybe Frank Darabont) would have made '1922' instead.

Filmmakers who grew up on King are now in charge

Look at this year’s lineup — Perkins ('The Monkey'), Wright ('The Running Man'), Francis Lawrence ('The Long Walk'), Mike Flanagan ('The Life of Chuck'). All guys born in the 1970s who devoured King as kids. Fuchs says returning to 'It' for 'Welcome to Derry' felt surreal because it’s the story that lit his creative fuse as a pre-teen. Also, King’s writing is weirdly cinematic even when it’s obsessively detailed. He’ll spend two pages itemizing Eddie Kasbrak’s medicine cabinet, and that specificity becomes shot lists in your head. Hilditch called '1922' a near-perfect blueprint — like 'There Will Be Blood' colliding with 'The Shining' — that still needed trims and tweaks but arrived practically storyboarded.

And it isn’t just the books fueling the nostalgia loop. Falconer points out that a lot of today’s filmmakers grew up on earlier King movies. He hasn’t caught Wright’s 'Running Man' yet, but the 1987 Schwarzenegger version was a childhood staple, and you can feel that generational itch to revisit (or spiritually remix) the stuff they loved — either directly, like the 'It' remakes, or sideways, like the vibe that powers 'Stranger Things'. Marchese flips the usual comparison on its head: people say 'Running Man' or 'The Long Walk' feel like 'Squid Game' or 'The Hunger Games'; really, those newer hits feel like King. That sends curious viewers back to the originals.

The TV turn: more story, more space, more... lore

Streaming loves King too. FlixPatrol says 'It: Welcome to Derry' spent the last month as HBO Max’s top show, and the creators have already talked about a three-season plan, so don’t expect it to tap out after one year. Over at Prime Video, Mike Flanagan just wrapped 'Carrie', and a behind-the-scenes photo sent fans into detective mode, wondering if that 300-page novel might run longer than one season.

TV helps in a very practical way: King’s novels are famously thick, so instead of chopping off subplots, you can actually expand them. 'Derry' even dared to peel back some of the mystery around Pennywise’s human mask — Bob Gray — in episode 7. Fuchs admits that is risky: answers are often less satisfying than questions, so if you’re going to demystify anything, you need a great answer and you need to leave new mysteries behind. The good news, per Fuchs, is that King is an active, generous partner — and if you swing and miss, he’ll say so.

Too much of a good thing?

There is a world where this gets overcooked. Marchese worries about studio franchise brain, especially since 'Welcome to Derry' nods to another Warner Bros. King project, 'Doctor Sleep'. How long before the 'Derry' corner of King turns into a sprawling galaxy of prequels and side quests?

'I send my books off to be filmed the way parents send their kids off to college, hoping they’ll do well and not fall into any of the pits and snares along the way. I offer advice when asked. Otherwise, I shut my mouth and hope for the best, knowing that my books – good, bad, indifferent – are still all up there on the shelf.'

That’s King’s own take. He lets adaptations be adaptations. The books aren’t going anywhere.

What’s next, and where to watch now

I can already picture a future trailer block stuffed with 'Cujo', 'Rat', 'The Girl Who Loved Tim Gordon', and 'The Stand'. For once, I’m not bracing for doom — I’m kind of excited.

• 'It: Welcome to Derry' is streaming on HBO Max.
• 'The Institute' is streaming on MGM+.
• 'The Monkey' is on Hulu.
• 'The Life of Chuck' hits Hulu on December 26.
• 'The Running Man' is still playing in select theaters.
• 'The Long Walk' is available to buy/rent on Prime Video, Apple TV, and YouTube.