The 20 highest-grossing Stephen King movies, ranked

Worldwide gross: $28.8 million

"The Shawshank Redemption," based on King's 1982 novella "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption," starred Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman as two prisoners who find hope while serving their sentences in the fictional Shawshank State Prison. While the movie flopped upon its release, it was nominated for seven Academy Awards and is now beloved. Members of the cast reunited for the film's 25th anniversary in 2019.

Worldwide gross: $30.5 million

"Sleepwalkers" wasn't based on one of King's books — it was the first time he wrote a screenplay that wasn't adapted from one of his existing stories. King also had a cameo in the film as the Cemetery Caretaker.

Worldwide gross: $30.9 million

Released in 2001, "Hearts in Atlantis" starred Anton Yelchin as a young boy who befriends an elderly man, played by Anthony Hopkins, and begins to notice strange happenings in their neighborhood.

Worldwide gross: $32.1 million

King first published the short story "The Lawnmower Man" in 1975, and then included it in his 1978 "Night Shift" anthology. When it was adapted into a film in 1992, King sued New Line Cinema and ordered that his name be removed from all marketing since it deviated so drastically from his original story — and he won.

Worldwide gross: $33.8 million

"Carrie" became a cultural touchstone when it was released in 1976. A social outcast with a violent, religious extremist mother, Carrie discovers that she has the power of telekinesis. She gets asked to the prom and voted prom queen only to be showered in a bucket of pig's blood in an iconic scene. She then exacts a bloody revenge on all of the classmates who tormented her with her newfound powers.

Worldwide gross: $38.1 million

In "The Running Man," Schwarzenegger plays Ben Richards, a policeman falsely accused of a crime who must compete on a game show for his life. King disliked the adaptation so much that he asked for his name to removed from all marketing materials, according to Screenrant.

Worldwide gross: $46.5 million

King's novel "The Shining" was his first hardcover bestseller, putting him on the map as a notable horror author. The film adaptation was also a success, cementing lines like "Here's Johnny!" which Jack Nicholson improvised, in pop culture.

Worldwide gross: $52.2 million

"Stand By Me" stars Wil Wheaton, Jerry O'Connell, River Phoenix, and Corey Feldman as four young boys who set off to find the missing body of a stranger who was killed in their Oregon area.

Worldwide gross: $57.46 million

When the Creed family's cat is struck by a car, a neighbor tells the family to bury it in the neighborhood's ancient "Pet Sematary." The cat then comes back to life, but exhibits vicious behavior. When the Creeds' son is killed in an accident, her father Louis tries to bring him back to life with the enchanted burial ground, ignoring warnings that "sometimes dead is better."

Worldwide gross: $57.47

Director Frank Darabont wrote a new ending to "The Mist" for the film adaptation, and King loved it.

"Frank came up with an ending to the movie that I thought was terrific on the page, and the only time that I ever wavered even slightly was when I actually saw it, and I said to myself, this is so shocking that there ought to be ads in the newspaper that say if you reveal the last five minutes of this movie you'll be hung by the neck until death because that's the one thing that I hate about the internet age is all that stuff goes out," King said at a 2007 press conference.

Worldwide gross: $61 million

King published "Misery" in 1987 about a novelist who is held prisoner by his psychotic No. 1 fan. The film version was released in 1990 to critical and audience acclaim. Kathy Bates delivers a downright terrifying performance as the former nurse Annie, and is widely regarded as one of the best horror villain roles of all time.

Worldwide gross: $81.2 million

In "Dreamcatcher," four friends on their annual camping trip discover a man wandering in the woods in a blizzard, displaying strange behaviors and symptoms. They soon learn that he has contracted a deadly alien virus, and their entire area is under quarantine, as they struggle to survive attacks from the infected and military strikes.

The story takes place in the same fictional town of Derry, Maine, as the "It" series, and also features connections to the master universe in "The Dark Tower."

Worldwide gross: $84.7 million

Director Kimberly Peirce described her adaptation of "Carrie" as a retelling, not a remake. The 2013 version includes several modern updates. There's no female nudity shown in the locker room scenes, but Carrie's humiliation doesn't end in her high school gym's locker room — video of her peers taunting her gets shared online. Carrie also becomes more empowered through her newfound telekinesis abilities.

Worldwide gross: $92.9 million

As the plot of "Secret Window" advances, the lines between Rainey's imagination and reality become more blurred, until a shocking twist reveals that the psychotic farmer isn't as distant from Rainey as the audience was led to believe.

Worldwide gross: $113.1 million

The remake of "Pet Sematary" made several changes to the plot from the 1989 version. The 2019 movie features a parade of kids in masks carrying a dead pet to the cemetery, made the character of Victor Pascow less comedic and more menacing, and used a different breed of cat to play the Creed family's pet. The biggest change was that the Creeds' daughter becomes the one who is killed and brought back to life as a bloodthirsty demon, not their son.

Worldwide gross: $113.2 million

In "The Dark Tower," 11-year-old Jake Chambers has visions of an evil Man in Black and the Gunslinger who tries to prevent him from destroying the Dark Tower that holds the universe together. The movie was based on King's "The Dark Tower" series comprised of eight books and two short stories and starred Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. Despite its box office success, "The Dark Tower" was widely panned by critics.

Worldwide gross: $132.9 million

Starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson, "1408" follows a cynical paranormal investigator who sets out to debunk the myth of the haunted room 1408 in the Doplhin Hotel, but ends up fighting for his life as the room comes alive.

According to IMDb, the movie's original ending was re-shot and changed after test audiences found it too dark.

Worldwide gross: $286.8 million

"The Green Mile" was based on King's 1996 novel about a prison guard who discovers one of the men under his watch has extraordinary powers and begins to doubt if he actually committed the crime he was convicted of.

This faithful adaptation of the source material resulted in a run time of three hours and nine minutes.

Worldwide gross: $473 million

In "It Chapter Two," Pennywise returns to wreak havoc in Derry 27 years later. The children from the first movie, now adults, have to band together in order to defeat the evil clown once and for all.

Worldwide gross: $701.7 million

"It" had previously been made into a two-part miniseries in 1990 starring Tim Curry as Pennywise the murderous clown. In the 2017 blockbuster, Bill Skarsgård embodied the menacing character who terrorizes children in the small town of Derry.

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