Thirty years ago this month, one of the best Stephen King adaptations ever flopped at the box office. Here’s why it ultimately overcame its lackluster release.
Stephen King has inspired more Hollywood adaptations of his work than almost any other writer. His novels and short stories served as the source material for some of the most acclaimed and iconic horror movies of the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, including Brian De Palma’s Carrie, Stanley Kubrick‘s The Shining, and Rob Reiner’s Misery. Even now, 50 years after the release of his debut novel, King’s work continues to inspire new, high-profile adaptations (see: Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep and Andy Muschietti’s It).
King is inarguably best known as a horror writer. However, one of the most beloved adaptations of his work also happens to be based on one of his more noteworthy non-horror stories. The film in question, The Shawshank Redemption, has found its place among the most popular and well-known movies in Hollywood history. Despite that, it was an infamous box office bomb when it was released in 1994 — grossing only $16 million in its initial theatrical run. More popular releases, like Quentin Tarantino‘s Pulp Fiction, initially overshadowed it that year. Since then, however, The Shawshank Redemption‘s reputation has improved and grown.
All it takes is one viewing of the film to understand why.Not your typical prison movie
Based on a 1982 novella by King, The Shawshank Redemption takes place almost entirely within the confines of its eponymous Maine prison. It follows Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a banker who is sentenced to prison for the murders of his wife and her lover. When he arrives at Shawshank, he quickly makes friends with one of his fellow inmates, Red (Morgan Freeman), and learns to overcome the abuse he initially suffers there by using his education and knowledge of the U.S. financial system to ingratiate himself with not only Shawshank’s other prisoners, but also some of its guards and its warden, Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton).
