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A butchered box office catastrophe opens a portal to streaming success

A once-promising fantasy epic was spat out onto the screen in unrecognizable form.

the dark tower
via Sony

Individually, blockbuster fantasy epics and Stephen King adaptations can generally be relied on to draw in an audience, but when the two were combined to bring the prolific author’s magnum opus to the big screen, The Dark Tower turned out to be nothing short of a disaster.

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The project had spent over a decade in development hell being passed around countless writers, directors, stars, and studios, with Nikolaj Arcel finally bringing the inter-dimensional saga across the finish line. Unfortunately, all of the hard work turned out to be for naught after The Dark Tower fizzled at the box office, and found itself being shunned by critics and fans alike.

A $113 million return at the box office on a $60 million budget was poor, but it was at least better than the dismal 16 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, while it was painfully clear the sprawling source material had been hacked to pieces in post-production after a 95-minute end product was spat out, one that rendered the tightly-knotted and intricate mythology as borderline incomprehensible.

Even the stars have lamented the way the film turned out, but that hasn’t stopped The Dark Tower from embarking on a streaming comeback. As per FlixPatrol, the lamentable attempt at what was once slated as the launchpad for a massive multimedia franchise has resurfaced on the iTunes most-watched chart, although we’d be inclined to believe the continued popularity of King and his output is the driving force, because it most definitely isn’t the failed feature’s sterling reputation.