WhileITcontinues to rack up big bucks at the box office heading into its fourth weekend of release, another Stephen King adaptation didn’t fair so well this summer. In fact, some are calling Sony Pictures’The Dark Toweran outright bomb. It did well enough that there may be a sequel. And the TV show is still being planned. But according to Stephen King, that may be the problem to begin with. In a recent interview, theKing of Horroroffered his explanation as to whyThe Dark Towercrashed and burned, whileITcontinues to thrive and survive.

We are in a new era ofStephen King adaptations. Perhaps the prolific horror author had his original heyday back in the 80s, when it seemed like a new Stephen King movie was coming out every weekend. But those movies were notoriously bad most of the time, and everyone seemed genuinely shocked when a good one made it through the mix. Sure,The Shiningis considered a classic now, but it was pretty much dismissed during its release. But over the years, the King adaptations have gotten better and better. Though, there is a problem that has always brought grief for any director or screenwriter trying to adapt the material. And that’s the sheer length of some of these books.

That problem was solved byITwith the director splitting the novel in half for a two part movie, withIT: Chapter 2getting an official fall 2019 release date just yesterday. There are two more Stephen King movies on the horizon, and they are both promising works of suspense.1922is coming to Netflix this fall, and King himself has been singing the praises ofGerald’s Game. But even beforeThe Dark Towercame out, he personally warned longtime fans of the sprawling book series that they would perhaps be disappointed in what they saw on the big screen. And a lot of them were.

The Dark Towergestated for a very long time in the Hollywood system. It is a massive saga that carries a lot of weight. And it’s so hard to adapt that it requires multiple sequels and a20 episode per season TV showto encapsulate it all. So of course the firstDark Towermovie would barely scratch the surface. It’s basically the pilot for something so massive, we won’t reach the end until 2030. So why would audiences want to invest in that at the box office? Especially when the movie only clocks in at 90 minutes.

The Dark Towerhas barely broken even at the box office, and has acquired a 16% rotten score at Rotten Tomatoes. Stephen King was heavily invested in the success of the movie, and had a bigger hand in bringing it to life, than he didIT, which he wasn’t really involved in the production of. Now, King is revealing just why this movie failed while others flourish. Speaking withVulture, he had this to say.

“The major challenge was to do a film based on a series of books that’s really long, about 3,000 pages. The other part of it was the decision to do a PG-13 feature adaptation of books that are extremely violent and deal with violent behavior in a fairly graphic way. That was something that had to be overcome, although I’ve gotta say, I thought [screenwriter] Akiva Goldsman did a terrific job in taking a central part of the book and turning it into what I thought was a pretty good movie. The TV series they’re developing now … we’ll see what happens with that. It would be like a complete reboot, so we’ll just have to see.”

The Dark Towerspans over three decades and 8 books. So the movie’s 95 minute runtime did not bode well for the initial release, and fans were concerned they were being sold a bunk piece of wrought before it even hit screens. The movie was only able to scrap together $50 million domestically. And the series currently appears to be dead until someone says otherwise.

The Dark Tower’s fate as a movie is unfortunate, as it has been over 10 years in the making, and has gone through directors like J.J. Abrams and most notoriously Ron Howard. It’s still very likely that the TV adaptation will happen, withThe Dark Towerreaching maximum potential on the small screen.Idris Elbahas already said that he’d be back to reprise his role as the Gunslinger in either medium. It’s possible thatThe Dark Towerwill find a way to live on and survive.