Sony Pictures does it again as "Goosebumps" becomes its fourth film in a couple of months to hit it big, earning $23.5 million on its opening weekend and triumphing over 20th Century Fox's Science-Fiction (Sci-Fi) flick "The Martian" which earned $21.5 million on its own opening weekend in September.
Ridley Scott's "The Martian" currently holds the second place with its $143.8 million earnings in its three-week run, followed by Steven Spielberg's Cold War film starring Tom Hanks, "Bridge of Spies," which gained $15.4 million and Guillermo del Toro's "Crimson Peak," a gothic romance with $12.6 million earnings, on their respective opening weekends.
"Goosebumps" is a 90's horror book series Robert Lawrence Stine, more popularly known as R.L. Stine, but it's not the only horror book series up his sleeve. He also wrote "The Ghosts of Fear Street," "Mostly Ghostly" and "The Nightmare Room," among all the other horror series he published. Stine seems to love his work because, in his Twitter profile, he wrote that his job is "to terrify kids."
So which among Stine's vast "Goosebumps" collection was the film based on? The answer is: none of them. Sony took a chance by producing an original with a screenplay penned by Darren Lemke, who also wrote the screenplay for 2013's "Jack the Giant Slayer," a reimagining of the English fairytale "Jack and the Beanstalk," and writer for the final installment of Shrek, "Shrek Forever After." In the film, instead of bringing one of the books or an entire series to life, R.L. Stine becomes a part of the story as the monsters in the books he wrote come to life when their books are opened.
Jack Black plays author R.L. Stine, who penned the "Goosebumps" books since 1992. Stine himself made a cameo appearance on the film as a teacher named Mr. Black, and Slappy, the creepy ventriloquist dummy, is the cause of mayhem when he sets the monsters free from Stine's mind.
Evil ventriloquist dummies aside, R.L. Stine sent his thanks to everyone who watched the film in his twitter account.
THANK YOU, ALL. I just learned that Goosebumps is the #1 film in America this weekend. I can't tell you how grateful I am!
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) October 18, 2015
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