The Exorcist was made into the movie "The Exorcist III" in 1990. Like "The Exorcist", it involves demonic possession. The book was the focus of a court case over its exclusion from "The New York Times" Best Seller list. Blatty based aspects of the Gemini Killer on the real-life Zodiac Killer, who, in a January 1974 letter to the "San Francisco Chronicle", had praised the original "Exorcist" film as "the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen". The Exorcist is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted by William Peter Blatty from his 1971 novel of the
The Exorcist (film) on the Blu-ray release), the sequels "" and "The Exorcist III", and the prequels "" and "". The film earned $66.3 million in distributors' domestic (US/CAN) rentals during its theatrical release in 1974, becoming the second most popular film of that year (trailing "The Sting"). After several reissues, the film eventually grossed $232,671,011 in North America, which if adjusted for inflation, would be the ninth highest-grossing film of all time and the top-grossing R-rated film of all time. To date, it has a total gross of $441,071,011 worldwide. Adjusted to 2014 prices, "The Exorcist" has grossed $1.794 billion. Stanley Kauffmann,