The Exorcist III and tells Karras to fight the Gemini. Karras regains his free will briefly and orders Kinderman to shoot him. He fires his revolver several times, hitting Karras in the chest, fatally wounding him and stopping the Gemini Killer. Kinderman puts his revolver against Karras' head and fires. William Peter Blatty, who wrote the original "Exorcist" novel and the screenplay for its film adaptation, initially had no desire to write a sequel. However, he eventually came up with a story titled "Legion", featuring Lieutenant Kinderman, a prominent character in the original "Exorcist" novel (though played a minor role in the eventual
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,