'Flowers in the Attic' nets big ratings for Lifetime

Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Early buzz for Flowers in the Attic got Lifetime so excited that the network announced plans to develop a sequel even before the V.C. Andrews adaptation aired Saturday.

It looks the confidence was justified.

The Lifetime original movie earned 6.1 million viewers when it debuted over the weekend, making it cable's most-watched original movie since October 2012's Steel Magnolias.

Though not entirely faithful to V.C. Andrews' creepy but massively successful 1979 novel, Lifetime's adaptation did retain some of the story's most famously campy and disturbing plot lines.

In the film, Heather Graham's character persuades her children to hide in their grandmother's attic so she can work to claim their inheritance. Locked in the attic for years, the four children suffer cruel treatment at the hands of their grandmother (Ellen Burstyn). Unlike its 1987 adaptation, Lifetime did keep the novel's incestual relationship between siblings Cathy (Kiernan Shipka) and Christopher (Mason Dye).

[TV by the Numbers, Vulture]