Although Stephen King’s recent adaptations have struggled to resonate with audiences, both The Running Man and The Long Walk may redeem this unfortunate streak. Among Stephen King’s 66 books, there are inevitably some duds. However, this has not stopped countless Stephen King adaptations from cashing in on the author’s perennial popularity among viewers over the years.
Some of the greatest movies of all time, including The Shining and The Shawshank Redemption, are based on King’s work. However, the author’s adaptations have faced some major financial struggles in recent years. Although 2017’s It was a billion-dollar success, the same year brought the disastrous flop The Dark Tower.
Similarly, 2022’s Firestarter was a colossal failure with critics and audiences, while 2025’s critically acclaimed Mike Flanagan movie The Life of Chuck made $10 million upon release in June 2025. This one stung, since Flanagan’s earlier The Shining sequel, Doctor Sleep, also underperformed in 2019, only a few months after It: Chapter Two proved a box office hit.
The Long Walk & The Running Man Could Be Stephen King’s First $100 Million Movies Since 2019
Both These Dystopian Sci-Fi Movies Have Major Box Office Potential
Luckily for King, he has a few upcoming adaptations that bode well for the author’s bank balance. For one thing, Hollywood legend Doug Liman announced his intention to bring the infamously long King novel The Stand to the big screen, somehow condensing a 1000+ page book into a single movie.
However, it is a pair of other dystopian sci-fi movies that can salvage King’s current box office cold streak in the immediate future. Director Edgar Wright’s The Running Man is a remake of 1987’s Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle of the same name. An adaptation of King’s novel, The Running Man is a satirical sci-fi story.
The Running Man’s plot drops Glen Powell’s beleaguered hero into a televised, cross-country death match where he must battle with trained killers to win a cash prize. While the plot has elements of both The Hunger Games and Squid Games, the original novel and its first adaptation predate both franchises.
The Running Man’s canny satire couldn’t be more timely. Meanwhile, The Long Walk offers a darker, more brutal version of the same basic premise.
While The Stand is King’s best post-apocalyptic sci-fi story, The Running Man’s canny satire couldn’t be more timely. Meanwhile, The Long Walk offers a darker, more brutal version of the same basic premise.
The Long Walk follows a group of desperate boys partaking in a cross-country walk where anyone who slows down or stops is killed. The winner earns a huge prize, but it’s hard to know whether this could be worth the trauma and turmoil of the тιтular journey.
Published in 1979 under King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman, The Long Walk was the first novel King wrote, but not the first to be published.
Both have strong appeal and a chance to do well, so they could each or both cross $100 million at the box office. That hasn’t been done since 2019, when two Stephen King movies managed this feat, meaning The Running Man and The Long Walk may turn around the author’s box office misfortunes.
