The new Stephen King adaptation The Monkey is climbing a major box office chart. The movie, which was directed by Longlegs‘ Osgood Perkins, is adapted from the 1980 short story of the same name and follows twins Bill and Hal (played by Christian Convery as children and Theo James as adults) as they are tormented by a cursed monkey toy that causes people around them to die in creatively bloody ways. The Monkey release kicked off the weekend after Valentine’s Day and debuted at No. 2 behind the holdover hit Captain America: Brave New World.

Per ᴅᴇᴀᴅline, as of Saturday morning, The Monkey is projected to add another $6.2 million at the domestic box office by the end of its second weekend in theaters. Even without its international numbers for the weekend, which won’t be calculated until Sunday, this brings the movie’s cumulative global box office total to $31.1 million.

In addition to pushing it past the $30 million milestone, this total will see The Monkey leaping onto the list of the highest-grossing Stephen King movies of all time worldwide, at No. 18 according to The Numbers‘ chart. It has swiftly surpᴀssed even iconic тιтles such as 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption ($28.8 million), 1976’s Carrie ($25.9 million), and 1983’s Cujo ($21.1 million).

What This Means For The Monkey

It May Not Breach The Top 10

It remains to be seen how high The Monkey can climb up the chart of the highest-grossing Stephen King movies by the end of its run. However, its current projections show it potentially rising to $44 million at the domestic box office, which could mean a worldwide total of $60 million or more when all is said and done. While this will not see it surpᴀss the No. 1 тιтle, 2017’s It ($701 million), it could still rise quite a bit. Below, see a breakdown of the тιтles ahead of the 2025 movie on the chart:

If The Monkey does hit that $60 million total, it will surpᴀss five other Stephen King movies (including the iconic Stanley Kubrick classic The Shining) to become the 13th highest-grossing movie on the chart, replacing Pet Sematary in that position. However, it seems somewhat unlikely that the movie will ever break into the Top 10, as it would have to surpᴀss the worldwide total of the Morgan Freeman sci-fi horror movie Dreamcatcher, which would necessitate its total ballooning by another $15 million.

Our Take On The Monkey Box Office

The Movie Is Already Performing Well In Its Own Right

While the movie has not had the same viral surge as Longlegs, which grossed more than $100 million worldwide in 2024, word of mouth and stellar The Monkey reviews that have earned it a Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 79% seem to have helped prevent it from suffering a severe week 2 drop like many horror тιтles, only falling 56%, which is a far cry from its expected drop of 64%. Additionally, it has most likely pᴀssed its break-even point, which was probably around $27.5 million, given its reported $11 million budget.

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Source: ᴅᴇᴀᴅline & The Numbers