The Long Walk Continues Disappointing 2025 Box Office Trend For Stephen King Adaptations

The Long Walk‘s box office continues a trend for recent Stephen King adaptations. Having arrived in theaters on September 12, the latest dystopian horror movie based on the 1979 novel of the same name directed by Francis Lawrence opened to $4.8 million on its opening day. The figure also includes $1.3 million from the Thursday preview.

As of September 14, The Long Walk has made a total of $11.5 million during its opening weekend at the domestic box office. Compared to It‘s grand opening of $123.1 million and It: Chapter 2‘s $91 million domestic opening weekend achievement, this falls on the lower side, and sees the movie continuing a disappointing trend for recent Stephen King adaptations this year.

What This Means For The Long Walk’s Box Office

David Jonsson as Peter McVries in The Long Walk

The Long Walk is the third Stephen King movie coming out this year, and it follows its predecessors’ footsteps in box office performance during the opening weekend. In February, The Monkey opened to $14 million, while The Life of Chuck only pulled in $224,000 during the opening weekend in June.

The Monkey concluded its theatrical run with $68.9 million worldwide, but considering it was made on a $10 million production budget, the movie turned a profit and was considered as a financial success. The highly rated The Life of Chuck made around $15 million worldwide, but the movie had a narrow release, which hindered its growth. Even though the movie was one of Stephen King’s best rated adaptations, similar to The Long Walk.

Our Take On The Long Walk’s Opening Box Office

Roman Griffin Davis clutching his head in fear in The Long Walk

The Francis Lawrence movie was made on a $20 million budget. With the $11.5 million only reflecting its domestic opening weekend achievement, it does seem that the movie could be on track to break even (around $50 million). In addition, the movie’s wide theatrical release also gave it a better sH๏τ.

Combined with its high RT score of 91% critical approval rate and 85% audience approval rate, the movie’s box office performance might improve through word of mouth. Interestingly, some of King’s best movie adaptations have modest box office openings. Misery made $10 million in 1990 (about $24 million today), while The Green Mile opened to $18 million in 1999 (about $34 million today).

Much like other Lionsgate movies, the presales of The Long Walk aren’t currently calculated into the movie’s opening weekend box office, which means that even though the current figure seems to be on the lower end, the actual number could be bigger.