Longlegs Was Horror’s 2024 Success Story – Can The Monkey Top It At The Box Office?

Oz Perkins has been kicking round Hollywood for a while now, beginning out as an actor earlier than pivoting to directing with films like “Gretel & Hansel” and “The Blackcoat’s Daughter” to his identify. However Perkins elevated himself to the subsequent stage final yr with the discharge of “Longlegs,” which became the biggest indie horror hit in more than a decade. NEON then seemed very good, as the corporate had already partnered with Perkins for his subsequent movie, an adaptation of Stephen King’s quick story “The Monkey.” So, with a red-hot director and horror’s biggest writer teaming up, can this film turn out to be a fair larger hit?

“The Monkey” is at present eyeing a gap weekend between $17 and $25 million, per Box Office Theory. That’s stellar information because the movie is claimed to hold a finances within the $11 million vary. Thoughts you, this was already principally filmed by the point “Longlegs” grew to become an unexpectedly enormous hit. It is clear that between King’s good identify and attending to market off the again of one other bit hit is doing this adaptation some favors. It additionally does not damage that trailers for “The Monkey” have been rather effective at selling something irreverent and tousled.

For context, “Longlegs” opened to more than $22 million in July 2024, which was downright astonishing given the movie’s grizzly nature. NEON, to their credit score, ran an all-timer of a advertising and marketing marketing campaign that propelled the movie to $127 million globally in opposition to an analogous finances. With that in thoughts, even on the low finish, Perkins’ newest may be very a lot arrange for achievement, particularly since King’s identify would possibly assist this one play somewhat higher abroad, whereas “Longlegs” made the lion’s share of its cash in North America.

The excellent news is that this movie additionally has critics on its facet within the early going. As of this writing, “The Monkey” holds a stellar 90% approval ranking on Rotten Tomatoes. That is not fairly common reward although, with /Film’s Jeremy Mathai saying that Perkins’ latest “can’t live up to the hype” in his assessment. But when moviegoers align extra carefully with nearly all of critics on this one, NEON might as soon as once more be popping champagne, and Perkins will make a case for himself as one of many style’s greatest bets.

The movie relies on Stephen King’s short story of the same name published in the “Skeleton Crew” collection. It facilities on twin brothers who discover a mysterious wind-up monkey, with a sequence of outrageous deaths following that tears their household aside. Twenty-five years later, the monkey begins a brand new killing spree forcing the estranged brothers to confront this evil toy as soon as once more. The solid is led by Theo James (“The White Lotus”) with Tatiana Maslany (“Orphan Black”), Elijah Wooden (“Lord of the Rings”), Christian Convery (“Candy Tooth”), Colin O’Brien (“Mr Harrigan’s Telephone”), Rohan Campbell (“Halloween Ends”), and Sarah Levy (“Schitt’s Creek”) rounding out the ensemble.

It is definitely not that “The Monkey” must make north of $100 million globally to be thought-about a success. Quite the opposite, due to its thrifty finances, it might make half of that and be counted as a win. However theaters might definitely use a success proper now, as January was a reasonably sluggish month, even by January requirements. Sure, “Captain America: Brave New World” figures to give the box office a shot of life, however how far that extends past opening weekend nonetheless stays to be seen.

So far in 2025, horror has been off to a little bit of a rocky begin. Blumhouse’s “Wolf Man” proved to be a reasonably main disappointment each critically and commercially, while the acclaimed “Companion” is really more of a qualified hit, quite than an outright huge one. The identical might be mentioned for the rom-com/slasher “Coronary heart Eyes,” however each of these movies have but to expertise Valentine’s Day weekend. Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence,” which additionally hails from NEON, has solely drummed up $7.5 million thus far. So sure, theaters and the horror style on the whole might use a heavy-hitter proper now. Oz Perkins to the rescue, maybe? 

“The Monkey” hits theaters on February 21, 2025.

Oz Perkins has been kicking round Hollywood for a while now, beginning out as an actor earlier than pivoting to directing with films like “Gretel & Hansel” and “The Blackcoat’s Daughter” to his identify. However Perkins elevated himself to the subsequent stage final yr with the discharge of “Longlegs,” which became the biggest indie horror hit in more than a decade. NEON then seemed very good, as the corporate had already partnered with Perkins for his subsequent movie, an adaptation of Stephen King’s quick story “The Monkey.” So, with a red-hot director and horror’s biggest writer teaming up, can this film turn out to be a fair larger hit?

“The Monkey” is at present eyeing a gap weekend between $17 and $25 million, per Box Office Theory. That’s stellar information because the movie is claimed to hold a finances within the $11 million vary. Thoughts you, this was already principally filmed by the point “Longlegs” grew to become an unexpectedly enormous hit. It is clear that between King’s good identify and attending to market off the again of one other bit hit is doing this adaptation some favors. It additionally does not damage that trailers for “The Monkey” have been rather effective at selling something irreverent and tousled.

For context, “Longlegs” opened to more than $22 million in July 2024, which was downright astonishing given the movie’s grizzly nature. NEON, to their credit score, ran an all-timer of a advertising and marketing marketing campaign that propelled the movie to $127 million globally in opposition to an analogous finances. With that in thoughts, even on the low finish, Perkins’ newest may be very a lot arrange for achievement, particularly since King’s identify would possibly assist this one play somewhat higher abroad, whereas “Longlegs” made the lion’s share of its cash in North America.

The excellent news is that this movie additionally has critics on its facet within the early going. As of this writing, “The Monkey” holds a stellar 90% approval ranking on Rotten Tomatoes. That is not fairly common reward although, with /Film’s Jeremy Mathai saying that Perkins’ latest “can’t live up to the hype” in his assessment. But when moviegoers align extra carefully with nearly all of critics on this one, NEON might as soon as once more be popping champagne, and Perkins will make a case for himself as one of many style’s greatest bets.

The movie relies on Stephen King’s short story of the same name published in the “Skeleton Crew” collection. It facilities on twin brothers who discover a mysterious wind-up monkey, with a sequence of outrageous deaths following that tears their household aside. Twenty-five years later, the monkey begins a brand new killing spree forcing the estranged brothers to confront this evil toy as soon as once more. The solid is led by Theo James (“The White Lotus”) with Tatiana Maslany (“Orphan Black”), Elijah Wooden (“Lord of the Rings”), Christian Convery (“Candy Tooth”), Colin O’Brien (“Mr Harrigan’s Telephone”), Rohan Campbell (“Halloween Ends”), and Sarah Levy (“Schitt’s Creek”) rounding out the ensemble.

It is definitely not that “The Monkey” must make north of $100 million globally to be thought-about a success. Quite the opposite, due to its thrifty finances, it might make half of that and be counted as a win. However theaters might definitely use a success proper now, as January was a reasonably sluggish month, even by January requirements. Sure, “Captain America: Brave New World” figures to give the box office a shot of life, however how far that extends past opening weekend nonetheless stays to be seen.

So far in 2025, horror has been off to a little bit of a rocky begin. Blumhouse’s “Wolf Man” proved to be a reasonably main disappointment each critically and commercially, while the acclaimed “Companion” is really more of a qualified hit, quite than an outright huge one. The identical might be mentioned for the rom-com/slasher “Coronary heart Eyes,” however each of these movies have but to expertise Valentine’s Day weekend. Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence,” which additionally hails from NEON, has solely drummed up $7.5 million thus far. So sure, theaters and the horror style on the whole might use a heavy-hitter proper now. Oz Perkins to the rescue, maybe? 

“The Monkey” hits theaters on February 21, 2025.