The Stephen King movie, The Long Walk, absolutely bombs at the box office, coming in fourth this weekend. By my count, it’s the lowest opening for a King movie in 33 years.
On Thursday, King received massive backlash for comments about Charlie Kirk, who was killed on Wednesday. The alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, is described as a leftist in a relationship with another man transitioning to a transgender woman.
King deleted the tweets and apologized for his comments.
It’s unknown if the controversy impacted The Long Walk, which was put out by Lionsgate this weekend. The studio suffers yet another blow following Ballerina massively bombing, as well. Back in August, it was reported that Lionsgate suffered a massive $59.4 million loss compared to the year prior.
The Long Walk box office numbers
Stephen King’s The Long Walk, directed by Hunger Games‘ Francis Lawrence, comes in at fourth place this weekend with an estimated $11.5 million, domestically. The early estimates were as high as $20 million.
It’s beaten by Downton Abbey: Grand Finale ($19.5M), The Conjuring: The Last Rites in its second weekend ($27M), and Demon Slayer… Infinity Castle crushes all competition with an estimated $70M opening.
The Long Walk also stars Mark Hamill, who is no stranger to his own controversial remarks coming from the left.
Reviews are good
The flick does have good reviews as the Rotten Tomatoes Score from critics stands at 90%. The Audience Score is currently at 86% from those who purchased tickets through the Fandango app (all other reviews don’t count).
However, the CinemaScore is only a “B.”
The budget and break even number
At least The Long Walk didn’t cost much, coming in at a reported $20 million. If that’s the case, the flick will only need to make around $50 million to break even, which will likely depend on how well it does internationally.
However, Doctor Sleep released in 2019 opened higher at over $14 million and only finished with $72.3M. The Monkey, released back in February, also only opened to $14M and ended with $68.8M. So we see with The Long Walk, there isn’t much breathing room.
King’s previous lowest opening, again by my count, was Pet Sematary 2, released back in 1992, which adjusted for inflation opened to $11.1M.
What is The Long Walk about?
The Long Walk follows 100 teenage boys forced into a brutal contest where stopping means death. Each walker must maintain a pace of at least three miles per hour; fall short and they receive a warning. Three warnings, and they’re executed on the spot. The march only ends when a single boy remains alive.
