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

Oz Perkins has been kicking around Hollywood for some time now, starting out as an actor before pivoting to directing with movies like "Gretel & Hansel" and "The Blackcoat's Daughter" to his name. But Perkins elevated himself to the next level last year with the release of "Longlegs," which became the biggest indie horror hit in more than a decade. NEON then looked very smart, as the company had already partnered with Perkins for his next film, an adaptation of Stephen King's short story "The Monkey." So, with a red-hot director and horror's greatest author teaming up, can this movie become an even bigger hit?

"The Monkey" is currently eyeing an opening weekend between $17 and $25 million, per Box Office Theory. That is stellar news as the film is said to carry a budget in the $11 million range. Mind you, this was already mostly filmed by the time "Longlegs" became an unexpectedly huge hit. It's clear that between King's good name and getting to market off the back of another bit hit is doing this adaptation some favors. It also doesn't hurt that trailers for "The Monkey" have been rather effective at selling something irreverent and messed up.

For context, "Longlegs" opened to more than $22 million in July 2024, which was downright astonishing given the film's grizzly nature. NEON, to their credit, ran an all-timer of a marketing campaign that propelled the film to $127 million globally against a similar budget. With that in mind, even on the low end, Perkins' latest is very much set up for success, especially since King's name might help this one play a little better overseas, whereas "Longlegs" made the lion's share of its money in North America.

The good news is that this film also has critics on its side in the early going. As of this writing, "The Monkey" holds a stellar 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That's not quite universal praise though, with /Film's Jeremy Mathai saying that Perkins' latest "can't live up to the hype" in his review. But if moviegoers align more closely with the majority of critics on this one, NEON could once again be popping champagne, and Perkins will make a case for himself as one of the genre's best bets.

The film is based on Stephen King's short story of the same name published in the "Skeleton Crew" collection. It centers on twin brothers who find a mysterious wind-up monkey, with a series of outrageous deaths following that tears their family apart. Twenty-five years later, the monkey begins a new killing spree forcing the estranged brothers to confront this evil toy once again. The cast is led by Theo James ("The White Lotus") with Tatiana Maslany ("Orphan Black"), Elijah Wood ("Lord of the Rings"), Christian Convery ("Sweet Tooth"), Colin O'Brien ("Mr Harrigan's Phone"), Rohan Campbell ("Halloween Ends"), and Sarah Levy ("Schitt's Creek") rounding out the ensemble.

It's certainly not that "The Monkey" needs to make north of $100 million globally to be considered a hit. On the contrary, because of its thrifty budget, it could make half of that and be counted as a win. But theaters could certainly use a hit right now, as January was a pretty slow month, even by January standards. Yes, "Captain America: Brave New World" figures to give the box office a shot of life, but how far that extends beyond opening weekend still remains to be seen.

Thus far in 2025, horror has been off to a bit of a rocky start. Blumhouse's "Wolf Man" proved to be a pretty major disappointment both critically and commercially, while the acclaimed "Companion" is really more of a qualified hit, rather than an outright big one. The same could be said for the rom-com/slasher "Heart Eyes," but both of those films have yet to experience Valentine's Day weekend. Steven Soderbergh's "Presence," which also hails from NEON, has only drummed up $7.5 million to date. So yes, theaters and the horror genre in general could use a heavy-hitter right now. Oz Perkins to the rescue, perhaps? 

"The Monkey" hits theaters on February 21, 2025.