Posted on 09/18/2025 9:59:05 AM PDT by Morgana
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. stephen king charlie kirk Screenshot via X 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 Long Walk Trailer Drops: Stephen King’s Brutal Contest Hits the Screen 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.
It was a crappy story to begin with. About torturing kids on a long walk. That’s it.
Mark Hamill will never get another penny of my entertainment money, neither will Steven King.
This is a rip off of that Korean show on Netflix.
It can’t possibly be worse than “Christine” (the movie, not the book).
So it's "The Hunger Games" meets the Bataan Death March?
Golly, who wouldn't want to watch that?
King has fu money - if the movie flops, so what.
I believe he's a JANITOR at Dairy Queen!
For a theatrical release that's a B movie by Hollywood standards.
In 1940's early 1950's it would be something made by Republic Pictures.
It'll probably make some money with all the revenue streams outside of theatrical release although with crooked Hollywood accounting the profits for whoever will never show up on the books.
My sister and I get into the beautiful period costuming, and the scenery.
This was a great story I remember before King went off the rails (starting around Gerald’s Game or so). I don’t do theaters anymore, but would have watched when it hit streaming, but I’ll give it a pass now.
“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.”
Similar to forced marches during the US Civil War.
I agree......I think I read it twice.
Kinda off topic but I read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy thru twice too.....
“futility of life and struggle.”
So basically anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-Bhudist, ant-Hindu
What entertainers of all kinds, whether they be authors, movie, stars, sports stars, or whatever, have failed to realize is that their living depends upon not pissing people off regarding unrelated subjects. Stick with your strength, and keep your opinions (to which you have a right) to yourself - unless you just don’t care about the consequences. King just FA’d, and now he’s finding out.
Erika Kirk needs to unleash the lawyers on King. What he said can easily be considered slander. Take everything he has, donate it to TPUSA outreach, and have him move in with a pedo in Cornville because that’s the only thing he can afford.
Almost all his stuff is derivative. He ‘borrowed’ from everyone from Tolkien to the Twilight Zone to Shirley Jackson, just tarting the story up some, the buck-toothed hack.A lot of his early stuff reads very dated now, like The Long Walk.
His writer-sons are lefties too, of course. The Kings always have to get their political jabs in. Dad knows next to nothing about firearms, except that he hates them.
Interesting. I read some of his early stuff and liked it back then. Along around “It,” “Tommyknockers,” “Needful Things” and “The Dark Half,” I got very bored with him.
The only one I’ve read since the 80s-90s is “11-22-63” (I think that might be post-1999) and that’s only because I have a weakness for time-travel novels and movies.
Stephen King, maybe think before open you mouth and then piss on your shoes.........................Deleting the post shows you know you did wrong. Apology acknowledged but not accepted.
Never was a fan the movies were all the same, you’ve seen one slasher movie you’ve seen them all.
I stopped reading his crap years ago. He's a washed up writer with no imagination.
Mr. King: If you are REALLY a man of principle, STICK TO YOUR GUNS and keep bloviating ideas most people think are horrible, and watch the book sales dry up.
And WHY would I want to watch a movie where post-apocalypse rabble are force to Bataan-march in a deadly game of Survivor? I read the summation of the book for free on Wikipedia... and murder and sadness aren't worth $16 plus popcorn.
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