Stephen King’s The Long Walk Isn’t A Big Box Office Hit, But It Didn’t Need To Be

This past weekend proved to be much bigger than just about anyone expected at the box office. “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” led the way with a record-breaking $70 million opening. Everything else was gunning for second place. Well, technically third, given that “The Conjuring: Last Rites” ($25.6 million) landed in the number two spot following its own massive opening last week. In the case of “The Long Walk,” it was a case of having to settle for a fairly distant fourth place, though that’s not as bad as it may sound on the surface.

Lionsgate’s “The Long Walk,” which is based on the Stephen King book of the same name, opened to $11.7 million domestically. It also finished behind “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” ($18.1 million), which was admittedly going for a very different crowd. In any case, it seems like a disappointing result on the surface. But diving deeper into the numbers, it’s one of those “good enough” situations that we could actually use more of in the modern marketplace.

Directed by Francis Lawrence, of “The Hunger Games” fame, this King adaptation carries a very modest budget of just $20 million before marketing. So while a sub-$12 million opening isn’t exactly huge, it’s fine for a very responsibly budgeted movie such as this. It also helps that “The Long Walk” has been met with stellar reviews thus far, which may help it in the weeks to come. There are also overseas grosses, which haven’t yet been tallied yet, to consider.

The film takes place in a dystopian version of the United States where one boy from each state is selected to take part in an annual contest. The winner will be awarded whatever he wants. To win, they have to walk at a pace of three miles per hour without stopping. Fall below that speed, you get a warning. Get three warnings, and you’re out — dispassionately shot in the head by the military envoy traveling with the group. The cast includes Cooper Hoffman (“Saturday Night”), David Jonsson (“Alien: Romulus”), and Mark Hamill (“Star Wars”).

In terms of comparisons, this isn’t far off from 2023’s “The Boogeyman,” which legged out to $82.3 million after opening to $12.3 million that summer. Depending on how things shake out, there’s still plenty of hope that this one could make it to over/under $50 million globally, which would probably be enough to turn a profit.

Lionsgate was extremely thrifty here, and that’s the key. Had this movie cost $50 million, we’d be having a very different conversation about how disappointing it is that such an acclaimed movie is being ignored by audiences. Would it be nice if more people turned up for what now ranks as the highest-rated Stephen King movie of all time? Sure, but this is a bleak tale that was never going to have the same mass appeal as something like “It,” for example.

This is a project that’s been in and out of development for decades, with various filmmakers coming and going. The fact that Lawrence and Lionsgate finally got it made at all is nothing shy of a minor miracle. That it happens to be a very good movie, by most accounts, is also great. Between VOD, streaming, overseas box office, and eventual Blu-ray/DVD sales, this one will be just fine. It will find its audience over time and it will make money. It won’t be a big hit, but not everything needs to be.

The box office is still struggling mightily to recover from the pandemic. One thing that helps is having a higher volume of product available in theaters. Having reasonably budgeted, low risk/high reward movies like this in theaters more regularly as counter-programming is something we could use more of. A modest hit, in the end, is still a hit — money is money, after all — and this one can easily become a modest hit. That can and should be enough more frequently than it is now, and we hope other studios are paying attention.

“The Long Walk” is in theaters now.