Stephen King’s ‘The Long Walk’ Bombs At Box Office Following Charlie Kirk Comments: 33-Year Low

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Stephen King’s new film, *The Long Walk*, didn’t do well in theaters this weekend, landing in fourth place. It had the worst opening weekend of any King adaptation in over three decades.

King faced significant criticism on Thursday for his remarks regarding Charlie Kirk, who died on Wednesday. The suspected shooter, Tyler Robinson, is reported to be a left-leaning individual in a relationship with a man who is transitioning to a woman.

King deleted the tweets and apologized for his comments.

It’s unclear if the recent issues surrounding the film affected the performance of *The Long Walk*, which Lionsgate released this weekend. This comes as another setback for the studio, following the poor box office results of *Ballerina*. Lionsgate previously reported a significant $59.4 million loss in August compared to the previous year.

The Long Walk box office numbers

Okay, let’s talk about *The Long Walk*. Stephen King’s story, brought to the screen by Francis Lawrence – the guy who directed *Hunger Games* – didn’t quite hit the mark this weekend. We were looking at potential numbers around $20 million, but it seems audiences weren’t as eager to take the walk. It landed in fourth place with an estimated $11.5 million domestically. A bit of a stumble for a King adaptation, honestly.

The film was outperformed by *Downton Abbey: Grand Finale* ($19.5M), *The Conjuring: The Last Rites* in its second weekend ($27M), and *Demon Slayer… Infinity Castle*, which opened with an estimated $70M, easily topping all other films.

Mark Hamill, known for facing criticism himself, also appears in *The Long Walk*.

Reviews are good

The movie is getting great reviews! Critics give it a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and audiences who used Fandango to buy tickets gave it an 86% rating. (Scores from other review sources aren’t included in the audience score.)

However, the CinemaScore is only a “B.”

The budget and break even number

Luckily, *The Long Walk* wasn’t too expensive to make, with a reported budget of around $20 million. That means it only needs to earn about $50 million worldwide to cover its costs, and its success overseas will be key to achieving that.

As a big movie fan, I’ve been looking at box office numbers, and it’s a little worrying for *The Long Walk*. Recent Stephen King adaptations haven’t exactly been huge hits. *Doctor Sleep* from 2019 started strong with over $14 million, but ultimately only made $72.3 million. And *The Monkey*, released earlier this year, also opened to $14 million and finished around $68.8 million. That means *The Long Walk* doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room to succeed – it really needs to grab audiences quickly.

According to my records, King’s previous lowest opening weekend was for *Pet Sematary 2* in 1992, which earned $11.1 million after adjusting for inflation.

What is The Long Walk about?

In The Long Walk, one hundred teenage boys are compelled to participate in a deadly competition: they must keep walking at a pace of at least three miles per hour. If they slow down, they receive a warning, and three warnings result in immediate execution. The contest continues until only one boy is left standing.

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2025-09-14 18:31