A gleefully bloody and gruesome new film has already become the highest grossing horror movie of 2025, by quite some margin.
Stephen King adaptation The Monkey, starring Theo James, has had a very successful run in cinemas so far, raking in $45,771,792 after just over two weeks on release.
Directed by Longlegs filmmaker Osgood Perkins, the film has managed a haul of over $31million domestically in the US, combined with over $14million elsewhere, adding up to the biggest box office for a horror picture so far this year.
It’s ahead of both off-beat ‘rom-com’ horror Companion and Wolf Man, the latest in Universal’s retelling of its classic monster movies, both of which earned over $34m according to Box Office Mojo.
The Monkey is also the seventh highest grossing film overall of the year, behind the likes of Captain America: Brave New World, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy and Oscar-winner Bong Joon Ho’s latest film Mickey 17.
After grabbing a lot of attention before release when its trailer was banned by major US TV networks for ‘excessive violence’, the word-of-mouth hype has translated well into bums on seats – and a solid 79% rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
It follows twin brothers, Hal and Bill (both played by James), who find a mysterious wind-up monkey in the attic before a series of outrageous deaths tears their family apart.
Years later the monkey begins a new killing spree, forcing the estranged siblings to confront the cursed toy.
Described as ‘a campy, blood-spattered death fest sure to entertain fans with its liberal body matter, carnage and swearing’ in my four-star review for Metro, The Monkey still has some way to go before it matches the remarkable box office of Perkins’ Longlegs.
That horror movie, starring Nicolas Cage as a creepy serial killer pursued by an FBI agent, managed a shade under $127m on a budget of under $10m – around the same as that of The Monkey.
Tatiana Maslany, who also starred in The Monkey alongside Elijah Wood, Colin O’Brien and Sarah Levy – and has another horror movie under her belt with Perkins already – said of her decision to work with the horror auteur: ‘I was so obsessed with working with him and loved the experience so much – I was reminded of why making movies can be so fun, even if you have a budget of $0, so I just wanted to work with him, no matter what.’
She continued to Metro: ‘But then when I read the script, it was tonally so very different from what we’d done [on Keeper] and what Longlegs was, so I was really excited by that big swing.’
The Monkey is in cinemas now.
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
