Osgood Perkins’ follow-up to Longlegs, The Monkey, is rat-a-tat-tatting its way to $1.9M in Thursday previews at the box office.
NEON‘s The Monkey is going rat-a-tat at the box office with $1.9M in Thursday previews, giving the studio its second-best opening ever. The Monkey hails from Oz Perkins, who, just last year, gave us the bone-chilling serial killer horror movie Longlegs. His new film, based on a short story by Stephen King, could beat its drum to $12M-$14M before the weekend ends. In contrast, Longlegs opened last year with $3M in previews and a $22.4M take for its opening salvo. The Monkey‘s early box office success is fantastic news for NEON and CR Motion Picture Group, which produced and financed the film.
Osgood Perkins directs The Monkey from a screenplay he wrote. Here’s a chilling synopsis: When twin brothers Hal and Bill discover their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths starts occurring all around them. The brothers decide to throw the monkey away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years. But when the mysterious deaths begin again, the brothers must reunite to find a way to destroy the monkey for good before it takes the lives of everyone close to them.
Elsewhere, Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World saluted $3.2M on Thursday, rounding out its first week in theaters with $113M. Analysts predict the Anthony Mackie-led movie will retake the top spot this weekend with an additional $30M+.
Our Editor-in-Chief, Chris Bumbray, loved The Monkey, giving the gruesome horror film an 8/10 in his review. According to Chris, The Monkey delivers on many fronts, especially gore. Many kills caught Chris by surprise, and nobody can deny Perkins’s talent behind the camera after delivering Longlegs and The Monkey.
“Perkins is aiming for a darkly comic vibe here, with him obviously wanting audiences to laugh at its excessiveness rather than scream (similar to the recent breakout smash, The Substance). It’s among the goriest films in recent memory, with absolutely nothing safe from the monkey’s wrath, including men, women, children and even babies. Yet, it’s all done in such a heightened way that it’s more amusing (in a grand guignol kind of way) than truly terrifying,” Chris wrote in his review.
Are you checking out The Monkey this weekend? If not, what are you seeing? Let us know in the comments section below.
