The Monkey and Captain America: Brave New World are both topping the domestic box office chart with strong standings. The Monkey is a new release horror movie adapted from the Stephen King short story of the same name by writer-director Osgood Perkins, who scored a runaway horror hit in 2024 with his serial killer thriller Longlegs. In its debut weekend, its major competition was the Captain America: Brave New World release, as the new Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, starring Anthony Mackie in the title role, debuted at No. 1 at the domestic box office with $88.8 million the previous weekend.
Per Deadline, as of Saturday morning, The Monkey is projected to debut at No. 2 at the domestic box office with a 3-day total between $13.5 and $14 million. While it does not quite compare with the $22.4 million debut of Longlegs, it is the second highest-grossing debut for distributor NEON, behind that previous Osgood Perkins title.
Meanwhile, Captain America: Brave New World is projected to maintain its position at No. 1 with a sophomore weekend total of $28.1 million. This marks a week 2 drop of 68% that somewhat avoids the massive collapses experienced by the recent Marvel flops The Marvels (-78%) and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (-70%), even though it holds a B- CinemaScore, which is the MCU’s worst. Those 2023 titles had the two worst drops in the franchise’s history and both failed to break even in theaters.
What This Means For Captain America: Brave New World And The Monkey
One Is More On Track Than The Other
Both titles are skirting the records held by their predecessors, but the first 2025 Marvel movie is in more of a dangerous position. Even though Captain America: Brave New World avoided a major collapse, its reported $180 million budget means that it likely needs to earn $450 million or more in theaters to break even. It will need to show a much stronger hold than Quantumania in order to achieve this, as that movie opened even higher with $106.1 million, dropped just 2% more in its sophomore weekend, and only grossed $476.1 million worldwide by the end of its run.
Because theaters keep half of ticket sales and production budgets do not include marketing costs, movies typically need to earn back two and a half times their price tags in order to break even.
Even though it debuted at No. 2, the Monkey release is on much stronger footing. The Osgood Perkins horror movie only comes with a reported budget of roughly $11 million, which likely places its break-even point around $27.5 million. Even if it doesn’t have as strong a hold as Longlegs, which had a powerful viral marketing campaign, the Stephen King adaptation, which stars Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, Sarah Levy, Adam Scott, and Elijah Wood, is still on track to earn a solid gross that could exceed $40 million at the domestic box office alone.
Our Take On The Weekend Box Office
Captain America Could Be Toppled Soon
At the rate that the Captain America: Brave New World box office is dropping, it’s unclear how long it will maintain its position at No. 1. While the debut of The Monkey could not defeat it, as it continues falling, it will be more likely that a similar mid-level title could do so. Its third weekend will see it competing with the survival thriller Last Breath, followed by Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17, then the action-comedy Novocaine. While none of those titles are tentpoles, if that CinemaScore begins to sink the MCU movie, any could become 2025’s newest No. 1 release.
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Source: Deadline
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The Monkey
6/10
- Release Date
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February 19, 2025
- Runtime
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98 Minutes
- Director
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Osgood Perkins
- Writers
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Osgood Perkins
- Producers
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John Rickard, Natalia Safran, Ali Jazayeri, Chris Ferguson, Fred Berger, Giuliana Bertuzzi, James Wan, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, John Friedberg, Jason Cloth, David Gendron, Michael Clear, Jesse Savath, Peter Luo, Dave Caplan
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Captain America: Brave New World
4/10
- Release Date
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February 14, 2025
- Director
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Julius Onah
- Writers
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Dalan Musson, Malcolm Spellman
