The Long Walk Reviews: Critics Love It, Audiences Stay Away

Stephen King’s The Long Walk holds a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score yet is widely labeled a box office disappointment. This article examines the clash between critical praise and commercial reality, Stephen King’s unusual silence, and what the film’s mixed fate means for future adaptations.

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91% (Certified Fresh via Collider (entertainment news site)) · Opening Weekend: $11,703,621 (Box Office Mojo (box office tracking authority)) · U.S. Domestic Gross: $35,163,573 (Box Office Mojo) · Release Date: September 12, 2025 (Fandango (ticketing platform))

The six key facts about the film reveal one pattern: critical praise sits in uneasy contrast with a commercial result that left studios rethinking the King brand.

Is The Long Walk a good movie?

Critical consensus

According to Collider, the film is “one of the best-reviewed Stephen King movies ever.” The 91% Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes (review aggregator) backs that up. IMDb describes it as an “emotionally devastating” dystopian thriller.

Audience reviews on Reddit

• Reddit users call it “graphic and disturbing” and note “It’s not a fun movie, nor should it be.” (via Reddit community discussions)
• IMDb user reviews echo “emotionally devastating” as a common descriptor.

Comparison to other Stephen King adaptations

ScreenRant compared its preview numbers unfavorably with The Monkey, another 2025 King adaptation, saying The Long Walk’s lower previews were “disappointing given its reported $20 million budget.” ScreenRant (film news outlet) reports that the film opened to about one-fifth of what The Monkey managed in previews, a sign that critical acclaim didn’t translate to ticket sales.

Why did The Long Walk flop?

Box office performance

With a domestic opening weekend of $11.7 million and a lifetime domestic gross of $35.1 million against a $20 million budget, the film is widely considered a commercial disappointment. Box Office Mojo data shows the film failed to double its production budget domestically — a common benchmark for profitability.

IMDb News characterized The Long Walk as “Stephen King’s third box-office disappointment in 2025,” continuing an unlucky streak that began earlier in the year.

Marketing challenges

• The film’s bleak premise — a deadly walking competition where the last survivor wins — proved hard to sell in short trailers without spoiling the emotional horror.
• King adaptation fatigue may have played a role: three King movies released in 2025, and audiences have shown signs of diminishing returns.
• ScreenRant notes that preview numbers for The Long Walk lagged well behind The Monkey, suggesting the marketing campaign didn’t generate the same buzz.

How much did the actors actually walk?

No production has disclosed the exact distance filmed. In the novel, the walk spans about 100 miles, but the film rarely shows the entirety of that distance. Actors reported on-set coordination for long tracking shots, but the precise mileage remains unconfirmed.

This absence of data has fueled fan speculation, with many searching for behind-the-scenes accounts. Until a production featurette or interview surfaces, the question remains one of the film’s more tantalizing trivia gaps.

The pattern: the mystery around actor walking distance is itself a measure of the film’s intense physical storytelling — but also a gap that a quick studio B-roll could have answered.

What did Stephen King think of The Long Walk movie?

King’s public statements

As of this writing, Stephen King has not publicly commented on the 2025 adaptation. His social media accounts and interviews have remained silent on the subject, despite his usual habit of posting early reactions to adaptations of his work.

Absence of opinion and speculation

The silence is unusual. For comparison, King praised IT (2017) and The Shawshank Redemption (1994) but has occasionally criticised adaptations like The Shining (1980). Given the critical praise for The Long Walk, the lack of a public thumbs-up raises questions.

ScreenRant noted that the film debuted with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, a milestone that typically prompts a boast from King. That he hasn’t done so may be a quiet signal of disappointment — or simply a strategic delay.

Is The Long Walk a LGBTQ movie?

Themes of queerness

Some audiences have interpreted The Long Walk’s subtext through a queer lens. The story focuses on a group of young men walking together under duress, with intense physical proximity and emotional vulnerability that can be read as a metaphor for closeted existence.

Subtext in the story

King’s original 1979 novel contains no explicit romantic or sexual relationships between the walkers, but the homosocial environment and the characters’ forced intimacy create spaces for queer readings. A Reddit thread discusses how the film’s visual language — lingering on bare skin, sweat, and shared suffering — amplifies that reading.

Audience interpretation

None of the major reviews from Collider, ScreenRant, or IMDb explicitly name LGBTQ themes. However, the film’s lack of a traditional romantic subplot and its focus on male vulnerability leaves room for interpretation.

The implication: whether intentional or not, the queer reading has taken hold in online communities, giving the film a second life as a conversation starter long after its theatrical run ended.

Timeline: from King’s novella to the screen

• 1979: Stephen King publishes The Long Walk under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
• 2025 (September 12): Film adaptation opens in U.S. theaters (Box Office Mojo).
• 2025 (September 13): Collider reports 91% Rotten Tomatoes score and $5 million in previews.
• 2025 (September 26): Collider notes The Long Walk overtakes Carrie at the global box office, though still considered a flop.

What’s confirmed and what’s still a mystery

What the critics said — in their own words

“One of the best-reviewed Stephen King movies ever.”

Collider (entertainment news)

“The film debuted with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score before wider review accumulation.”

ScreenRant (film news)

“Emotionally devastating.”

IMDb (movie database synopsis)

“It’s not a fun movie, nor should it be.”

Reddit user (community review)

The gap between critical reverence and audience indifference is the real story. For studios already wary of King’s box office volatility, The Long Walk is a cautionary tale. For fans, it’s a frustrating near-miss — a great film that may never get the audience it deserves.

Related reading: **Cast of Sinners (2025 Film)** · **Cast of The Northman: Full Actor List, Characters, and Filming Facts**

For a deeper look at how critics and audiences reacted, see The Long Walk reviews from another outlet.

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