New $63 Million Stephen King Movie Broke A Surprising Box Office Record Thanks To Unexpected Connection

The Monkey has broken a surprising box office record. The 2025 horror movie, which is based on the 1980 Stephen King short story of the same name, was directed by Osgood Perkins, whose previous feature Longlegs grossed a whopping $136.9 million against a budget of less than $10 million. The Monkey featured a star-studded cast that includes Theo James, Christian Convery, Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Adam Scott, Sarah Levy, Rohan Campbell, and Perkins himself (who began his filmmaking career as an actor in movies such as Psycho II and Legally Blonde).

The theatrical release of The Monkeykicked off on February 21 with an opening weekend haul of $14 million that saw it debut at No. 2 behind the sophomore weekend of the Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster Captain America: Brave New World. It has since risen to a global total of $64.1 million, which makes it the highest-grossing horror movie of 2025 so far. Additionally, it is the seventh highest-grossing movie of the year in general, behind Mickey 17, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Dog Man, Snow White, Captain America, and Ne Zha 2.

Theo James with the Monkey From The Monkey

Stephen King's The Monkey Cast & Character Guide

The cast of Osgood Perkins' adaptation of Stephen King's The Monkey includes two stars playing double roles and an ensemble full of familiar faces.

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The Monkey Is Now The Highest-Grossing Stephen King Movie Featuring Annie Wilkes

Wilkes Is An Iconic Character From The Author's Oeuvre

Unusually, by grossing $64.1 million, The Monkey has now become the highest-grossing Stephen King movie featuring the character of Annie Wilkes. In the 2025 movie, Wilkes is seen as the teenage babysitter of Hal and Bill Shelburn (Convery), whose death at a hibachi restaurant traumatizes the twin brothers. However, Wilkes is best known as the antagonist of 1990's Misery, in which the character - portrayed by Kathy Bates - kidnaps her favorite author, Paul Sheldon (James Caan). That movie, which was directed by Rob Reiner, only grossed $61.3 million worldwide.

Although Annie Wilkes' onscreen fate is very different from that of the text for which she is best known, The Monkey's connection to Misery continues a long-standing tradition of Stephen King's work featuring major overlaps of both settings and characters. Perhaps most famously, the author has set many of his stories in the fictional Maine town of Castle Rock. However, there are many other recurring elements and characters that have appeared in his work over the years, including the villainous character Ace Merrill and The Shining's Overlook Hotel.

Misery Is Still A Bigger Movie For Annie Wilkes Than The Monkey

She Is Front And Center In The 1990 Movie

Although Misery has been outgrossed by The Monkey, the 1990 movie is still the one that better serves Annie Wilkes, who is one of Stephen King's favorite characters that he has written. In addition to featuring the character front and center as the main antagonist rather than a cameo whose name is more of an indirect King reference than a proper canonical inclusion, the movie's box office success (which more than tripled its roughly $20 million budget) is compounded by the fact that it won Bates an Oscar for her performance as Wilkes.