The horror-thriller movie Longlegs, released by Neon, is exceeding expectations and becoming a summer hit. This past weekend, the film remained in the top five at the domestic box office and is nearing a significant global milestone.
Directed by Osgood Perkins and starring Maika Monroe alongside Nicolas Cage, Longlegs opened to strong reviews despite a lukewarm audience response. In its second weekend, the movie earned roughly $12 million domestically, a solid decrease of 48% from its record-breaking opening of $22 million.
This brings Longlegs’ total domestic gross to nearly $45 million. Including the $2.6 million earned overseas, the film’s global total sits at an impressive $47.3 million after only 10 days.
The reported budget for the production of “Longlegs” was less than $10 million
While Longlegs will surely be remembered as a breakout movie for Neon, the film feels similar to something released by its competitor, A24. With A24 focusing on bigger budgets this year, there’s a gap in the market for director-driven genre films.
Already, Longlegs is Neon’s second-highest domestic grosser, surpassing 2017’s I, Tonya, and trailing only Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, which made $53 million domestically five years ago.
Longlegs has also outperformed recent Neon releases like Ferrari ($40 million globally), Triangle of Sadness ($32 million globally), and Immaculate ($24 million globally).
Longlegs, along with Paramount’s A Quiet Place: Day One, has helped revive interest in the horror genre after a string of recent studio misses.
The movie has already surpassed the domestic totals of recent horror titles like MaXXXine ($11 million), Tarot ($18 million), The First Omen ($20 million), Abigail ($25 million), and Imaginary ($28 million), Night Swim ($32 million), and The Strangers: Chapter 1 ($35 million).
Critics have compared Longlegs to Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs and Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure. The film received excellent reviews, praising Perkins’ ability to create a suspenseful atmosphere and Cage’s performance as the serial killer.
Longlegs holds an impressive “fresh” rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and was reportedly produced on a budget of less than $10 million. This is a fantastic result for Neon, which will continue its partnership with Perkins on two more films. You can catch Longlegs in theaters now.
