One of the Best-Reviewed Stephen King Movies of All Time Beats ‘Weapons’ on Digital

Having received a relatively lengthy theatrical run, director Francis Lawrence‘s Stephen King adaptation, The Long Walk, debuted on PVOD platforms to instant success this week. The movie emerged as the number one title on the domestic iTunes charts, displacing this year’s horror breakout, Weapons. The Long Walk had a decent box office run, grossing just under $50 million against a reported budget of $20 million. It received excellent reviews and appears to have arrived on home video at the exact right moment, just in time for spooky season.

According to FlixPatrol, The Long Walk was the number one movie on the domestic iTunes charts on October 22 and October 23. Director Zach Cregger‘s Weapons, which shattered box office expectations earlier this year and grossed nearly $270 million worldwide, was pushed to the number three spot. Considering the time of the year, other horror movies such as the original Saw, The Conjuring: Last Rites, and The Black Phone, also found spots on the domestic iTunes charts. The year 2025 has been rather remarkable for the horror genre, after an extended period of bleakness that lasted several months. Besides Weapons and The Conjuring 4, audiences also turned out in large numbers for Ryan Coogler‘s Sinners and Final Destination Bloodlines.

More recently, director Scott Derrickson delivered a solid hit with Black Phone 2, which performed the additional duty of bringing Blumhouse back from the brink. The movie received positive reviews, as did The Long Walk. Set in a dystopian world where young men must walk for their lives in a contest for fame and fortune, The Long Walk seems to have settled at a “certified fresh” 88% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. There, the critics’ consensus reads, “Cooper Hoffman and David Johnsson’s soulful performances bring a lot of heart to Stephen King’s dystopian tale, making The Long Walk a life-or-death ordeal for its characters but a riveting ride for audiences.”

Two Major Stephen King Projects Are Around the Corner

Over the course of its run, the movie overtook King classics such as The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, and Carrie at the box office. The author’s fans have had a packed year so far, with titles as diverse as the drama The Life of Chuck and the horror-comedy The Monkey. Next up, Edgar Wright is all set to release The Running Man, starring Glen Powell. Meanwhile, audiences have HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry to look forward to this weekend.

You can watch The Long Walk at home, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.