THE WEEKEND WARRIOR Early Edition Feb. 21, 2025

The Monkey, The Unbreakable Boy

This past weekend was the last holiday weekend to think about for a while, at least until Easter, which won’t be until later in April this year, so we don’t really have to think about holidays and how they affect the box office for a while. As has often been the case, a Marvel Studios movie will likely dominate a second and maybe even third weekend, just because there just aren’t many strong releases for the rest of the month.

And with that in mind, we’re back behind the paywall just for paid subscribers. I was hoping that there would be more subscribers added each week, but it just hasn’t been happening, so I might have to start thinking whether I want to keep writing two columns every week. In fact, this weekend really doesn’t seem worth charging for either, so you get another freebie!

This week, we have two new wide releases, one definitely stronger than the other, being a horror movie by the director of one of 2024’s bigger horror films with lots of other things working to its advantage. The other movie? Well, let’s just say that it’s going to have trouble making much of a mark.

THE MONKEY (Neon)

In 2024, filmmaker Osgood Perkins – and yes, before you ask, he *IS* the son of legendary actor Anthony Perkins of Psycho fame – had an enormous hit with Longlegs, starring Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage. It opened last July with $22.4 million, taking second place to Despicable Me 4, and ended up making $74 million just domestically, making it Neon’s biggest box office hit to date by exceeding the take of the Best Picture-winning Parasite.

Less than a year later and Perkins is back with a movie based on a Stephen King short story from the horror master’s 1985 anthology book. Besides having Neon on board to distribute, the filmmaker also has another horror master in Mr. James Wan on board as a producer. That’s already a huge bonus for horror fans, who have likely been waiting for this one even as other horror movies have come (and some gone) this year. The simple high-concept premise involves a wind-up “toy” monkey who causes people to die around it whenever it plays its drum.

The Monkey stars British actor Theo James, probably best known from the literally never-ending (cause it never ended) “Divergent” series, but he also starred in an earlier “The White Lotus” season on HBO, as well as Guy Ritchie’s Netflix series based on “The Gentlemen,” and the “Time Traveller’s Wife” spin-off show. (Thanks “Decarceration”! With so little movie work, it’s hard to tell whether James might be a big draw for the film, but in theory, he might bring in more women just by his presence. Other bigger names include Tatiana Maslany (“Orphan Black,” “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law”) and another horror staple in Mr. Elijah Wood (who has a tiny part) and Sarah Levy from “Schitt’s Creek.”

Neon’s marketing team has delivered a great trailer that emphasizes the film’s gory kills, leading to positive comparisons to the popular “Final Destination” horror franchise. I already reviewed The Monkey, and the reviews generally have been great, something Neon must have predicted having let them run so early, while other horror movies were getting attention. Even though Companion and Heart Eyes both received similarly great reviews, neither of them were able to open with more than $10 million, and Heart Eyes only got a 2nd week bump due to its Valentine’s Day themes.

Although Neon hasn’t shared a theater count for The Monkey yet, I’m going to assume it’s somewhere in the 2,500 range ala Longlegs, though they might get it into more theaters just on the basis of being based on Stephen King, still considered one of the greatest horror writers of all time. (Don’t @ me!!)

In fact, there’s really no reason why The Monkey can’t open with $20 million or higher this weekend, even against another strong horror offering in Sony’s Heart Eyes, but it will still only be able to open in second place, just like Longlegs.

THE UNBREAKABLE BOY (Lionsgate)

It’s hard to consider this new movie from Lionsgate and the Kingdom Story Company to be counter-programming, but it is, just by the basis of those involved, including director Jon Gunn, who directed last year’s Ordinary Angels, starring Hilary Swank, and more obvious faith-based fare including The Case for Christ and Do You Believe? He’s also one of the directors on the new Prime Video biblical series “House of David,” which hits the streamer later this month.

The Unbreakable Boy of the title is an autistic teenager with brittle bone disease named Austin, played mostly by Jacob Laval (who I presume is autistic in real life), but the name star and draw is likely to be Zachary Levi aka the DC hero Shazam! from two movies but generally a popular actor among genre fans. Levi’s only movie was the much-delayed Harold and the Purple Crayon, a family film from Sony that bombed badly, making just $26.5 million globally. He plays Scott, Austin’s father, and this is based on the book written by Scott LeRette and Susan Flory, so it indeed another true story ala Ordinary Angels. Meghan Fahy from “The White Lotus” plays Scott’s wife, Teresa, who has to help him deal with the troubles that come along with their excitable and enthiastic son.

The movie looks cute, although it’s coming out less than a year after the Bleecker Street dramedy, Ezra, was released with a much bigger and better-known cast, though that bombed very badly. Oddly, that was also released into just 1,300 theaters, which is a similar plan as the release tactic Lionsgate is taking. Last October, Lionsgate released the much-delayed White Bird, starring Helen Mirren, into just 1,018 theaters, and that only did slightly better than Ezra. The Unbreakable Boy does have the added bonus of the faith community, and the trailer does make the movie look quite crowdpleasing. (You’ll have to wait until Thursday for most reviews, including my own.)

At the time of this writing, I haven’t watched the movie, though I’ll have a review after the embargo breaks. I’m not expecting very much, nor will film critics feel the need to be kind, since having a movie about an autistic kid gets into areas that tends to make people uncomfortable. As someone who has many close neurodivergent friends on the spectrum, it’s a disappointing fact of life that it’s hard to imagine many Americans (let alone critics) will give the movie much of a chance.

Because of that, I feel like The Unbreakable Boy will be lucky to pull in $3 million this weekend, which is likely to keep it outside the top 5, depending how well Heart Eyes and Ne Zha 2 hold up, although the former goes up against stronger horror fare opening this weekend.

Also opening this weekend in an unknown number of theaters is Martin Campbell’s action-thriller, Cleaner, starring Daisy Ridley as a window cleaner on a skyscraper forced into action when a corporation is invaded by eco-terrorists. It’s a bit like Die Hard in a skyscraper… oh, wait. Hmm…

Other movies getting some form of theatrical release include Edward Burns’ Millers in Marriage, the Christopher Waltz action-thriller Old Guy, and the long-delayed The Comeback Trail, but we’ll have to see if any of them get a significant enough release to matter much. Check back on Thursday for more on all of them.

THE BOX OFFICE CHART

1. Captain America: Brave New World (Marvel/Disney) - $38 million -57%
2. The Monkey (Neon) - $21.5 million N/A
3. Paddington in Peru (Sony) - $6.9 million -47%
4. Dog Man (DreamWorks Animation/Universal) - $5.3 million -46%
5. Heart Eyes (Sony/Screen Gems) - $4.8 million -52%
6. Ne Zha 2 (CMC Pictures) - $3.5 million -55%
7. Mufasa: The Lion King (Disney) - $3.0 million -29%
8. The Unbreakable Boy (Lionsgate) - $2.9 million N/A
9. Love Hurts (Universal) - $2 million -55%
10. One of Them Days (Sony) - $1.9 million -35%

Remember to check back on Weds or Thurs for whatever reviews I can get to, but also remember that you can just subscribe (either free or paid), and it all comes to your inbox.