There have been several Stephen King adaptation released over the decades, some of which turn out better than others. By all accounts, the latest King film, The Long Walk, is one of the good ones. The dystopian thriller earned positive reviews ahead of its debut last weekend, with many critics praising the performances and intense tone. For a minute, The Long Walk even had the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of any King movie before it settled with a Certified Fresh mark of 89%. It’s not just film critics who are impressed with the title; it’s also left an impression on general audiences.
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On Rotten Tomatoes, The Long Walk‘s audience score stands at 85%, making it the second consecutive King movie of the year to do well with viewers. The Life of Chuck, which premiered at film festivals last fall before opening in theaters this summer, has an audience score of 88%. Both of these are a considerable improvement over 2025’s first King adaptation, The Monkey, which divided viewers with a 55% audience score.
Stephen King’s Rotten Tomatoes Trend Could Continue This Fall
In what’s already been a prolific year for King adaptations, there’s one more on the way. Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man is set to premiere in November. Based on Wright’s track record, there’s good reason to believe it will have a high audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Over the course of his career, Wright has routinely delivered quality work that’s resonated with critics and moviegoers. The only feature film of his to have a rotten audience score is his little-seen debut A Fistful of Fingers (54%). After that, the next lowest is 2013’s The World’s End, which has an audience score of 72%. All of Wright’s other features posted marks in the 80s or 90s.
Paramount seems very confident in The Running Man, positioning it to take advantage of all IMAX screens that will be available during its release window. Though Wright’s adaptation is aiming to stick closer to the original source material (with a more serious and grounded tone), the marketing materials have an entertaining, crowd-pleasing edge to them, leaning on Wright’s penchant for blending action and comedy to sell The Running Man to general audiences. If the film is as strong as it looks, it should do well on Rotten Tomatoes.
While The Long Walk helped establish a positive Stephen King trend, the word of mouth didn’t really help it at the box office. During its opening weekend, The Long Walk finished in fourth place with $11.5 million domestically. This year has seen several well-received films exceed expectations and become bigger hits than expected, but The Long Walk couldn’t follow suit since it was overshadowed by record-breaking titles like The Conjuring: Last Rites and Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle. The Long Walk still has a good chance of ultimately turning a profit due to its $20 million production budget.
The positive reception didn’t translate into strong box office receipts, but the Rotten Tomatoes scores could help The Long Walk become a hit on streaming. When people are looking for something to watch in a few month’s time, high marks from critics and audiences will likely make The Long Walk stand out. We’ve seen movies with mixed reviews become top titles on streaming, so a Stephen King adaptation well-liked across the board shouldn’t have a hard time finding an audience at home.
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Image courtesy of Focus Features.
