Stephen King’s Best-Reviewed Movie In Years Is A Box Office Bomb

Despite being among the greatest adaptations of the legendary writer’s works, The Life of Chuck’s movie has been a failure at the box office. With dozens of Stephen King movies made over the years, spanning all kinds of genres, there have been many that have hit, and many that have missed.

There are even still two King movies coming later this year. An adaptation of The Long Walk releases in September, which is based on the author’s 1979 novel, published under the pen name Richard Bachman. A prolific author, King created this alternative persona to put out more books due to limitations from his publishers of releasing only one each year.

Another Richard Bachman novel, the social commentary-stuffed The Running Man, will also see an adaptation released in 2025. It remains to be seen if these new films will connect at the box office, but the recent failure of one of the most critically acclaimed Stephen King movies ever does set an unfortunate precedent in cinemas for this year.

The Life Of Chuck’s Poor Box Office Performance Explained

Many Factors Contributed To The Failure Of The Latest Stephen King Adaptation

Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck began its theatrical run on June 6, when, according to Box Office Mojo, the movie opened in only 16 theaters. This expanded a week later, and The Life of Chuck saw a two-week run on a total of 1,072 screens.

This was the widest that the film was made available. While anything over 600 screens counts as a wide release, most contemporary blockbusters are shown on 2,000 to 4,000 screens. This smaller release could have hampered the film’s success, although the per-theater averages on limited screens, dropping from $1,047 on its first wide Friday to $548 on Saturday, were also disappointing.

While no production budget was shared, the total gross has been shockingly low. The Life of Chuck has earned just over $10 million worldwide as it nears the end of its theatrical run, with only $6.5 million in total coming from domestic sales.

There has certainly been competition for The Life of Chuck at a busy multiplex, but what has also contributed to its problems was the ambiguity about what the new movie actually is. The Life of Chuck’s marketing didn’t do an effective job of communicating what audience the movie was for, and this seems to have led to confusion among moviegoers.

Audiences largely associate Stephen King with horror, but there are marked exceptions, like the still-resonating The Shawshank Redemption. Notably, that film, considered one of the greatest of all time, was also a box office bomb. Some of the connections there might help to further understand why The Life of Chuck has struggled so much at the cinema.

Why The Life Of Chuck’s Great Reviews Didn’t Help It At The Box Office

The Film’s Release Was Confusing

The People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival is almost always a harbinger of awards success. Generally, following the word of mouth earned at the festival in September, the winning picture will move forward with a qualifying release in the successive months that slowly expands.

The Life of Chuck won this esteemed award at TIFF in 2024, but its release did not follow the conventional patterns. Instead of riding the hype coming out of the festival, The Life of Chuck was held for the better part of a year. This, unfortunately, allowed the conversation around the film to die down.

Awards movies don’t generally release in the summer, but NEON apparently hoped that The Life of Chuck had blockbuster potential. This decision was a risk and only added to the confusion that general audiences had concerning the film.

The Life of Chuck is certainly well-liked, earning 81% from critics and 88% among audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the movie is life-affirming, slower, and more of an arthouse picture than a huge tentpole. Releasing between Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and Jurassic World Rebirth, it felt out of place in an already cluttered summer season.

Weirder movies can perform well in other release corridors. The box office success of Everything, Everywhere, All at Once in 2022 seemed like a strong inspiration for The Life of Chuck’s release. With unusual form and incredible emotion, there are many connections between the two films.

Unfortunately, the theatrical landscape has still been finding its footing in recent years. Everything, Everywhere was released in what wound up being a less competitive window and was able to distinguish itself despite other big films like Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Other movies that season included Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore and Morbius, which were significant disappointments.

Now, costs are even higher, and competition is even greater. In order for audiences to select The Life of Chuck over Lilo & Stitch or How to Train Your Dragon, the film would have needed to present itself as a must-see event.

The Life of Chuck will surely garner significant viewership on streaming. It is a high-quality movie that was simply released at the wrong time. This box office run was a big disappointment, and this release may also affect the movie’s presence at the Academy Awards next year, as it is more likely to be forgotten by voters by January.

Source: Box Office Mojo