Neon‘s “Longlegs” has become the surprise hit at the summer box-office. It’s now the studio’s highest-grossing film in its history, surpassing its Best Picture winner “Parasite” ($53M). The film, directed by Oz Perkins, has grossed $60M domestically, on a budget of under $10M. Some have said it might have cost anywhere between $7-8M.
“Longlegs” has also surpassed “Insidious” and is now the highest grossing indie horror film of the last 25 years. It’s projected to end its run with a $75M domestic total, and possibly $100M worldwide. Will there be a sequel? If it does occur, I wouldn’t bet on Perkins being back for it.
Apparently, Neon didn’t spend more than $10M on their marketing since it was mostly all done online — cryptic teasers, mysterious posters, sprinkled clues. This is a great success story, especially for a film that’s not IP. We’re also looking at a major win for original filmmaking, and just a few months after A24’s “Civil War” made $122M worldwide.
It helps that Neon initially screened the film just for genre critics. This built up some great buzz on social media. For nearly a month, “Longlegs” was at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, mostly due to Neon picking and choosing who can watch and review the film. Right now, the film has a 77 on Metacritic and 85% on Rotten Tomatoes.
This is also another major win for horror which has become a genre that hasn’t had to rely on IP or franchises to have success at the box office. Horror has become a kind of refuge for successful original filmmaking with such recent non-IP hits as “The Black Phone,” “Smile,” “M3Gan,” “Talk to Me,” “Nope,” “Barbarian,” and “The Menu.”
You can read my review of “Longlegs”. There was a lot to admire in the film, and Perkins’ direction was taut, tense and confident. It could have benefited from a stronger script, less reliant on genre tropes, but as far as these types of films go, it was quite good. Next up for Perkins is February 2025’s “The Monkey,” which has been already shot and is also being produced by Neon.