Neon’s horror movie “Longlegs,” directed by Osgood Perkins, has crossed the $100 million mark at the global box office to become the highest-grossing independent film release of the year.
With a gross of $72 million in the U.S. and Canada and a total $100 million at the global box office, it’s also the top-grossing R-rated horror film of 2024. It’s been a good summer for R-rated fare as “Deadpool & Wolverine” became the highest-grossing R-rated film in history Friday with $1.086 billion.
“Longlegs,” starring Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage, also represents Neon’s highest-grossing film of all time after best picture winner “Parasite,” which earned $53 million. In just three weeks, “Longlegs” became the highest-grossing indie horror film of the past 10 years, surpassing “Talk to Me” and “Insidious Chapter 3.”
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Perkins’ next project is Stephen King adaptation “The Monkey,” also with Neon, C2 and Black Bear. Theo James will star in the February release, with Brian Kavanaugh-Jones from Range and Chris Ferguson of Oddfellows producing alongside James Wan and Dave Caplan for C2.
Neon will also release Perkins’ “Keeper,” starring Tatiana Maslany and Rossif Sutherland, and the company will reteam with Monroe on the “It Follows” sequel titled “They Follow.”
Neon’s most recent release is “Cuckoo” from Tilman Singer, starring Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens, which grossed over $3 million since opening Aug. 9.
Black Bear Represented the “Longlegs” international rights, which accounted for $31 million of the worldwide gross. Black Bear distributed directly in the U.K. and Ireland, the top-grossing international territory for the film with $10 million. Territories including Latin America and Italy are still to come. In Canada, Black Bear’s sister company Elevation Pictures served as distributor, accounting for just over $7 million of the North American gross.
“Longlegs” was produced by Caplan of C2, Dan Kagan of Traffic, Kavanaugh-Jones from Range, Cage under his production company Saturn Films, and Ferguson of Oddfellows. C2 also fully financed the film.
