The year 2025 was packed with new movies and shows for fans of author Stephen King. It began with The Monkey, an adaptation of one of his short stories. Directed by Osgood Perkins, the movie grossed nearly $70 million against a reported budget of $10 million. Later in the year, director Francis Lawrence took a break from the big-budget Hunger Games franchise and released The Long Walk. It was based on the first book King ever wrote, published under his Richard Bachman pseudonym. The movie received tremendous reviews and grossed nearly $65 million worldwide against a reported budget of $20 million. The year’s final King adaptation concluded its box-office run in the same range as The Long Walk and The Monkey. However, it cost a reported $110 million to produce and emerged as a massive disappointment. That said, the movie is staging a much-needed comeback on home video.
The movie was based on a 1982 novel that King also wrote under the Bachman pseudonym. The novel had previously been adapted into a 1987 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; the movie emerged as a rare box-office misfire for the star, who was unbeatable in that decade. The new film was directed by Edgar Wright and headlined by Glen Powell, one of his generation’s brightest prospects. Powell appeared in the blockbusters Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone But You, after which he landed the lead role in the King adaptation. The movie also featured Michael Cera, Colman Domingo, Josh Brolin, Lee Pace, William H. Macy, and Emilia Jones.
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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
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🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
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01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
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02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
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03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
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04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
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05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
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06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
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07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
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08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
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Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
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The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
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You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
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You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
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You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
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Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
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You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
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Here’s the Stephen King Box-Office Bomb That’s Staging a Successful Streaming Comeback
We’re talking, of course, about The Running Man. Released in November, the movie grossed $69 million in its theatrical run, making it the second box-office disappointment in a row for Wright. The filmmaker was coming off the psychological horror film Last Night in Soho. The Running Man received mixed-to-positive reviews and is now sitting at a 61% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The site’s consensus reads, “Spiritedly sprinting through grim source material, Edgar Wright’s The Running Man doesn’t live up to the director’s high bar for inventive action extravaganzas but maintains a slick stride.” According to FlixPatrol, the movie recently debuted in Prime Video’s Top 10 list domestically, building on the positive momentum from its Paramount+ run, where it is currently the #1 most-watched movie on the streamer worldwide. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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