You can’t win ‘em all. NEON and director Oz Perkins had been on a hot streak over the last year and change beginning with 2024’s unexpected smash hit Longlegs. That dovetailed into 2025 as well, with Perkins’ Stephen King adaptation The Monkey hitting it big earlier this year as well. The streak has officially come to an end though as the filmmaker’s latest effort, Keeper, failed to match the high highs of his previous two outings.
See also: Osgood Perkins Gave Us An Exclusive Preview Of KEEPER
Keeper opened to an estimated $2.5 million domestically. Playing on nearly 2,000 screens across North America, that was good enough for seventh place on the charts behind the Sony Pictures Classics WWII drama Nuremberg ($2.6 million) on its second weekend. Meanwhile, Edgar Wright’s The Running Man also opened with $17 million in second place behind Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, which took the crown with $21.3 million. Horror fans also favored Predator: Badlands which pulled in another $13 million in third place, dropping nearly 68% from its record-breaking $40 million debut.
The larger point is that it was a crowded weekend, one that didn’t leave a lot of room for Perkins’ latest to find its audience. It’s only going to get harder as blockbusters like Wicked: For Good and Zootopia 2 are just around the corner. Critics have been mixed on Keeper overall, which didn’t help any when it came to building positive buzz.
In the film, a free-spirited artist is plagued by terrifying visions after she travels to a secluded cabin with a doctor who she's been dating for a year. Tatiana Maslany (The Monkey, Orphan Black) and Rossif Sutherland (Murder in a Small Town, Three Pines) star.
Longlegs debuted with a lot of buzz after a very creative marketing campaign, opening to $22.4 million, ultimately finishing with a stellar $128 million worldwide. All on a $10 million budget we might add. The Monkey was similarly cheap at $11 million, opening to $14 million en route to $69 million worldwide. Again, buzz was on that movie’s side. The very good news is that Keeper was very cheap, carrying a budget of just $6 million. NEON will be fine. Perkins will be fine.
To that end, Perkins has already teamed up with NEON for his next movie. While details remain elusive, we know that it is called The Young People and that Nicole Kidman has signed on to star in it. This relationship is still fruitful. At worst, this is a tiny bump on an otherwise good road that resulted from a calculated low-risk proposition.
Keeper is in theaters now. For more, get the lowdown on NEON’s Hokum starring Adam Scott.
