In a year marked by box office uncertainty and shifting studio priorities, Paramount’s $110 million reboot of The Running Man has found itself at the center of Hollywood’s ongoing struggle to revive classic properties for modern audiences. Released on November 14, 2025, and starring Glen Powell—whose recent hits include Top Gun: Maverick, Anyone But You, and Twisters—the film opened to a muted reception, earning $17 million in the U.S. and $28.2 million worldwide in its debut weekend, according to Deadline.
Those numbers might raise a few eyebrows, especially given the star power involved and the directorial vision of Edgar Wright, best known for genre-bending hits like Shaun of the Dead and Baby Driver. Yet, as the dust settles, it’s clear that the film’s underwhelming box office is less a reflection on its leading man and more a testament to the tumultuous landscape it entered.
The timing of The Running Man’s release proved especially challenging. Lionsgate’s Now You See Me: Now You Don’t—a surprise No. 1—captured audiences with a $21.3 million domestic opening and a robust $75.5 million worldwide haul the same weekend. In comparison, The Running Man struggled to find its footing, despite a high-concept hook adapted from Stephen King’s novel (written under the Richard Bachman pseudonym) and the sleek direction of Wright.
Behind the scenes, the film’s journey was anything but smooth. According to Deadline, the project was greenlit under the previous leadership of Brian Robbins at Paramount. But as the studio transitioned to new management under David Ellison, priorities shifted. The marketing department, too, was in flux: the exit of Global Distribution and Marketing Boss Marc Weinstock left a leadership vacuum, with new chief Josh Goldstine not arriving until October 15—just a month before release. During this period of limbo, staffers reportedly lacked clear direction, and crucial marketing decisions were delayed.
Goldstine, with a reputation for last-minute marketing wizardry honed at Warner Bros., did manage to push out a fresh round of trailers targeting diverse demographics. Still, the effects of earlier indecision lingered. Marketing budgets were trimmed—a common fate for major studio releases when early audience diagnostics fail to inspire confidence. As a result, the campaign never quite regained its momentum.
Advance ticket sales initially looked promising, buoyed by test screenings that scored in the high 80% range. The studio even shifted the release date multiple times, eventually settling on the so-called ‘James Bond date’ of November 14—a prime spot ahead of Thanksgiving, with the hope of maximizing IMAX attendance. Indeed, the film grossed $2.9 million in IMAX in the U.S. and $4.2 million globally during its opening weekend, but the numbers fell short of expectations for a would-be franchise starter.
Critical reception, while not disastrous, was hardly a knockout. The Running Man earned a 64% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a B+ CinemaScore—outpacing Now You See Me 3 on reviews but matching it in audience grades. Yet, as Deadline noted, the magician caper drew a broader, more female-skewing audience, while The Running Man’s R rating and gritty sci-fi themes attracted mostly older males over 25, who comprised nearly half the audience. In contrast, Powell’s previous blockbusters—like Twisters and Top Gun: Maverick—benefited from PG-13 ratings and broader appeal.
For Glen Powell, the film was more than just another action vehicle. Speaking to HeyUGuys.com, he reflected, “When you take on a story that is this epic and also, this timely, there’s a lot to pull from. Ben Richards fighting for his family, which I can understand. I’m very close to my family, I’d do anything for them.” Powell also highlighted the film’s relevance, noting, “I also think just the commentary of reality TV, sort of the TikTok-ification of our world and how we engage with the news and fact and fiction and all of those things, there’s just a lot to play with.” He added, “Very few action movies leave you thinking and I think this one really does.”
Director Edgar Wright, for his part, brought a personal passion to the adaptation. Having read King’s novel as a teenager, Wright told HeyUGuys.com, “When I read it as a teenager, and this is before I’d seen the other adaptation, I just sort of visualized it in my head and the things that I visualized in my head never really went away and they are exactly the same images that are in the movie.” The scale of the production was immense: “It was definitely ambitious. Probably the most ambitious side of it, apart from the action, would be just the number of locations because we wanted it to feel like Ben Richards was on an epic journey and as such it was like 165 locations. If the film is exhilarating that means it was kind of exhausting to make.”
The story itself, set in a dystopian future America, follows Powell’s Ben Richards as he competes on a deadly game show to earn money for his family, including a sick daughter. The film’s themes—media manipulation, the blurring of fact and fiction, and the human cost of spectacle—feel especially timely in an era dominated by reality TV and viral content. Powell praised Wright’s vision, saying, “Edgar Wright’s been one of my favorite directors for as long as I can remember and I don’t think you’ve gotten to see Edgar truly unleash that action weapon fully in a movie.”
Despite the disappointing box office numbers, insiders urge caution before writing off Powell as a leading man. As one source close to the production told Deadline, “Running Man shouldn’t be seen as a referendum that Glen Powell can’t open a movie.” The actor’s reputation for hands-on promotion and genuine investment in his projects remains strong, and his appeal to Middle America was evident in the film’s even geographic performance—a rarity for sci-fi releases, which typically skew toward coastal cities.
Yet, The Running Man’s fate also reflects a broader trend: the difficulty of reviving 1980s sci-fi properties for today’s audiences. Recent attempts like Tron: Ares and Blade Runner 2049 have similarly struggled to connect, despite hefty budgets and creative pedigrees. Even the original 1987 Running Man, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, was only a modest hit, grossing $38 million domestically (unadjusted for inflation) after the runaway success of Predator that same year.
In the end, the question lingers: why remake a film that was never a blockbuster to begin with? As another source close to the production observed, “Only older males showed up this weekend,” underscoring the title’s limited appeal. For now, the lesson seems clear—star power and nostalgia alone aren’t enough to guarantee a hit, especially in a marketplace still finding its footing after years of disruption.
Even so, The Running Man stands as a testament to creative ambition and the enduring allure of stories that challenge audiences to think, not just react. And for Glen Powell and Edgar Wright, the journey is far from over.
