Paramount was hoping The Running Man would be a major hit, but the movie didn’t do well when it first came out. The action thriller, starring Glen Powell, only made $28 million worldwide despite costing $110 million to produce, meaning it’s likely to be considered a box office failure. The writer of the original The Running Man recently shared a thought on why the new release might have struggled.
Steven E. de Souza, the screenwriter for the 1987 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, recently discussed its disappointing box office results with The Hollywood Reporter. He shared one key observation during the interview:
Many people have pointed out that the marketing didn’t seem to target women very well, and that’s probably true. Science fiction generally attracts a mostly male audience.
This weekend, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t topped the box office, earning $75.5 million globally. According to Variety, a key factor in its success compared to The Running Man was its audience – over half of those who bought tickets to see it were women. The Running Man, on the other hand, drew a majority male audience, with 63% of ticket buyers being men.
While The Running Man didn’t attract as many female viewers as male viewers, several factors contributed to its disappointing box office performance. Its R rating limited attendance from younger audiences, and critics offered mixed reviews – including a 3.5 out of 5 star review from TopMob. Our reviewer, Eric Eisenberg, specifically expressed disappointment with how the film deviated from the original story’s ending.
Steven E. de Souza shared his thoughts on the recent Running Man finale. He explained that the script, written by Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright, seemed promising when he first read it. However, he felt something didn’t translate well from the script to the final product, saying the show ‘lost something’ in the process. He jokingly suggested that perhaps a future iteration in 2045 will be more successful.
I was really hoping this movie would do well. I thought if more people saw it, they’d be curious and want to check out the original too, just to see how they compare. It felt like everyone could benefit – the new movie would succeed, and the older one would get a second look, which I thought was great.
The first movie version of The Running Man earned $38 million at the box office (which is about $109 million today), costing $27 million to make. It was the 30th highest-grossing film that year. It’s possible the original film will ultimately be more financially successful than the remake, but we’ll need to wait and see how the new version performs.
With more 2025 films, like Wicked: For Good, hitting theaters this weekend, will the movie be able to recoup its costs? Box Office Pro suggests The Running Man will drop from second to third place, likely solidifying its status as a box office failure. We’ll need to see how things play out.
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2025-11-20 04:10