The Running Man is crashing at the box office with early estimates offering a brutal $16–$19 million opening weekend.
That’s far below the early projections that placed it north of $20 million — and nowhere near enough for a movie that cost $110 million to make. The film needs roughly $275 million worldwide just to break even, and it’s not on track to reach that goal.
Audiences Aren’t Showing Up
The flick happens to feature a goofy Glen Powell towel scene – an obvious attempt to pull in female audiences – but it didn’t work. The audience breakdown shows only 36% female, meaning the demographic the studio hoped to target didn’t show up at all.
Where did they go instead? They’re watching Now You See Me 3, which opened at #1 this weekend with a strong 54% female audience.
Rotten Tomatoes Scores Aren’t Helping
Critics aren’t impressed, and the reception isn’t driving turnout:
- Rotten Tomatoes critics score: 64%
- Audience score: 81% but still lukewarm in sentiment
In our review, we gave it a 4/10, writing that “The Running Man 2025 simply isn’t fun. And the misfires pile up.”
Another Miss for Stephen King Adaptations
This continues a long pattern of Stephen King movies failing to land financially. Aside from the first IT, which made $702 million (its sequel dropped sharply to $473M), the recent adaptations haven’t pulled in the numbers studios want.
Here’s how the others performed:
- The Long Walk — $62 million
- Doctor Sleep — $72 million
- Pet Sematary — $113 million
The Running Man appears headed toward the same outcome: a costly theatrical miss with little audience momentum behind it.
It’s also another box office bomb that can’t compete with Arnold Scharzengger, as last week’s Predator: Badlands is another big bust.
