While Paramount must have had hopes for The Running Man to be a big blockbuster, the movie failed to perform in its opening weekend. The Glen Powell-led action thriller had a disappointing global debut of $28 million against a reported $110 million budget, meaning it will likely go down as one of this year’s flops. Amidst these figures, the original The Running Man screenwriter shared one aspect of the release he thinks might have contributed to this result.
Steven E. de Souza, who wrote the script for the 1987 adaptation starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (which wasn’t exactly a money-maker either), shared his thoughts to The Hollywood Reporter about its box office performance. Here’s one thing he noted in the interview:
What people are saying is there was very little in the marketing here that would appeal to women. There definitely is some validity to that. Science-fiction always skews male.
The box office winner of this past weekend was Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, which opened to $75.5 million worldwide. Per Variety, one thing that particularly edged the sequel over The Running Man is the fact that over 50% of ticket holders were women, whereas the Stephen King remake was led by 63% men.
So The Running Man didn’t end up appealing to women as much as men. However, there’s definitely other factors to consider that led to The Running Man tumbling commercially. For one, it’s rated R, which lowered the margin of younger audiences able to attend screenings. Another is its mixed reception from critics – including through CinemaBlend’s The Running Man review, which gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars. Our own Eric Eisenberg cited feelings of being “disappointed” especially for what it changes from the source material’s ending.
Steven E. de Souza commented on the new Running Man finale, which he felt was “working” on paper when he had read the new script done by Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright. Given the response, he said “something went wrong between the page and the stage again,” and suggests that “maybe the third version in 2045 will stick the landing.” He also said this:
I was totally rooting for it because I figured the more people see this movie, [then they] will want to go out and rent the old one, just for comparison’s sakes. So, win-win.
For comparison’s sake, the first film adaptation of The Running Man ended up making $38 million total ($109 million today) against a $27 million budget, making it the 30th highest grossing movie of the year. It’s looking like the original might end up being the more profitable of the two, but we’ll have to see how it does.
Can it make back some of its money as more 2025 movie releases like Wicked: For Good comes to theaters this weekend? We’ll have to wait and see, but Box Office Pro is reporting The Running Man will move down from No. 2 to No. 3, meaning the movie will very likely keep its “flop” title.