Sequel to One of the Greatest WWII Movies of the Decade Is Battling Russell Crowe’s ‘Nuremberg’ at the Box Office

Russell Crowe as Hermann Göring talking in front of bars in Nuremberg — Russell Crowe as Hermann Göring in Nuremberg

After two solid weeks at the domestic box office, Nuremberg lost around 800 locations in its third weekend. It’s now facing direct heat from this week’s new release, the fellow post-WWII movie Sisu: Road to Revenge. Although both films are presumably aimed at different audiences, the difference in their opening weekend hauls at the box office isn’t as large as you might expect, even though one of them stars two Oscar-winners, and the other is a sequel to a Finnish-language word-of-mouth hit. Sisu 2 opened with $2.6 million domestically this weekend, taking the sixth spot on the domestic charts. The leader board was topped by the blockbuster Wicked: For Good, which exceeded expectations with a $150 million haul. Interestingly, Nuremberg remained in the top 10, grossing over $1 million in its third weekend, after opening with $3.6 million not that long ago.

The drama film, starring Russell Crowe as the Nazi war criminal Hermann Göring and Rami Malek as the doctor sent to crack his psyche, has now grossed nearly $11 million domestically. Nuremberg is presumably targeted at older crowds, who don’t normally display the FOMO-style tendencies of younger audiences and are happy to wait longer to watch movies they’re interested in. This would explain the strong legs that Nuremberg has displayed thus far, and the excellent 96% audience score that it’s holding onto on Rotten Tomatoes. By comparison, the action-packed Sisu 2 currently holds a 96% critics’ score on the aggregator website, where the consensus reads, “Sisu: Road to Revenge consistently and creatively kills the competition.”

‘Sisu 2’ Also Features an ‘Avatar’ Star

The movie brings back director Jalmari Helander and star Jorma Tommila as the infallible ex-commando who captivated audiences across the globe in 2022’s first film. Sisu 2 was produced on a reported budget of $12 million, and has so far grossed $6 million worldwide. The first film made over $14 million globally, and has only grown in prominence in the years since on home video. Positive reviews will likely keep Sisu 2 afloat for the next few weeks, as it snaps on the heels of Nuremberg. In his review, Collider’s Jeff Ewing described the movie as “a structurally different riff on the original, but certainly in the same spirit.” Also starring Stephen Lang, Sisu 2 is playing in theaters, as is Nuremberg. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.