Six months after it reached theaters, Running Man has found a new audience online. The sci-fi action film is now No. 1 on Paramount+ this week, even though it earned only $69 million worldwide against a reported $110 million budget.
The film stars Glen Powell as Ben Richards, a man chosen for a deadly reality TV contest in which he must survive 30 days without being killed by the network’s hunters for a chance to win $1 billion. Directed by Edgar Wright and based on Stephen King’s novel, the 133-minute film opened in November 2025 and quickly became one of the more closely watched swings of Powell’s career.
That turnaround matters because Running Man was never sold as a small bet. Studios and audiences alike were asked to buy into a big-screen spectacle with a built-in name, a recognizable star and a director known for style, but the theatrical run did not come close to matching the reported cost. The film also landed with a mixed critical response, scoring 61% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and 77% from audiences.
Powell’s path to that kind of spotlight has been a long one. He began his career in 2003 and built up credits in NCIS, Rick and Morty, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, The Dark Knight Rises and Hidden Figures before voicing Fox McCloud in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. In Running Man, the role of Ben Richards gave him another chance to carry a major studio release on his own.
The split reaction has become part of the film’s story. ScreenRant said the movie loses its dystopian edge in an effort to make it more entertaining, while CBR praised Powell’s performance and said he deserves his Hollywood Star status. Collider’s Aidan Kelley gave it an 8/10 review, reinforcing the sense that the film is sharper in execution than its box-office total suggests.
Earlier this week, Running Man was also sitting at No. 8 on Prime Video’s Top 10 Movies in the United States, a sign that its momentum is no longer tied to ticket sales. The film’s second act is now playing out on streaming, where viewers are giving it a look that theaters largely did not.
For Powell, that makes Running Man less a failure than a test case in how a costly studio movie can miss in theaters and still keep working after the release window closes. The question now is not whether it opened strongly enough. It did not. The real answer is that the movie has found its footing where audiences are actually watching it.
