Even back in 1987, the first film version of “The Running Man” wasn’t a massive box office juggernaut. The 30th biggest movie of that year domestically, it was narrowly outgrossed by titles like “Blind Date” and “Mannequin,” neither of which Hollywood is scrambling to remake. In the years since its release, other Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi films like “Total Recall” and the first two “Terminator” movies have vastly surpassed “The Running Man” in cultural notoriety. No cheesy one-liners from the film have entered the general lexicon, while its critical reception was far from glorious.

That means there was plenty of room for Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man” to improve on its predecessor and exist as its own satisfying creation. However, it also deprived Wright’s film of a recognizable brand name it could lean on in its marketing. Put simply, the “Running Man” moniker just doesn’t mean much to modern audiences.

Given that the first film adaptation of the Stephen King novel didn’t set the box office on fire in the ’80s, it was always going to be an uphill climb to get moviegoers circa 2025 to care about this property. Paramount Pictures never got over that hurdle in its marketing campaign. “The Running Man” wasn’t a must-see flick in 1987, and now that same brand name failed to once again supercharge audiences in 2025.

Back in August 2010, “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” bombed at the box office, but would quickly become a cult classic that escaped its negative box office reputation. However, the movie reflected how most Edgar Wright films have been a tough sell for general audiences. Edgar Wright’s Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, for instance, never produced an entry that grossed over $26 million in North America. 2021’s “Last Night in Soho” only grossed $10.1 million in its brief theatrical run. Only “Baby Driver,” with its $107 million North American total, saw Wright helming a domestic box office hit.

Dollars don’t equal artistic merit, but this track record does reflect how Edgar Wright isn’t a household name who gets the general public into movie theaters. He’s unquestionably film geek royalty, and his cinematic obsessions — reflected in the list of Wright’s most-watched movies of all time – will always make headline news on sites dedicated to cinema geeks. However, even with the immense reputation of “Scott Pilgrim,” he’s very clearly not a Christopher Nolan or James Cameron-type name that can be a selling point for general audiences.

“The Running Man” needed all the help it could get in trying to turn a profit on its $110 million budget. Unfortunately, Wright’s name wasn’t enough to make a positive difference. 15 years after “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” tanked, Wright’s limited fanbase among general moviegoers was once again made very apparent.

Over the first weekend of November 2025, “Predator: Badlands” blew everyone away at the box office with its $40 million domestic debut. This was a terrific kick-off for the month, while the November 14-16 frame was led by a solid debut from “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.” The big loser among these early November box office victors, though, was “The Running Man,” which didn’t enter a marketplace hungering for a massive, violence-heavy film. Instead, there were two other movies in theaters that could easily satisfy those cravings, each of which carried a brand name more instantly recognizable to audiences.

This struggle for “The Running Man” indicates a major problem with releasing so many movies in the same genre within two weeks of each other. Compare this release strategy to November 2010’s second weekend, which was dominated by an animated family comedy (“Megamind”), a thriller (“Unstoppable”), an R-rated comedy (“Due Date”), and a sci-fi action film (“Skyline”). There was room then for individual films to perform well compared to their respective budgets. In the first two weekends of November 2025, meanwhile, a trio of action franchise titles all competed for largely the same audience.

In this kind of scenario, there’s almost no chance for an “everybody wins” outcome, and “The Running Man” turned out to be the loser in this equation. With people checking out “Badlands” and those rascally magicians, there wasn’t much of an audience for Glen Powell surviving a deadly reality show.

Some of Glen Powell’s earliest films as a leading man were in women-skewing romantic comedies, like “Set It Up” and “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.” His first big post-“Top Gun: Maverick” smash was 2023’s “Anyone But You,” which signaled that Powell could develop a dedicated fanbase of women who would keep following him from movie to movie. Unfortunately, “The Running Man” stumbled mightily in getting the interest of female audiences, as this demographic made up only 37% of its opening weekend audience. For comparison’s sake, 54% of the opening day audience for “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” was women.

This might be one major factor in why “The Running Man” failed to go the distance at the box office. A core component of prior Powell hits was in dire supply for this movie’s debut. However, “The Running Man” is the latest 2025 box office misfire that reflects the dangers of ignoring women audiences. Titles like “Tron: Ares” bombed at the box office because they ignored the demographic fueling many of the year’s biggest films. Garnering a shrug from lady audiences meant “The Running Man” could only get so high at the box office, a massive problem given its daunting price tag.

In the future, Powell would be wise to adhere to star vehicles appealing to the viewers that gave him his fame in the first place. Otherwise, more box office stumbles like “The Running Man” will inevitably be in his future.

Aside from a string of successful live-action versions of Disney animated films, many movie remakes — especially costly action-oriented exercises like “The Running Man” — have been a box office gamble for a good long while now. Even before the pandemic, remakes like “Point Break,” “Death Wish,” and “Total Recall” were delivering underwhelming box office returns. More recently, updates like “Firestarter” have also gone nowhere financially. Just slapping a familiar brand name on a movie regurgitating an equally recognizable plot isn’t enough to get people into movie theaters.

Audiences have shown far more fondness for legacy sequels like “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Creed,” and “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” which maintain the continuity of older, beloved movies while introducing new characters into the fray. Remakes — even one like “The Running Man,” which doesn’t technically redo the 1987 film but takes another run at the book — just don’t have the same appeal. Even Disney can’t turn every animated movie remake into a license to print money, as seen by “Snow White” bombing at the box office. Given this reality, “The Running Man” becoming a massive box office success was always going to be a tremendous uphill battle. If “RoboCop” couldn’t become a box office hit in 2014, what hope did this project have?

Don’t let the success of “The Lion King” and “The Little Mermaid” distract from reality. Modern remakes are often the equivalent of throwing money down a rabbit hole, which “The Running Man” reinforced in a costly fashion.