Tom Cruise has given Glen Powell’s The Running Man a high-profile boost, posting a photo from a screening and cheering on the film from his personal X account. Cruise wrote that it was “another great night out with my friends at the movies” and told Powell and the team, “You guys crushed it, congratulations! I laughed, was on the edge of my seat, and ate way too much popcorn.”
The endorsement lands after a bruising first run for Edgar Wright’s adaptation of Stephen King’s story. The movie stars Powell as Ben Richards, who enters a deadly televised competition to save his sick daughter, and it grossed around $69 million worldwide against a reported $110 million budget. It began streaming on Paramount+ in January 2026 after its theatrical release, with Prime Video carrying it in select markets the same month.
That streaming arrival matters because the film had mixed reviews from critics and was widely described as a box office disappointment. Still, one review singled it out as one of Wright’s most politically charged and challenging films to date, a sign that the movie may have found a more receptive audience once it left theaters. For a title built around a man who survives longer than anyone expected, the new life online fits the story on screen.
The friction is obvious: The Running Man was made as a big theatrical event, but its numbers did not support that ambition, and its appeal appears to have been stronger after the damage was done. Cruise’s praise does not change the box office, but it does give the film a second, louder hearing just as its streaming run opens the door to viewers who skipped it the first time. The question now is not whether the movie found attention — it did — but whether that attention arrives in time to change how the film is remembered.
For Powell, the public salute from one of Hollywood’s most durable stars is a clean win. For Wright’s adaptation, it is a reminder that some films do not land all at once. They take a detour, then find the audience that was waiting on the other side.
