Paul Rudd's Pre-'Avengers: Doomsday' Gem Is Officially a Streaming Hit

Published Oct 18, 2026, 6:45 PM EDT

In over three years at Collider, senior author Jake has now penned over 3000 articles covering a wide range of TV and film for the resources, lists, utilities, news, and interview teams. Alongside interviewing stars such as Selin Hizli, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Harlan Coben, and Chelsea Peretti, Jake was lucky enough to visit the set of Aardman and Netflix's Wallace and Gromit: A Vengeance Most Fowl in 2024, getting the chance to chat with four-time Academy Award winner Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. Jake has also worked for other publications, including Agents of Fandom. You can also hear Jake every week as the resident film and TV journalist on Track Radio. 

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It's been over 30 years since Paul Rudd made his breakout film role in the totally buggin' Clueless, a loose retelling of Jane Austen's 1815 novel Emma. These three decades later, he is one of the best-loved men in Hollywood, having been part of many great big-screen projects. In just two months, Rudd will return as his MCU character Ant-Man in the biggest blockbuster event of 2026 — perhaps even the biggest blockbuster event of the decade — Avengers: Doomsday.

Rudd is part of a cast bursting at the seams with talent, including 2025's Fantastic Four (Vanessa Kirby, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Tom Hiddleston, Florence Pugh, and many, many more. December 18's Doomsday is definitely the most high-profile project in Rudd's 2026, but it might not be his best. That accolade goes to the festival favorite Power Ballad, a musical comedy starring Rudd alongside Nick Jonas, who recently reprised his breakout role in Camp Rock 3.

Following his Oscar-winning gem Once, 2013’s Begin Again, and the cult hit Sing Street, director John Carney returned to the genre he truly made his own with Power Ballad. Rudd's wedding singer Rick Power has his life changed in Power Ballad courtesy of an encounter with washed-up pop star Danny Wilson (Jonas). A jam session sparks Rick's creativity, only for Danny to steal his song and use it to relight his popularity. The concept is simple yet utterly effective, and Rudd and Jonas are perfect in their roles. Seven months since the film's festival debut, it is back in the spotlight. At the time of writing, Power Ballad is one of the ten most-watched movies on Starz in the U.S.

Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Broadway Musical Soundtrack Is Your Life Story? Hamilton · Wicked · Les Misérables · Rent

Answer eight quick questions and we will tell you which cast recording is secretly about you. Four of the biggest shows ever staged, four completely different people at the centre of them, and all four made it onto a cinema screen.

🖋️Hamilton(2015)

💚Wicked(2003)

🚩Les Misérables(1985)

🕯️Rent(1996)

FIND YOUR SHOW →

01

What were you like at school? Pick the one that sounds most like you.

ATop of the class, every year. BThe one who never quite fit in. CAlways arguing about what was fair. DRarely there, if I am honest.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

What drives you most? One answer only.

ALeaving a mark on something. BProving people wrong about me. CDoing the right thing. DLiving while I can.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

What is your friendship group like? Pick the closest answer.

AA small circle of driven people. BOne person who really gets me. CPeople I would do anything for. DA big, loud chosen family.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

Pick a film for tonight. No wrong answers here.

AA big historical epic. BA fantasy with a twist. CSomething sweeping and sad. DAn indie about young people.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

What do you belt out in the car? Windows up, nobody listening.

ASomething fast with too many words. BAnything with a huge final note. CSomething slow and devastating. DSomething everybody can join in on.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

How do you handle money? Be honest.

APlanned, invested and growing. BCarefully. I had to learn. CI give too much of it away. DRent is due and I will manage.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

What do you do when the boss is wrong? Pick the closest answer.

AWrite a very long argument. BQuietly go around them. CSay it out loud, in the room. DIgnore them completely.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

What do you want your life to add up to? Last one. This is the one that decides it.

ASomething people still talk about. BProving everybody wrong about me. CHaving done right by people. DNot having wasted a single day.

REVEAL MY SHOW →

Overture, Curtain, Lights Your Show Is…

Every one of these four started as a cast recording people played until the disc wore out, and every one of them eventually turned into a film. Here is yours, what it says about you, and the case for it being the best of the four.

Hamilton

You work like the clock is against you, because in your head it always is. Hamilton is three hours about a man who cannot stop producing, cannot stop arguing and cannot leave a single thing alone, and you recognised yourself in it immediately.

• You are the most ambitious person in most rooms and you are slightly embarrassed about how much you like that.
• It won eleven Tony Awards in 2016 and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama the same year.
• Disney paid a reported seventy-five million for the filmed stage version and put it out in 2020 instead of in cinemas.
• Your flaw is the one the show spends its second half on, which is not knowing when to stop writing.

Wicked

People made up their minds about you early and they were wrong. Wicked takes the most famous villain in American children's fiction and asks what the story looks like from her side, which is a question you have asked about yourself more than once.

• You are an acquired taste and the people who get you would go to war for you.
• Jon M. Chu's first film was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 2025 and won two.
• Wicked: For Good opened to a hundred and fifty million dollars in 2025 and was then shut out of the Oscars entirely.
• Your risk is spending so long being underestimated that you start enjoying it.

Les Misérables

You cannot walk past something unfair. Les Mis is a show about a man who spends his entire life trying to make one wrong right, and about everybody around him deciding what they are prepared to lose for other people.

• You are the one who speaks up, and you have paid for it more than once.
• The original London reviews were terrible and it is now the longest-running musical in West End history.
• Tom Hooper shot the 2012 film with the cast singing live on set, and Anne Hathaway won Best Supporting Actress for it.
• Your weakness is taking on so much of other people's weight that nobody carries yours.

Rent

You are not interested in saving it all for later. Rent is a year in the life of people with no money, no plan and a very clear sense that the time they have is the only thing they genuinely own.

• Your friends are your family, and you would rather be broke among them than comfortable without them.
• Jonathan Larson died suddenly the night before the first preview and never saw what the show became.
• It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony for Best Musical in 1996, and his story became tick, tick… BOOM! in 2021.
• Your flaw is that living entirely for now leaves somebody else to deal with later.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

What Did Collider Say About 'Power Ballad'?

Overall, the reviews for Power Ballad were hugely positive following its world premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival. For Collider, Ross Bonaime reviewed the film, scoring it an 8/10 and calling it a "must-watch film from a masterful director." "Rudd and Jonas fit into his style quite nicely," Bonaime added, "and Carney once again proves that he's a master of crowd-pleasing, heartwarming stories about underdogs we all want to root for."

Power Ballad is one of the ten most-watched movies on Starz in the U.S. Stay tuned to Collider for more.