Russell Crowe's New Historical Epic Ends 35-Year Box Office Streak

Published Sep 20, 2026, 11:22 AM EDT

Brennan Klein (he/him) is a senior news writer at Screen Rant, host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast, and contributor at Alternate Ending and Horror Press. He has been writing and podcasting about pop culture (especially horror movies) for over a decade at platforms including Blumhouse, Fangoria, Dread Central, The Backlot, and Arrow in the Head.

The Weight is having a light weekend at the box office.

2026's The Weight, which stars Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe, is a historical epic set in 1933 Oregon that follows a desperate incarcerated man who is desperate to be free and return to his daughter, which he gets the opportunity to do when he is told he can get an early release if he joins a team that has been tasked with smuggling gold across dangerous terrain. The movie, which also stars Julia Jones, Austin Amelio, and Avi Nash, debuted in U.S. theaters on September 18 after having its world premiere at Sundance in January.

The Weight was directed by Padraic McKinley (The Good Lord Bird) from a screenplay by Matthew Booi (The Dictator's Playbook) and Shelby Gaines (Wildcat).

Per Variety, as of Sunday morning, The Weight is projected to earn a 3-day total of $2.3 million by the end of its opening weekend at the domestic box office. The movie, which is playing in 1,504 theaters, is therefore set to earn the second-lowest domestic debut in history for an Ethan Hawke movie that opened in wide release.

The star's previous low came 35 years ago, when his 1991 comedy Mystery Date debuted with $1.9 million. If that total is adjusted for inflation, it rises to $4.7 million, making The Weight the official lowest wide release debut on the star's adjusted chart. This low debut is unusual for the star. While he has had many movies open in limited release, of the 25 titles that opened wide, the most recent one to earn one of his 10 lowest debuts prior to The Weight was the action movie The Getaway, which debuted in 2013.

Every other movie on the chart debuted in 2005 or earlier, with the majority debuting in the 1990s. Below, see the updated chart of the 10 lowest-grossing wide release debuts for Ethan Hawke movies:

Title	Domestic Debut	Theaters	Worldwide Box Office
Mystery Date (1991)	$1.9 million	1,371	$6.2 million
The Weight (2026)	$2.3 million	1,504	TBD
Explorers (1985)	$3.6 million	1,750	$9.9 million
The Newton Boys (1998)	$4 million	1,965	$10.4 million
Gattaca (1997)	$4.3 million	1,279	$12.6 million
Getaway (2013)	$4.5 million	2,130	$11.8 million
Reality Bites (1994)	$5.1 million	1,149	$21 million
White Fang (1991)	$5.6 million	1,108	$34.8 million
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)	$7 million	2,297	$35.3 million
Alive (1993)	$8.6 million	1,132	$36.7 million

While The Weight is playing in relatively few theaters (1,504 compared to a movie like The Purge, which earned $34 million in 2,536 theaters during its debut), Hawke has had plenty of wide release debuts play in fewer theaters and earn more. In addition to the movies on the chart that have done so, namely Gattaca, Reality Bites, White Fang, and Alive, this includes the Benoit Blanc mystery Glass Onion (in which he played a minor supporting role), which played in just 696 theaters and debuted with a whopping $9.4 million.

Additionally, some of his limited releases have performed proportionally better than The Weight. This includes his legendary indie romance Before Sunrise, which debuted in 363 theaters with $1.4 million. If it had had that same per-screen average in 1,504 theaters, it would have earned $5.9 million.

Ultimately, given the performance of the movies on the chart, it seems likely that The Weight will only be able to gross between $6 and $10 million worldwide by the end of its run. However, this does not necessarily doom the Russell Crowe movie. While its marketing budget is unknown, its reported production budget is only $2 million, which probably means that its break-even point is $5 million or less. This could ultimately see the movie turning a tidy profit in spite of this record low for its debut.

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