The Office Star's Comedy Remake Smashes Box Office Record With Historically Low Debut

Published Sep 28, 2026, 9:53 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 Stunt Driver has hit a bump in the road at the box office.

The new Canadian comedy movie, which was written and directed by Michael Dowse (Stuber), is based on the 1981 documentary The Devil at Your Heels and follows daredevil Ken Carter (Jay Baruchel) attempting to perform a one-mile jump over the Saint-Laurent River in a rocket car. 2026's The Stunt Driver also stars The Office's Ed Helms, Hell or High Water's Ben Foster, WolfCop's Jonathan Cherry, and Veep's Dan Bakkedahl. After premiering at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, the movie - which has a score of 76% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes - debuted in domestic theaters on September 25.

The Stunt Driver faced competition from fellow September 25 new releases Avengers Endgame: Encore, Primetime, Heart of the Beast, and Forgotten Island.

Per Box Office Mojo, over the weekend, The Stunt Driver debuted with a 3-day total of $102,000 in 670 theaters at the domestic box office. This gave it a debut per-screen average of just $152, which marks the 15th-lowest debut per-screen average of all time. It has broken the record for the lowest debut PSA for a 2026 new release, though one other 2026 offering - the 15th anniversary re-release of 2011's Bridesmaids - performed more poorly, earning a per-screen average of $127, which marks the ninth-lowest of all time.

So far in 2026, only five new releases have landed on the chart of the Top 100 lowest per-screen averages of all time, including the Paris Hilton documentary Infinite Icon: A Visual Memoir, the Chinese licensed animated movie Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass, the Justin Long horror movie Night Patrol, the Spanish animated feature Buffalo Kids, and now The Stunt Driver, which is the only one to have debuted in the Top 20.

Below, see a breakdown of the five lowest debut per-screen averages for new releases from 2026:

Rank	Title	Domestic Debut	Theaters	PSA
#15	The Stunt Driver	$102,000	670	$127
#29	Buffalo Kids	$152,939	750	$203
#79	Infinite Icon: A Visual Memoir	$200,000	677	$295
#88	Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass	$265,104	850	$311
#89	Night Patrol	$249,634	800	$312

While The Stunt Driver played in relatively few theaters and therefore wasn't expected to launch anywhere close to the domestic Top 5 (it debuted at No. 21), this low per-screen average was not a given. In fact, this year, the Charli XCX mockumentary The Moment debuted in just four theaters and earned the 27th biggest debut per-screen average of all time with $106,990. It was followed into theaters by John Wilson's meta documentary The History of Concrete, which played in just one theater but earned $90,000 placing it at No. 47 on the chart.

While it seems highly likely that the movie will leave theaters without having made a big splash, it could potentially make up for its box office performance by connecting with at-home viewers either on video on demand or streaming. Given its strong reviews and star-studded cast, it could have what it takes to become a slow-burn word-of-mouth success.

Additionally, two of the three of the main stars of The Stunt Driver have upcoming projects lined up that have the potential to offer them commercial redemption. While Jay Baruchel's future is uncertain, as his role in the upcoming Reacher season 4 was recently recast with Chris Marquette after he dropped out due to "a personal matter" (per EW), Ben Foster is set to star opposite Jason Statham in the upcoming Guy Ritchie action movie Viva La Madness while Ed Helms will appear opposite Marisa Tomei and Rachel Zegler in the comedy She Gets It from Me.

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Cast

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  Jay Baruchel

  Ken Carter

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  Dick Keller

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  Ben Foster

  Evel Knievel

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  Laurence Leboeuf

  Gloria