Alan Ritchson's 'Runner' Loses Half Its Theaters After Just 20 Days

Alan Ritchson is one of the biggest stars on streaming. Theaters, so far, have been a different story. The Reacher star's new action-comedy Runner has lost roughly half of its theatrical footprint just 20 days into its run, dropping from around 2,500 screens at launch to roughly 1,300 this weekend, according to early theatrical reports.

The Angel Studios release opened September 11 with a soft $6.4 million from 2,568 theaters, good enough for fourth place behind Practical Magic 2, Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey. Since then it has crawled to approximately $14 million domestically against a reported production budget in the $35 million to $45 million range — a number that puts the film well short of where it needs to be. International grosses have been nearly nonexistent, adding barely $1.2 million overseas.

The Second Miss of 2026

Runner is Ritchson's second consecutive theatrical disappointment this year. His 1970s Detroit revenge thriller Motor City, released earlier this summer, collapsed with a $1.69 million debut and finished its entire domestic run around $2.7 million. Two flops in a single year have started to define a pattern: the actor's enormous streaming pull — Reacher remains one of Prime Video's defining hits, with Season 4 wrapped and the Neagley spinoff on the way — has not translated into moviegoers buying tickets.

The film itself is not the problem, according to critics. Runner, directed by Scott Waugh from a 2023 Black List script by Miles Hubley and Tommy White, casts Ritchson as Hank Malone, a former soldier turned courier who must race across Brisbane to deliver a donor liver to a dying girl with a rare blood type. Owen Wilson co-stars as Ben Bishop, the only man who can open the cooler, while Rodrigo Santoro plays the cartel boss who wants the organ for himself. Reviews landed in the high 60s range, with particular praise for the easy banter between Ritchson and Wilson.

What Comes Next: PVOD

The theatrical chapter is effectively closing. Early reports suggest Runner could arrive on PVOD as early as October 13, which would give the film a theatrical window of just over a month — an increasingly standard fate for mid-budget films that fail to break out. For Angel Studios, the film was a meaningful experiment in diversifying beyond its faith-based core, and the studio has historically leaned on word of mouth to stretch its releases. This time, there was not enough mouth to go around.

The irony is that Ritchson remains red-hot on the small screen. His films and shows continue to dominate streaming charts, and Neagley is shaping up to be one of the biggest series debuts of 2026. Theaters just keep saying no. For an actor who has conquered nearly every other screen, the big one remains the final frontier.