Russell Crowe’s latest movie has earned some of the strongest reviews of his career, but that hasn’t translated into a successful theatrical run. The Weight, a Depression-era Western thriller starring Crowe and Ethan Hawke, has gone from playing in more than 1,500 theaters nationwide to just 21.
The sharp decline comes just weeks after the film’s September 18 theatrical debut. Despite its struggles at the box office, The Weight has been embraced by critics, earning a 94% Tomatometer score from 143 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
Russell Crowe’s Best-Reviewed Movie Since 1999
The 94% score makes The Weight Crowe’s best-reviewed movie in 27 years, according to Collider. The last film he starred in to earn a higher Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score was 1999’s The Insider, which currently sits at 96%.
That puts The Weight in some pretty notable company for Crowe. His filmography includes Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, 3:10 to Yuma, and The Nice Guys, but none of his movies since The Insider have matched the critical reception of his latest flick.
Rotten Tomatoes’ critics consensus praises the movie as a “gripping, hard-hitting thriller,” specifically highlighting Ethan Hawke’s performance and director Padraic McKinley’s work.
The film follows Samuel Murphy, played by Hawke, a war veteran who is separated from his daughter and sent to a brutal work camp in Oregon during the Great Depression. Crowe plays Warden Clancy, who offers Murphy a chance at early release if he agrees to help smuggle gold through dangerous wilderness.
The resulting journey brings together prison inmates, greed, betrayal, and survival, giving The Weight a decidedly darker take on the Western genre.
‘The Weight’ Has Struggled at the Box Office
The critical reception hasn’t been enough to keep The Weight in theaters.
The movie opened in 1,504 U.S. theaters on September 18 and made about $2.3 million during its opening weekend. By its second weekend, its theater count had dropped to 910. It fell to 54 theaters the following week before reaching just 21 theaters during the weekend of Oct. 9.
The film has made approximately $3.6 million domestically, according to The Numbers.
Critics Have Been Impressed by the Western Thriller
The Rotten Tomatoes score isn’t the only positive response The Weight has received.
The site’s consensus specifically praises Hawke’s “magnetic performance” and McKinley’s direction, while individual critics have highlighted the movie’s old-school Western sensibilities and tension.
The Times’ Kevin Maher gave the movie four out of five stars, praising Hawke’s performance, while the Sydney Morning Herald’s Jake Wilson described it as the kind of lean action movie that filmmakers such as Walter Hill or Robert Aldrich might have made decades ago.
RogerEbert.com’s Matt Zoller Seitz was also impressed, writing that the film is successful across its various genres, including its prison drama, wilderness adventure, psychological thriller, and political elements.
You Can Watch ‘The Weight’ at Home Starting Today
Fortunately for anyone who missed The Weight in theaters, the movie isn’t disappearing entirely. In fact, as of October 20, the movie is now available digitally.
