Russell Crowe's 148-Minute WWII Thriller Is an Instant Classic on Netflix

3 weeks ago 25

Published Mar 8, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT

Adam Blevins began working in the entertainment industry in 2022 as a Staff Writer for Agents of Fandom, where he progressed to Senior Editor and interviewed talent from Marvel Studios, House of the Dragon, and Planet of the Apes. He joined Collider as a News Author in April 2024, was promoted to a Senior position in December 2024, and has written over 3,000 articles for the site, including exclusives relating to Avengers: Doomsday, The Penguin, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, and more. He primarily writes about the latest box office numbers and the hottest movies and TV shows on streaming, while also covering superhero and sci-fi news. He has completed a set visit for The Chosen and even has several months of experience writing Gaming Features at ScreenRant. You can find him on X, LinkedIn, and Muckrack.

It’s shaping up to be a busy year for Russell Crowe, who is hard at work filming his new sci-fi/fantasy reboot, Highlander, with Henry Cavill. Crowe is also soon to star in another new sci-fi adventure movie with Ethan Hawke, The Weight, which is fully complete but still awaiting distribution. He recently debuted the first full-length trailer for his next movie, Beast, which is set for release on April 10. Crowe is a three-time Academy Award nominee and even a one-time winner of the award, and although he’s now over 60 years old, he’s showing no signs of slowing down in this later stage of his career.

Crowe’s most recent movie came at the end of last year, Nuremberg. The WWII courtroom drama had something of a long road to theaters after it struggled to find distribution, but it finally arrived last November, wowing both critics and audiences. The film also stars Rami Malek and Michael Shannon, and it follows a psychiatrist for the U.S. Army who evaluates Nazis to see if they’re fit to stand trial for their crimes during WWII. Nuremberg grossed over $55 million at the box office before it went up for sale on VOD platforms like Prime Video earlier this year.

After a moderately successful run on VOD, Russell Crowe’s Nuremberg arrived on Netflix just yesterday, and the film has already smashed into the top three after only one day. It’s got some big-time competition in War Machine, the new big-budget sci-fi action film starring Alan Ritchson (Reacher), but it’s still performing well, all things considered. James Vanderbilt wrote the script for Nuremberg, and he also directed the film, which earned scores of 71% from critics and 95% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.

Russell Crowe Wasn’t a Fan of Ridley Scott’s Latest Legacy Sequel

The most famous movie of Russell Crowe’s career is Gladiator, the 2000 historical epic that won him his first and only Oscar. Director Ridley Scott returned to the world of Gladiator back in 2024 for the Paul Mescal-led legacy sequel, Gladiator II, which did not include Crowe in any capacity. Crowe recently went public with his criticism of the film, saying that its failure was an example of creatives not knowing what made the first film such a success.

Check out Nuremberg on Netflix and stay tuned to Collider for more streaming updates and coverage of Crowe’s future projects.