Russell Crowe’s New Crime Thriller Officially Loses Top Spot to Ben Affleck

1 week ago 17

Published Oct 15, 2026, 10:00 PM EDT

Rohan Naahar is a News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

Despite delivering stellar results in the first two weeks of its run, poor reviews seem to be catching up to Netflix's recently released psychological drama film Unabomber. The movie stars Russell Crowe as a Harvard professor who conducts scientific experiments on a young Ted Kaczynski, played by Jacob Tremblay. Unabomber is among the many cinematic depictions of the notorious terrorist, who, like Charles Manson, has become a cultural figure in America. However, the new movie wasn't able to match up to the benchmarks set by past shows and films. In its third week of release, the movie suffered an unusually steep drop on the Netflix viewership charts, effectively stalling despite showing early promise.

The movie now holds a 25% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, "Playing armchair psychologist to one of America's most infamous killers, Unabomber's fine acting can't compensate for an unconvincing thesis." This is nowhere near the 97% score of Netflix's other psychological thriller about serial killers, the cult classic series Mindhunter. It's also lower than the "Certified Fresh" 93% score of Manhunt: Unabomber, a limited series based on the FBI's decades-long search for Kaczynski, which starred Paul Bettany and Sam Worthington.

Here's How 'Unabomber' Performed Last Week

Unabomber also features Shailene Woodley, who plays an FBI agent tracking the killer in the 1990s. Directed by Janus Metz, the film surrendered the number-one spot on the global Netflix charts this past week to Ben Affleck's new directorial effort, the psychological thriller Animals, which drew nearly 24 million views. Unabomber dropped to the seventh spot, adding 7.3 million views and bringing its total to around 47 million views in three weeks. The film debuted with 16 million views in its first week and added 23 million views in its second. This year, Netflix has delivered a string of blockbuster mid-budget movies such as Thrash, The Rip, Apex, War Machine, The Last House, and The Whisper Man. With Animals on track to join them, it seems like Unabomber's run is coming to an end. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.