Russell Crowe’s Best Action Movie Since ‘The Nice Guys’ Is Officially a Smash Hit on Streaming
It has been more than 15 years since Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott stopped working together. They’d collaborated on a string of movies in the previous decade, beginning with the Oscar-winning Gladiator and ending with an epic Robin Hood adaptation. In recent years, however, things seem to have turned sour between them, with both passing slightly snarky comments about each other in the run-up to and in the aftermath of Gladiator II. During these last few years, Scott has continued to work on big-budget tent poles while Crowe has mostly starred in smaller-scale projects. Not too many of Crowe’s movies broke out critically and commercially, although his 2025 release, Nuremberg, grossed more than $55 million worldwide against a reported budget of $10 million.
The World War II drama received mixed reviews from critics but was embraced by audiences who’ve turned it into a streaming smash. The last movie featuring Crowe that received critical acclaim was released a decade ago. We’re talking about the comedy-noir The Nice Guys, directed by Shane Black and also featuring Ryan Gosling. The Nice Guys earned a “Certified Fresh” 91% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, but it underperformed at the box office. After an uneven decade, Crowe has finally found critical success again with his latest film, which is doing very well on the PVOD market.
Here’s Russell Crowe’s Best-Reviewed Movie Since 2016
According to FlixPatrol, the movie in question was among the most-watched titles on the domestic iTunes chart this past weekend. We’re talking, of course, about the sports drama Beast. Like Sylvester Stallone before him, Crowe has gone from playing a boxer in a movie (Cinderella Man) to now playing a coach. In Beast, his character mentors an MMA fighter making a comeback. The movie also features Liam Hemsworth and Daniel MacPherson. Directed by Tyler Atkins, the movie was co-written by Crowe alongside David Frigerio. It holds a solid 82% score on Rotten Tomatoes — the highest for a narrative feature starring Crowe since The Nice Guys. It must be noted that during this past decade, Crowe has appeared in a couple of documentaries that have earned higher Rotten Tomatoes scores. His second-highest-rated narrative features of the last decade are The True History of the Kelly Gang and Boy Erased, both with 80% scores. You can watch Beast at home, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
- Release Date
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April 10, 2026
- Director
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Tyler Atkins
