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.
Nearly three weeks into its release, Russell Crowe's new thriller has established itself as one of the biggest Netflix originals of 2026. The streamer has had a terrific year so far, having successfully pivoted from producing mega-budget tentpoles to mid-budget genre films. In January, Netflix delivered the hit sci-fi movie War Machine, which eventually found a spot on its all-time top-10 list with more than 150 million views. A series of subsequent releases that each passed the 100-million-views mark followed. The list now includes movies such as The Rip, Thrash, and Apex. It remains to be seen if Crowe's new thriller can join them, but it's certainly on the right path.
The movie comes on the heels of two other mid-budget genre hits for Netflix — the sci-fi movie The Last House and the psychological thriller The Whisper Man. Both movies, which draw heavily from 1990s hits, are on the cusp of hitting the 100-million-views mark themselves. Neither film was received all that well, and Crowe's movie unfortunately continued this streak. This is ironic, because the Oscar-winner followed it up with his best-reviewed movie in nearly three decades, The Weight, which didn't do all that well in theaters.
Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours. Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from the encounter.
Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the conversation is.
Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.
Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.
Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.
But we're talking about Unabomber, the psychological thriller in which Crowe plays the Harvard professor who conducts scientific experiments on a young Ted Kaczynski, played by Jacob Tremblay. It now sits at 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." Unabomber was directed by Janus Metz, best known for the movie All the Old Knives and for directing episodes of shows such as Andor and True Detective. According to Netflix, Unabomber amassed 16 million views in its first week of release, and 33 million views in its second. It's now sitting at around 40 million views in two weeks. Netflix's next update should push it past 60 million views. You can check the movie out at home, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
