Brad Pitt’s New Action Thriller Officially Removed From Nearly 1,200 Theaters

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. 

A month into a stellar box-office run, Paramount’s new survival thriller is finally making way for new releases. The movie received excellent reviews from critics and audiences alike, fending off competition and holding its ground week after week. The film marks yet another win for David Ayer, who escaped director jail with a trio of hits that have been universally embraced by their target audiences. Ayer established himself with a string of critically acclaimed crime movies before being hired to direct the big-budget DC Extended Universe film Suicide Squad. The film’s behind-the-scenes issues and poor reception significantly hampered his career despite the movie being a box office success. But he bounced back a couple of years ago with a sleeper hit that’s on the verge of being overtaken by his new survival thriller.

In 2024, Ayer delivered the franchise-starting action hit The Beekeeper. Starring Jason Statham, the movie grossed more than $160 million worldwide and is about to get a long-awaited sequel in January 2027. The movie received positive reviews from critics, and is sitting at an exceptional 92% audience score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Ayer and Statham reunited on A Working Man, which debuted a year later. The action film generated nearly $100 million worldwide, and like The Beekeeper, is sitting at a terrific 87% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.

Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.

Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.

Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.

Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

Here’s How Much the Survival Thriller Has Grossed So Far

Ayer’s new film, Heart of the Beast, has outdone them both. The survival thriller, starring Brad Pitt in the lead role, holds a “Verified Hot” 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics’ score for the movie, on the other hand, has settled at a “Certified Fresh” 85%, with a consensus that reads, “A rigorously entertaining adventure story told through a spartan script and memorable set pieces, Heart of the Beast pays rousing tribute to man’s best friend.” The positive reception clearly worked in the film’s favor. Heart of the Beast opened in around 3,400 theaters nationwide, and has so far grossed more than $155 million globally against a reported budget of $82 million. It’ll enter its sixth week in 2,260 theaters, having been removed from around 1,200 theaters nationwide.

Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

Heart of the Beast