Nicholas Hoult Earns One Of His Lowest Box Office Debuts Ever With New Crime Movie

Published Nov 14, 2026, 11:19 AM EST Brennan Klein (he/him) is a senior news writer at Screen Rant, host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast, and contributor at Alternate Ending and Horror Press. He has been writing and podcasting about pop culture (especially horror movies) for over a decade at platforms including Blumhouse, Fangoria, Dread Central, The Backlot, and Arrow in the Head. How to Rob a Bank may not need a getaway driver to help haul its box office take. The new movie stars Nicholas Hoult as the leader of a group of bank robbers who go viral when they use social media to deliver their message and teach viewers how they pull off their crimes. The David Leitch-directed project features a star-studded ensemble cast that also includes Zoë Kravitz, Anna Sawai, Tati Gabrielle, Pete Davidson, Christian Slater, and John C. Reilly. While 2026's How to Rob a Bank was originally set to debut on September 4, it was pushed back to November 13 for a Thanksgiving season release after its original trailer earned a strongly positive response. Per Deadline, as of Saturday morning, How to Rob a Bank is projected to earn a 3-day debut of $4.7 million at the domestic box office by the end of its opening weekend. If these numbers hold, the movie will officially earn the seventh-worst domestic debut in history for a wide-release Nicholas Hoult movie (meaning a movie that played in 600 theaters or more during its opening weekend), falling behind the $8 million debut of his 2023 horror-comedy Renfield, which was a bomb that earned just $26.9 million against its reported $65 million budget. This puts it roughly in the lower quadrant of the star's movies, as he has so far had twenty titles debut in wide release. His best debut in history belongs to 2025's Superman (in which he played iconic DC Comics villain Lex Luthor), which debuted with $125 million and ultimately grossed $618.7 million worldwide. His lowest wide-release debut in history came just a year before that. The 2024 crime thriller The Order (which co-starred Jude Law and Tye Sheridan) debuted with just $877,855 on its way to making $2.3 million worldwide. Below, see a breakdown of every previous wide-release Nicholas Hoult movie that earned less than $10 million during its domestic debut: Title Domestic Debut Worldwide Box Office The Order (2024) $877,855 $2.3 million Collide (2017) $1.5 million $6.8 million Tolkien (2019) $2.2 million $9.1 million The Current War (2019) $2.6 million $12.2 million Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021) $2.8 million $19.1 million The Weather Man (2005) $4.2 million $19.1 million Renfield (2023) $8 million $26.5 million About a Boy (2002) $8.5 million $130.5 million The Menu (2022) $9 million $79.6 million If How to Rob a Bank has the same trajectory as Renfield or the 2005 dark comedy The Weather Man (in which he also co-starred with Renfield's Nicolas Cage), the movie will most likely also be a theatrical flop. It reportedly cost $40 million to make, which probably places its estimated break-even point somewhere around $100 million. Considering the fact that only one movie on the chart surpassed the $100 million milestone (in fact, only two earned more than $50 million), it seems unlikely to hit that benchmark. How to Rob a Bank reviews are not proving to be very helpful, as it has earned a dismal 33% score on Rotten Tomatoes. This is significantly lower than both The Weather Man (59%) and Renfield (58%), which both also earned splats on the review aggregator platform. However, the 2026 movie has so far earned a Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter score of 80% from verified user reviews and a decent CinemaScore of B-, which could see it building some level of word of mouth. Choose the movie with the higher Rotten Tomatoes score. Nicholas Hoult's career likely won't be severely impacted by the theatrical performance of How to Rob a Bank. The movie is being distributed in North America by Amazon MGM Studios, which tends to view their theatrical releases as preludes to a movie's streaming release on Prime Video rather than a be-all, end-all. Additionally, Hoult will reprise the role of Lex Luthor in the upcoming Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow. While the movie's prospects might be affected by its director, James Gunn, recently being removed as co-CEO of DC Studios, it should still perform significantly better than Hoult's latest release. Enjoy ScreenRant's box office coverage? Click below to sign up for my weekly box office newsletter (make sure to check "Box Office" in your preferences) and get exclusive analysis, predictions, and more: Sign Up Release Date November 13, 2026 Runtime 122 Minutes Director David Leitch Writers Mark Bianculli Producers Brian Grazer, Kelly McCormick, Jeb Brody, David Leitch, Allan Mandelbaum Cast