Glen Powell’s mixed bag weekend

It was a big weekend for Glen Powell, with The Running Man opening on Friday, and hosting Saturday Night Live on Saturday, but the weekend ended up a mixed bag. 

The Running Man hit a wall with audiences, opening in second place against magician heist movie Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (these movies are deeply ridiculous, but I DO appreciate that they did the thing with the title). The Running Man, with a budget estimated at over $100 million, opened with just $28 million globally. Meanwhile, Now You See Me, with a budget estimated under $100 million, opened with $75 million globally.

The difference, besides budget management, is that Now You See Me played stronger overseas. It only made about $4 million more than The Running Man domestically, not an earth-shattering difference. But it made $54 million overseas, which is over 71% of the weekend box office for the film. The Running Man, meanwhile, crashed and burned overseas, with just $11 million. If we learned anything from the Louvre heist—besides that their password is “Louvre”—it’s that heist stories are universally appealing. The Running Man, though, probably looked too bleak for the current bleak times we’re in. I think we’re at the point where people everywhere want their escapism to be fun, not dystopic. 

But the weekend wasn’t a total loss for Glen. He hosted a rare “all bangers” episode of SNL and acquitted himself well doing it. The monologue was especially good, acknowledging he is actually not an overnight success and using a UPS driver to do it.

The sketches were all good, too, though the “Bob Army” sketch really needed Ego Nwodim. I like Sarah Sherman just fine, but she does not have the right energy for this kind of sketch. (Also, while there have been some good additions to the cast this year, it is noticeable that there are currently no women of color.) Amidst a sea of strong sketches, stand-outs include “I Miss My Ex’s Dad”, “Norwegian Movie”, and Will Forte returning for a MacGruber sketch about the Epstein files (SNL took a lot of shots at Trump, so many he called for the firing of Seth Meyers, which FCC chairman Brendan Carr once again reposted. Here we go again!). 

Glen’s self-described golden retriever energy really works with SNL. Every sketch got full energy and benefitted from it. I also tend to think when an all-bangers episode of SNL happens, it’s because the host says yes to everything. There’s no nitpicking or trying to tell the experienced sketch comedians what to do—the host comes ready and willing to play, and they commit to everything without argument. Powell’s episode reminds me of Austin Butler’s all-bangers Christmas episode in 2022, which Butler tackled with similar willingness.

Despite The Running Man’s disappointing opening weekend, I am sure Powell will have more opportunities to host SNL in the future. He’s got plenty coming down the pike, including that new JJ Abrams movie and a black comedy with Margaret Qualley, plus new films from Barry Jenkins, Ron Howard, and Judd Apatow. And at SOME point he will hopefully make that series adaption of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with Regé-Jean Page. RJP is also a good SNL host. If they ever make that series, one of them can host and one can do a drop-in, and then we would ALL win. Just make the series already, Powell!