Runner stars Alan Ritchson. The Runner stars Gal Gadot. They’re both action films, out within two weeks of each other. What happened? I can’t be the only one who’s got into a tiny bit of a muddle over the advertising for a pair of movies currently doing the rounds. On the one hand, you’ve got ... Runner and The Runner | Why two films with basically the same name are landing now
Runner stars Alan Ritchson. The Runner stars Gal Gadot. They’re both action films, out within two weeks of each other. What happened?
I can’t be the only one who’s got into a tiny bit of a muddle over the advertising for a pair of movies currently doing the rounds. On the one hand, you’ve got The Runner, which is playing on Prime Video and stars Gal Gadot. On the other, posters are up in the UK at least for Runner, which doesn’t feature Gal Gadot, and instead seems to feature Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson.
They are, and I know this may sound obvious but I did get muddled and bet I’m not the only one, two entirely different movies. But also two movies with basically the same name, being released and heavily promoted within two weeks of each other. Can’t remember a clash quite like it before, at least not in such proximity.
The reason it’s come about is a simple case of neither side willing to blink.
Scott Waugh is the director of Runner not The Runner, and he’s been doing one of those Reddit Ask Me Anything sessions, where this very question came up. Waugh, whose directorial credits also include Need For Speed and Act Of Valor, admitted to the frustrated.
“Unfortunately, we already had our title announced and our marketing underway when The Runner came along”, he argued. “And they weren’t willing to change their title or release date.”
Crosschecking this with the Hollywood trades, that doesn’t entirely stack up that it came out of nowhere. The Runner not Runner was announced right back in November 2024, whilst Runner not The Runner was announced in February 2025. Advertising and marketing on both titles wouldn’t have begun until this year. While it’s entirely feasible that the release date announcements came late, both parties could have foreseen this particular run-off (arf) coming.
Still, they still tried to do something about it. As per Scott Waugh, the team behind Runner approached the team behind The Runner to suggest a title change. Amazon backed The Runner and has much, much deeper pockets. It’s not hard to gleam what its answer was.
Waugh does get a tiny little dig in, not just pointing out that “they’re completely different movies” but also “just to clarify, ours is the one playing in theaters.”
Runner, thus, is playing in cinemas. You can find The Runner, not Runner, on the Prime Video service. Separately, you can find the Ben Affleck/Matt Damon reality competition show The Runner – not making this up, released this summer – on Verizon go90 in the US. Road Runner meanwhile, can currently be seen in the brilliant Coyote Vs Acme.
There’s a movie universe/crossover film waiting to happen here. Just don’t put Runner in the title.
