Paul Greengrass’ The Uprising opened to just $3.1–$3.3 million this past weekend, showing at 2,068 theatres. It’s a rough start for a $20 million historical drama starring an actor with two Oscar nominations and Spider-Man credentials to boot.
The shocker? It’s Garfield’s second-lowest wide-release opening ever. One of his other 2026 releases, The Magic Faraway Tree (an adaptation of Enid Blyton’s children’s book of the same name), opened to just $1.3 million on August 21, the actual lowest wide-release debut of Garfield’s career. Three weeks later, The Uprising nearly matched it. And it’s not because the films were inherently ‘bad.’ Film Focus Online called The Magic Faraway Tree a ‘sweet and welcome slice of family fantasy adventure.’ Audiences agreed even more than critics did – the film holds a 78% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes (80% with audiences). Tame critiques touched on humor struggles and weak dramatic stakes.
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What about The Uprising? ScreenRant’s review gave it 9/10 and praised it as a film that never loses sight of the humanity at the heart of massive conflicts. However, reception is split between critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics scoring it in the low-to-mid 50s and audiences somewhat higher — and both numbers are still moving as more reviews come in.
When it came to The Uprising’s marketing campaign, Focus Features didn’t help matters. Mere weeks before release, the studio abruptly rebranded the medieval drama (briefly promoting it under the amended title The Uprising: The Rise of Robin Hood) as a stealth Robin Hood origin story.
It felt tacked on rather than intentional, and the name drop didn’t bring in the numbers they thought it would.
It probably didn’t help the film’s box office numbers when Garfield became vocal about what he hopes audiences take from the film. At a Q&A for The Uprising, he said he hopes any billionaires who watch it come away “scared sh**less,” calling the ultra-wealthy the people who might need the film’s message the most.
But at the end of the day, this isn’t really a story about a movie’s marketing gamble backfiring, or a call-out of billionaires landing or not. It’s an example of how even a strong film and an award-winning lead isn’t enough to get people into theatres at the moment — twice, for the same actor, in the same month.
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The Uprising |
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Based on the true story of the uprising that inspired the legend of Robin Hood, Andrew Garfield stars as the leader of a rebellion against the tyranny of King Richard II in a fight for justice. |
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| Studio: Focus Features, Entertainment Film Distributors |
| Running Time: 128 minutes |
| Release Date: 10 September 2026 |
| Cast: Andrew Garfield, Jamie Bell, Stephen Dillane, Tom Hollander, Cosmo Jarvis, Thomasin McKenzie, Jonny Lee Miller, Woody Norman, Katherine Waterston |
| Director: Paul Greengrass |
| Writers: Paul Greengrass |
| Genre: Action, Drama, History, War |
| Box Office: $3.3 million |
