Russell Crowe’s ‘Unabomber’ Conquers Netflix, but the Numbers Tell a More Modest Story
Netflix’s appetite for true crime shows no sign of fading, and ‘Unabomber’ is the latest proof. The original feature arrived on the streamer on Friday, September 25, with director Janus Metz leading a cast that includes Russell Crowe, Jacob Tremblay, Annabelle Wallis, and Shailene Woodley. It also landed just 8 days after ‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story,’ giving subscribers another major true crime title within a short span.
The film traces Ted Kaczynski’s path from teenage Harvard prodigy to domestic terrorist. Tremblay plays the young Kaczynski, while Crowe plays Dr. Henry Murray, the demanding Harvard psychology professor behind the controversial experiments Kaczynski took part in. Wallis appears in the Harvard timeline as Christiana Morgan, Murray’s real-life academic collaborator.
When Netflix’s official weekly numbers arrived, the result looked impressive at first. ‘Unabomber’ debuted at No. 1 on the English film chart with 16.4 million views in its opening frame, and it also led the charts in more than 70 territories. The thriller topped all streamed Netflix content for the week ending September 27, pushing ‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ down to No. 2 overall.
The chart victory still needs context. In its weekly Top 10 breakdown, What’s on Netflix described the launch as a middling start and noted that September’s biggest movie didn’t deliver a huge debut despite its all-star cast. Its comparison of this year’s movie openings places ‘Unabomber’ 12th among the titles tracked.
UNABOMBER debuted with 16.4M views on Netflix in its first 3 days. That places it in the middle of the pack for 2026 movie releases. (More: https://t.co/KoY9dWOaaW) https://t.co/QGqyk5wRkU
— What’s on Netflix (@whatonnetflix) September 29, 2026
The outlet’s chart shows how far that is from the top. ‘The Rip’ leads the list with 41.4 million opening views, while ‘Unabomber’ sits just behind ‘People We Meet on Vacation’ at 17.2 million and just ahead of ‘Swapped’ at 15.5 million. That puts Crowe’s thriller in the middle rather than among Netflix’s breakout hits.
Russell Crowe, Jacob Tremblay, Annabelle Wallis, and Shailene Woodley star in the trailer for #Unabomber.
— Rotten Tomatoes 🍅 (@RottenTomatoes) August 27, 2026
Premiering September 25 on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/xGZ0tpi5KT
Some of that is timing, since the film debuted on a Friday, which meant its opening tally covered only 3 days. It still collected 27.4 million hours of viewing in that short window.
Reviews haven’t helped. ‘Unabomber’ has been sitting in the low 20s on Rotten Tomatoes, which Collider noted would be the worst critical showing of Metz’s career. Audiences have been only a little kinder, giving the film a 31% Popcornmeter score.
Even so, weak reviews have rarely stopped a Netflix true crime title from finding viewers. ‘The Whisper Man’ and ‘The Last House’ are both nearing 100 million views despite mediocre critical reception, which suggests ‘Unabomber’ could still have room to grow.
The genre’s pull is hard to ignore. If Netflix makes an original movie or series about a real-life criminal, it has a strong chance of reaching the Top 10. The documentary ‘Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers’ has also been charting alongside ‘Unabomber.’
CBR tied the trend to Ryan Murphy, arguing that his anthology helped spark the current wave of morbid curiosity that ‘Unabomber’ is now continuing. With ‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ still leading the English TV chart, the platform is having another big true crime month.
‘Unabomber’ also takes a different angle than a typical manhunt drama. The film looks beyond the FBI investigation into Kaczynski’s early life at Harvard, where he was admitted at 16, and his involvement in Murray’s psychological experiments. That CIA-funded research exposed undergraduate subjects to verbal attacks, emotional interrogation, and other forms of psychological stress.
The story is split into 2 timelines, 1 set during Kaczynski’s college years and the other during the long manhunt. It explores how that academic trauma fed into his later radicalization and a 17-year bombing campaign carried out from an isolated cabin in Lincoln, Montana. Whether week 2 brings a bigger rebound or a steep drop, Crowe’s name has clearly given the film a strong enough start to lead Netflix for now.
What do you think of Russell Crowe’s Unabomber dominating Netflix despite mixed reviews?
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