Russell Crowe’s Beloved WWII Hit Is Taking the Fight to Prime Video’s Record Breaking ‘The Tank’

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Russell Crowe as Herman Göring in uniform facing camera in Nuremberg

Rahul Malhotra is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has been writing for Collider for over two years, and has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal to introduce audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

Swing and a miss > measured victory. Also, #JusticeForHan. (He/Him).

Two very different kinds of World War 2 films are battling it out on home video, with the courtroom drama Nuremberg holding its ground despite competition from the psychological thriller The Tank. Nuremberg was released theatrically last year to mostly positive reviews and an enthusiastic response from audiences. They've been powering the film against competition for the past several weeks. More recently, it has found itself sharing eyeballs with Prime Video's German-language hit The Tank, which has been topping the streamer's global viewership charts for the past week, according to FlixPatrol. However, Nuremberg has passed a major milestone of its own, having completed 30 days on the domestic PVOD charts.

Directed by James Vanderbilt, the film was headlined by the Oscar-winning Russell Crowe and Rami Malek. Crowe starred as the Nazi war criminal Hermann Göring, who is pitted against an American psychiatrist, played by Malek. The two engage in a psychological duel ahead of Göring's trial for his crimes. The movie made around $40 million at the global box office, against a reported budget of $10 million. Also starring Leo Woodall, John Slattery, Michael Shannon and others, the movie is sitting at a 72% critics' score and a "verified hot" 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The aggregator's consensus reads, "Driven by a commanding performance from Russell Crowe, Nuremberg is a handsomely crafted historical drama, but its measured pacing and emotional restraint keep it from fully realizing the complexity of its subject."

'The Tank' Has Emerged as a Streaming Sensation

The Tank, on the other hand, has emerged as Prime Video's most-watched German-language film ever. It follows a group of German soldiers who are sent into enemy territory to retrieve a commandant. During their mission, they are forced to contemplate the horrors they've been forced to commit. Directed by Dennis Gansel, who examined the effects of authoritarianism with his breakout movie, The Wave, The Tank doesn't yet have an official RT score, but it has clearly struck a chord with audiences. In a piece for Collider, Charlie Ridgeley wrote, "The Tank is a beautifully shot movie with captivating performances and a trippy, divisive ending that you will not see coming." You can watch both The Tank and Nuremberg at home, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.