Back in Action: September 1991

This year, I’m taking a month-by-month look at the action movies released globally in 1991, talking about the trends and individual titles that made the year in the genre and comparing them to the releases in 2026. You can read the previous monthly entries here.

Let’s take a look at the state of action in September 1991 and September 2026, with expanded thoughts on specific movies at the bottom for paid subscribers.

The numbers

I found 37 action movies in September 1991 from 13 filmmaking nations. (Here’s a Letterboxd list.)

In September 2026, I found 40 action movies from 12 filmmaking nations. (Here’s another Letterboxd list.)

The number of action movies released globally holds relatively steady from August, a slight dip from the heights of summer. The most interesting data point for me here is that the USA had the most action movies released in September 2026 by far, which isn’t really something we’ve seen in the 2026 data to this point. The usual caveat of China likely being underreported due to many new Chinese movies not appearing on the databases of American-centric movie sites applies.

Crime was once again the most popular sub-genre in 1991 (11 movies), with a lot of darker action thrillers (7) as well. The next-most popular sub-genres were action dramas and sci-fi action movies (6 each). There were also two different Seven Samurai riffs (McBain, The Roller Blade Seven) and, continuing a trend we’ve seen throughout this project, multiple prison action movies (Alias ‘La Gringa’, Wedlock).

In September 2026, action thrillers were the most popular sub-genre (16), although there was a broader distribution of sub-genres in general, with plenty of action dramas (9), period action movies (6), sci-fi actioners (6), action comedies (5), spy movies (4), war movies (4), fantasy action movies (3), and action-horror movies (3).

Who were we fighting?

The most popular action protagonist type in September 1991 was criminal (9), breaking the stranglehold cops have had on this particular leaderboard all year (although they’re right behind, with 8). The most unique protagonist types this month were watchmaker (Timebomb) and sword-wielding roller skater (The Roller Blade Seven). The most common antagonist type was once again criminal (23), with corrupt official (6) and cop (3) the next-most common.

In September 2026, soldiers were the most popular protagonist type, with eight new action movies featuring a soldier or ex-soldier as the lead. Next-most popular were cops (4), criminals (3), and moms (2, Dark Hollow and Gandhari). This time, the most unique action types were fishing captain (Mandaadi), and former bandmates (BONNIE - Eine Münchner Action-Komödie).

In September 1991, 76% of action heroes had a background in violence, while 24% didn’t. In September 2026, 60% of action heroes had a background in violence, while 40% didn’t. This tracks with general trends we’ve seen throughout the project, as the role of “action hero” gets opened up to broader possibilities.

In September 1991, 84% of action heroes were men, and 16% were women. In September 2026, it’s about the same – 86% men, 14% women. This also tracks with what we’ve seen throughout the year: Most months, the two years are pretty close and strongly skewed towards men, with 1991 usually having slightly more women-led action movies.

America

September 1991

For the third month in a row, the biggest action movies at the Hollywood box office were hits from earlier in the summer – Terminator 2, Hot Shots!, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. In fact, not a single American action movie released in September made more than $2 million at the box office that month. The leader was Company Business, an odd-couple Cold War spy movie with Gene Hackman and Mikhail Baryshnikov that pulled in $1.5 million. By all accounts the movie was a total mess – Hackman tried to pull out but was forced to stay after an MGM lawsuit, and filming started without a finished script.

Next up at the box office was McBain, an over-the-top Rambo-sequel-style riff on Seven Samurai from director James Glickenhaus (best known for Jackie Chan’s The Protector) starring Christopher Walken as a Vietnam vet hired to do a coup in Colombia for revenge or something. McBain received offers from major studios for distribution, but Glickenhaus’s production company decided to release it themselves to keep the home video rights – it ended up grossing just $456,127 against its reported $16 million budget. A fun fact: the parody action hero McBain from The Simpsons actually predates this movie by a year.

Other notable September action releases in America included the made-for-HBO sci-fi actioner Wedlock, starring Rutger Hauer and from director Lewis Teague (Alligator, Cujo). The movie has a wild premise (more below) and was nominated for a Sound Editing enemy. There was also the first Hollywood movie from celebrated Israeli director Avi Nesher (Timebomb), the Dolph-Lundgren-as-a-journalist conspiracy thriller Cover-Up, and the cult movie The Roller Blade Seven, the first example of filmmaker Scott Shaw’s preferred scriptless “zen filmmaking” approach.

September 2026

Previous releases from the summer also led the way for action movies at the September 2026 Hollywood box office. Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey continued to clean up, with Avengers Endgame: Encore also beating out any new releases in the genre. The top new release at the box office was Runner, starring Alan Ritchson (Reacher), which pulled in just over $14 million. (That’s a different movie than The Runner, starring Gal Gadot, which debuted straight-to-Prime-Video earlier in the month.)

Next-best at the box office was the American release of Korean monster movie Hope (which I saw in a double feature with Resident Evil). Other notable American releases included the Apple TV spy comedy Mayday, Adam Wingard’s new action-horror movie Onslaught, Bassam Tariq’s hitman drama Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, and right-wing slop Run Hide Fight: Infidels, from the Daily Wire and starring disgraced former movie star Jonathan Majors.

East Asia

September 1991

New Hong Kong action movies this month included a Sammo Hung comedy (Slickers vs. Killers), a hitman movie with Jacky Cheung and Simon Yam (Bullet for Hire), an Andy Lau gangster movie (Hong Kong Godfather), and the seventh and final official entry in the In the Line of Duty series (Sea Wolves).

In Japan, director Hiroyuki Kitokubo (who worked on Mobile Suit Gundam and Akira) released the original sci-fi/action anime Roujin Z, a satire about 21st-century geriatric health care and also a mecha movie. Written by Akira’s Katsuhiro Otomo, Roujin Z also features art direction and set design by newcomer Satoshi Kon, who would later direct Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika.

September 2026

China’s biggest box office hit of the late summer has been the anti-war comedy Once Upon a Time in the Middle East, outpacing any major action releases. Avengers Endgame: Encore also performed well here, and July animated release All Wishes Come True! continues to clean up.

Two notable new straight-to-digital releases I want to highlight: Peacekeeper Elite: Metro Escape, a 42-minute post-apocalyptic action movie from celebrated director Soi Cheang (Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In) and Operation Hummingbird, which seems like a Chinese military version of Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

South and Southeast Asia

September 1991

The most significant new action release out of India in September 1991 was the box office bomb Shanti Kranti, one of the first Indian movies to film simultaneously in four different languages. Unlike most modern examples of multilingual Indian movies, Shanti Kranti had three different leads for the four different versions. Writer/director V. Ravichandran starred in the original Kannada version and played a supporting role in the Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu versions, but the extremely ambitious and expensive production got to him – he almost quit multiple times during the two-year filming process.

The other significant release was Saathi, a Hindi movie influenced by Scarface that was the biggest hit of lead Aditya Pancholi’s career.

September 2026

The gangster movie Mirzapur broke through to become one of the biggest hits at the Bollywood box office, ranking seventh across India and fifth for Hindi-language movies so far this year. Other notable new releases include the fantasy thriller The Vvaan: Force of the Forrest, the Telugu period actioner The Paradise, the sailboat racing movie Mandaadi, and the action comedy Vibe.

Everywhere else

September 1991

The action drama Alias ‘La Gringa’, Peru’s submission for the Oscars that year, premiered in mid-September. It's a highly political prison drama that got great reviews when it came out.

Meanwhile, in Italy, the action thriller Blue Tornado debuted. It seems to be some sort of English-language Italian Top Gun, but with aliens? You can always count on the Italian film industry.

September 2026

Two notable UK movies worth mentioning – the historical action drama The Uprising and the third movie in the one-take trilogy One Shot. The Uprising got pulled into some bizarre controversy after Focus Features decided to market the movie in the US as a Robin Hood movie, just months after the latest failed Robin Hood adaptation to hit the big screen. The movie is actually about the 1381 English Peasants’ Revolt, and stars Andrew Garfield.

One Last Shot caps the One Shot trilogy, this time pairing Scott Adkins with Dolph Lundgren. (Side note: Always fun when an actor has movies that came out the same month both years.) I haven’t been able to watch this one yet, but I enjoyed the first two quite a bit.

Best poster:

I love how the characters in Timebomb are running on top of the Timebomb poster. It’s very Tron (complimentary).

For paid subscribers, I’ve written some thoughts about all the action movies I watched from September 1991 (Cover-Up, Wedlock, Slickers vs. Killers, and McBain). I’m also keeping lists ranking the 1991 action movies and 2026 action movies I’ve watched while doing this project. And here’s a preview of the movies I’ll be looking at for October 1991.

September 1991 action movies

Cover-Up