Alan Ritchson’s new film Motor City earned just $2.94 million worldwide against a $30 million budget.
The Reacher star has been vocal in his criticism of Trump supporters, and conservatives have responded by staying away from his work. Motor City is the latest, and most expensive, consequence of that divide.
The film is a revenge thriller set in 1970s Detroit. Ritchson plays John Miller, a man whose life falls apart after he gets involved with a local gangster’s girlfriend. Miller is framed for a crime he did not commit, goes to prison, and returns with one goal: getting even with everyone who set him up. The movie is notably light on dialogue, leaning heavily on its visual storytelling.
Motor City spent considerable time on the festival circuit before earning a wide theatrical release. Despite some positive early buzz, the momentum never materialized into ticket sales. On its opening weekend, the film screened in 1,600 theaters across the country.
As originally reported by AOL, the film’s unique approach to storytelling sparked some curiosity, but that curiosity never converted into consistent audience turnout. The numbers tell a blunt story: a $30 million production that grossed less than $3 million at the worldwide box office is, by any measure, a significant financial failure.
Critics were not the problem. Motor City holds a 65% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 69% audience score, suggesting the people who actually saw it found it reasonably solid. The issue was getting people into seats in the first place.
Ritchson built a loyal fanbase through Reacher, Amazon Prime’s hit action series. That platform gave him considerable reach and recognition. But his outspoken political commentary has drawn sharp backlash from conservative viewers, many of whom have made clear they have no interest in supporting his projects.
Motor City is not the first film to suffer at the box office amid an actor’s political controversy, and it almost certainly won’t be the last. What makes this case notable is the scale of the gap between the film’s budget and its return, and the fact that the reviews were largely decent. The movie didn’t fail because critics panned it. It failed because not enough people bought tickets.
Whether Ritchson’s box office struggles are directly tied to his political statements or simply reflect the challenges of releasing a quiet, dialogue-light thriller into a crowded market is a question without a clean answer. What the numbers do make clear is that Motor City did not find its audience, and a $30 million budget with under $3 million in returns leaves very little room for spin.