They say that slow and steady wins the race, and while that might not be true in actual racing or even really at the box office, a performance doesn’t always have to be flashy to get the job done. For example, take James Mangold’s racing drama Ford v Ferrari. The critically acclaimed film released wide back on November 15, and now Ford v Ferrari just passed a major box office milestone.
Ford v Ferrari has raced past the $200 million milestone, according to Deadline, making $200.6 million through Monday. The breakdown on that $200.6 million is far more evenly split for the drama than you would get with a blockbuster film. The drama starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale has made $106.6 million domestically, while $94 million has come at the international box office.
Domestically, Ford v Ferrari debuted on November 15 and lapped its rivals to earn first place at the box office with a $31.4 million opening weekend. The crowd-pleasing film has since rode great reviews and an absolutely glowing A+ CinemaScore, indicating good word of mouth, to a stellar seven-week run in the domestic box office top 10. It’s an impressive run for a film that faced the holiday onslaught of prestige fare and mammoth blockbusters alike.
Internationally, Ford v Ferrari, which is titled Le Mans ’66 in some European territories, has added to that domestic performance. Russia leads the international box office for the racing film with $10.1 million. In France, where the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been taking place since 1923, Ford v Ferrari has earned $9.4 million. Other markets where the film has performed well are Korea, the United Kingdom and Australia, with $9.3 million, $7.9 million and $6.9 million, respectively.
For a movie that cost near $100 million to make, a $200 million worldwide box office isn’t quite a perfect lap given the traditional math and number-crunching that goes into determining if a movie is profitable (a good rule of thumb is it needing to make around two and half to three times its budget, if not more). Still, it’s a great performance for an adult drama in a blockbuster-driven marketplace that is rather unforgiving to such fare.
Ford v Ferrari isn’t done yet either. James Mangold’s based on a true story movie has yet to release in some key international markets. The film opens in Japan on January 10, and a release date in the world’s second-biggest film market China has not yet been determined.
Beyond cracking this box office milestone, Ford v Ferrari has a different kind of prize in sight: the gold kind. The Fox movie, inherited by Disney, is a serious awards contender, and thankfully, Disney believes in the film and is putting some effort behind its awards season campaign.
Ford v Ferrari has already received recognition from critics groups as well as the National Board of Review and it has earned nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Golden Globes. We’ll see on January 13 when the Oscar nominations are announced what sort of recognition this film gets from the Academy. But for now, it’s nice to see that the film has had a solid box office performance.
Ford v Ferrari is now playing. Check out our 2020 Release Schedule to see all of the biggest movies racing to theaters in the new year.
