A revenge thriller starring Alan Ritchson has failed to start off strong. Despite the actor’s global fame from Reacher, his new movie Motor City stalled at the box office, collecting just $1.6 million on its opening weekend.

Motor City’s Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes teases why it failed at box office

The reception to Motor City reveals a critical gap between artistic experimentation and mainstream appeal. The film currently holds a 69% verified audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, a rating that sits alongside a lukewarm 65% critics’ score. While the former score indicates generally favourable reactions, it seems not to translate to drive ticket sales through word of mouth.

Set in 1970s Detroit, the film has Alan Ritchson as John Miller, an ex-convict framed by a crime boss. What sets the thriller apart is its commitment to visual storytelling; director Potsy Ponciroli strips dialogue almost entirely away, relying on a classic rock soundtrack, stylized visuals, and Ritchson’s physical performance to carry the narrative. For a niche audience, this approach worked. User reviews on the platform frequently praise the soundtrack and the intricately choreographed fight sequences, celebrating the film’s throwback aesthetic to vintage crime cinema.

However, a closer look at the data explains the box office roadblock. A Popcornmeter score near the high sixties shows a divided reaction, not a wave of universal approval. For an unconventional action film to break out, it needs a vocal army of fans generating hype. Instead, the response remained muted. Many viewers found the lack of dialogue a hindrance rather than an artistic triumph, leaving the film trapped between being a cult curiosity and a crowd-pleaser.

The result was a disastrous $1.6 million opening from roughly 1,600 cinemas (via Box Office Mojo). Having premiered at the Venice Film Festival, the movie simply could not translate festival intrigue into commercial heat as of now.