Ferrari: The Box Office Disappointment

The Flop at the Box Office

Ferrari, the new movie from director Michael Mann, has experienced a crushing defeat during its opening week at the box office. Starring Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari, the movie follows the entrepreneur's attempt to stave off bankruptcy by entering a team into the 1957 Mille Miglia race. The ensemble cast also includes Pen\u00e9lope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, Sarah Gadon, Gabriel Leone, Jack O'Connell, and Patrick Dempsey.

Enzo Ferrari walks past a yellow Ferrari in the rain in Ferrari

Per Deadline, the Ferrari release, which began on Christmas day, has closed out the week with a 4-day domestic total of $6.8 million. This places it at No. 9 on the domestic chart, behind all six of the other major wide releases that premiered over the holiday weekend as well as two holdover releases, Wonka and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. This domestic gross represents just a fraction of the movie's reported $95 million production budget, earning back roughly 7% of that total.

It remains to be seen if the Ferrari movie can shake off the theatrical doldrums and turn a profit. However, that would be a considerable achievement, considering the fact that it will likely have to earn somewhere in the realm of $190 million to reach the break-even point, based on its budget.

The Impact on Adam Driver

This theatrical performance is more bad news for Ferrari star Adam Driver. Driver’s 2023 has been challenging, as he opened the year with the science fiction flop 65, in which he played a space pilot who found himself stranded on a dinosaur-ridden Earth 65 million years in the past. That movie earned a Rotten 35% score on Rotten Tomatoes and only made $60.7 million off its $45 million production budget, failing to make a profit.

65 is the 59th highest-grossing movie of the year worldwide, behind anniversary re-releases including Frozen and Titanic. It remains to be seen if any upcoming Driver projects can reverse his 2023 trajectory after Ferrari. The most high-profile project featuring Driver that has been officially announced is Megalopolis. The upcoming movie, which is a passion project of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, would have to be a major hit to make a profit off its reported budget of $120 million, but it could nevertheless help raise Driver’s profile as he finds new projects in which to star that could propel his financial prospects further.

The Distribution Costs

Ferrari's distribution rights also cost $15M.