I know that auto racing films in the US have a mostly poor box office record but I'm wondering if the fact that Rush was Formula 1 made it even worse. F1 racing isn't really that popular in the US compared to other countries.
shareNo American hero. No-one to identify with for those who want to see their favorite win. A sport that no-one knows the rules of and that has regularly a non-American winner. I'm not criticizing here, just analyzing. Movies about baseball or (American) football or their heroes never made it big in Europe, either.
Anecdote: When I was an exchange student in the States a looooong time ago, my 12-year old host brother told me "You're really stupid!" when I dared ask who Babe Ruth was, whose name I had just heard for the first-time ever in my 18-year old life. So, how many Americans know Niki Lauda?
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I blow my nose at you and all your silly English k-nnnnniggets.
No American hero. No-one to identify with for those who want to see their favorite win. A sport that no-one knows the rules of and that has regularly a non-American winner.Sad to say, you're probably right.🐭 share
I agree with pepper. I wrote in another post:
I think it had to do with the fact that Formula 1 is not only not popular in America, it is virtually unknown. That combined with actors speaking with foreign accents (that includes British accents) and the occasional subtitles makes for a recipe for absolute indifference by the audience.
F1 is just a very big thing in Europe and South America. Make a film about Senna in Brazil and theaters would be packed. Make a film about Schumacher in Germany...
In the US baseball movies tend to do quite well. I personally would never watch one.
Jessica Rabbit
"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."
So u wouldn't watch a "baseball movie". Is that because u r not American? I don't mean to be rude so don't take that as an insult but seems to me that if u r a movie fan u should watch a movie with an open mind and base your opinion more on it's quality rather then it's subject matter. I will admit this film (Rush) did not look all that interesting so I didn't go see it in the theater but just watching it on HBO found it to be pretty damn good. So I would suggest u check out a few baseball movies (or sports movies that are somewhat foreign) and who knows u might be surprised what u may find and like. "The Natural" is a great baseball movie if u haven't seen it (Robert Redford, Glenn Close, Wilford Brimley). Check it out, otherwise u may not know what ur missing :)
It just means it's not a big thing in their country.
Let's just look at it without the nationality issue. Let's say there's a film about a great violinist but you were never into that sort of thing, would you watch it? He didn't mean he doesn't watch it because it's American. It's just not something people in their country would be interested in, even if the core of the story is a very human story and the sports is the backdrop. Same as the story about a violinist that you won't be interested in, despite that it could be a very good movie.
It's true people may not have the interest in certain subjects that movies base themselves around, but that in no way means that that is a good way to select a movie. After all the fact that a movie has a good human story is what's really important. Whether it's a movie about football or futball (or even a violinist) is not really what make it something people will respond to, it's the story and how it makes us feel when we watch it. It's true that F-1 isn't a big enough thing over here in the U.S. and that it alone wouldn't interest most American viewers enough to go see this movie. I think it also was the fact that Liam Hemsworth is not a huge star (although he's building a name for himself) and he was the most well known actor in this film to people in the U.S. market. If Hemsworth's character was played by Brad Pitt then that may have been enough for people here to give it a chance on a larger scale.
shareWrong Hemsworth
shareBull Durham is the best baseball movie. 8 Men Out, Major League and A League Of Their Own are others. The Natural isn't really a baseball movie, it uses it as a backdrop.
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Poster is really saying that its not known. Like how a few foreign movies I didn't see because I live in America. It's just unknown to me. I have to discover them to watch them.
shareWhy do Americans describe sports followed all over the world (with the possible exception of the USA) as only being big in Europe and South America? They do the same with football.
F1 has viewers, supporters and successful drivers from all over the world, including the USA.
What are you saying: that movies with British actors are not popular in America? What makes you come to that conclusion?
shareF1 is just a very big thing in Europe and South America.You're half right. It's big throughout the world, just not in the USA.🐭 share
Agree with both Jessica and Pepper. Personally I absolutely loved the film but then again, I've had an interest in F1 for a long time including playing F1 racing sims on the PC. :-)
shareThat being said, I can't really claim I'm a big fan of F1 either. I had some interest in it in the seventies (as a teen)... but that is really questionable since that was the era when there was about a 50 per cent fatality rate among drivers...
I followed Niki Lauda in his time, because, let's face it, Germans consider Austrians as kind of their kin (probably quite true, culturally and historically speaking). Though I can't say I ever really watched Michael Schumacher, while still accepting his record wins with a sort of national pride. I pretty much lost interest in all car racing since and follow it more for statistical purposes.
Nevertheless, I like racing movies of that era though I've never been to any of those contests and would be glad today if high-revving engines would vanish from the face of this earth, at least outside race circuits.
Hey, by the way... how did LE MANS perform in the U.S., considering Steve McQueen played an American driver?
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I blow my nose at you and all your silly English k-nnnnniggets.
Every German who watches F1 knows Lauda... he is and has been commenting every race forever on German TV. So there's quite an interest I suppose.
shareAs a fan of movies, I loved it, and it actually piqued my interest in Formula 1 racing. But as other commenters have suggested, F1 isn't huge in the U.S. It's a sad commentary if a movie doesn't perform well here, just because there isn't an American "hero" or protagonist to identify with.
shareSad but normal and expectable, I guess. If one wants to blame Americans for not being interested in "the Rest of the World™", there are other issues to start with before we need to talk about movies.
PS: No idea why the "TM" displays so prominently, I just inserted it via charmap.exe.
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I blow my nose at you and all your silly English k-nnnnniggets.
just watched it tonight and I absolutely loved it. And have a new found respect for 2 racers ive never even knew of until tonight.
shareJust finished watching this also. I live in the U.S. and had never heard of F1. Still don't know what it is ... those racing cars I suppose. Yet I loved this movie. You feel like you are right in the race not knowing what's going to happen. It's the character study of these two guys ... so different, competing with each other yet respecting each other. Marvelous film.
shareIt did poorly for several reasons:
1) F1 is not followed much in the US. The last American to do well in F1 was Mario Andretti who is mentioned in the film. It is only recently that all F1 races have been broadcast in the US.
2) Lauda and Hunt are unknown in the US outside of the hardest of hard core racing fans. While most racing fans have heard of Schumacher, Hamilton, etc. Remember Lauda and Hunt were at their prime over 30 years ago. At that time there were only 3 major channels in the US and F1 received zero TV coverage in the US. ABC Wide World of Sport would occasionally mention F1, but it got little attention in the US news papers and sports magazine.
3) The popularity of auto racing has been on the decline in the US for some time now. NASCAR races used to sell out and now there are tones of empty seats. Indy Car racing has never recovered since the split into two circuits, although now there is only one.
4) It opened in September which is not the best month and had major competition from Gravity the weekend post its $10mm open.
5) For a film like this to do well in the US, it needed to me promoted by the sports networks i.e. ESPN, Fox Sports, etc. They never discussed this firm before it opened.
I loved this film and thought it was overlooked by the Oscars. it was the best film I saw in 2013.
Regarding the OP's question, no doubt the lack of general interest in and awareness of F1 in the US is a reason for a relative lack of box office success. But I do not think it is the only one.
As far back as 2000 I noticed a film I very much enjoyed, Almost Famous, did relatively poorly at the box office. Why would I bring that up in a comparison to Rush? One is about a teenager following a rock band, the other about a rivalry in F1. Not much in common on the face of it.
But look beneath the surface. What do they both have in common? Set in the early to mid seventies is one thing. Another is that many of the characters are having lots of fun doing naughty things, at least some of the time. Good looking people, too, for the most part. In fact one can take at least parts of them, parts of their lives, and find some things that those so inclined might even envy.
But that time in 2000 was about 25 years before, and now it is about 40 years later. So?
I think in general there is an aversion to period pieces, even ones set in relatively recent history. For example even American Hustle arguably might have found a larger audience, but did not, for some reason.
In short I think it is a generational thing. Younger people I think don't like to be presented with something that shows their parents' generation were actually cool, had a great time, looked great and anything of the sort. It's not something they think about in general, and it's not something they have any interest in learning about.
I think that's a factor, too.
"I think in general there is an aversion to period pieces, even ones set in relatively recent history."
Kenny, that is a very interesting theory that younger people "don't like to be presented with something that shows their parents' generation were actually cool...". Actually, I don't think it's a theory but simply the truth.
I personally love period pieces, but it's true that historical films and shows don't tend to do well at the box office. (Don't say now Game of Thrones is a big success, because it is not a historical show).
Jessica Rabbit
"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."
Game of thrones is also on television not a movie. And I don't believe anyone was going to mention anything with dragons was historical.
shareI enjoyed "Rush" like I enjoyed "Days of Thunder" for what they are: fun to watch auto-racing popcorn movies. Rush is based on history while Days of Thunder is pure fiction. But just as Days of Thunder did not turn me into a NASCAR fan, Rush will not turn me into a F1 fan.
shareFormula 1 isn't big in the USA at all, and I'm guessing that about 95% of Americans probably never heard of either Hunt or Lauda (I know I hadn't). I don't think they had a very strong ad campaign over here either. Not a whole lot of fanfare for as Ron Howard movies go. I have to say that I regret not seeing it in the theater. It was a FANTASTIC movie.
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