The St. Lawrence River at Varennes, Quebec, one of the film's shooting locations. Photo: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Varennes_et_fleuve_Saint-Laurent.jpg">Michel Craig</a> / CC BY-SA 2.0
Ken Carter never made it across the St. Lawrence River, and the movie about him barely made it out of the parking lot. The Stunt Driver, Michael Dowse’s comedy about the Canadian daredevil known as “The Mad Canadian,” opened wide in the U.S. on September 25 and pulled in just $106,751 from 670 theaters over its first weekend, according to The Numbers.
That’s an average of about $159 per screen. At a typical ticket price, that’s roughly a dozen and a half people per theater for the entire weekend.
The Stunt Driver Box Office Got Worse Every Day
IFC released the film. Friday brought in $61,928, usually the strongest day for a movie with an eager audience waiting for it. Saturday then fell 61% to $24,353, on a day when ticket sales normally rise. Sunday added $20,470.
- Friday, Sept. 25: $61,928
- Saturday, Sept. 26: $24,353 (down 61%)
- Sunday, Sept. 27: $20,470 (down 16%)
- Opening weekend: $106,751 on 670 screens
The Numbers lists that opening weekend as the film’s entire domestic total, with an average run of one week per theater. Screen Rant called it a “historically low debut” for a wide release. In plain terms, theaters appear to have dropped it almost immediately.
It’s Not a Bad Movie
Critics mostly liked it. The film holds a 73% on Rotten Tomatoes from 41 reviews, and much of the praise goes to Jay Baruchel’s turn as Carter. One review noted that Baruchel “never makes Carter a clown.” The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, the same festival where Sung Kang’s AE86 movie Drifter debuted, before opening in Canadian theaters.
The cast is solid, too:
- Jay Baruchel as Ken Carter
- Ed Helms
- Ben Foster as Evel Knievel
- Laurence Leboeuf
That points to a release problem more than a quality problem. Spreading a small Canadian period comedy across 670 U.S. screens with little visible marketing is a tough bet, and a story that’s a legend in Canada doesn’t carry the same name recognition south of the border.
The Real Ken Carter Rocket Car Story Is Wilder Than the Box Office
Car people who know the history will understand why someone wanted to make this movie. The film draws on the National Film Board of Canada’s 1981 documentary The Devil at Your Heels, directed by Robert Fortier, which won the Genie Award for Best Theatrical Documentary.
Carter spent about five years trying to jump a rocket-powered car a full mile across the St. Lawrence, launching from a ramp roughly 90 feet high on the Quebec side. The project ran into one problem after another: fuel-tank explosions, a bumpy and badly built ramp, and backers who kept losing patience and cutting off money.
When the jump finally happened in 1979, Carter wasn’t even behind the wheel. The investors had lost faith in him and brought in American driver Kenny Powers. The ramp’s bumps had never been fixed, and as the car accelerated it shook itself apart and broke up in midair. Powers survived with eight broken vertebrae and later made a full recovery.
The ramp was eventually torn down. Carter vowed to try again but never did. He was killed in 1983 in Peterborough, Ontario, while attempting another stunt. Like James Dean’s vanished “Little Bastard” Porsche, it’s one of those car stories that feels too strange to be true.
The Bottom Line
Like Carter’s rocket car, The Stunt Driver came apart soon after launch. It has good reviews, a strong lead performance and one of the craziest true stories in motorsport history, but it never found an audience in U.S. theaters. It may get a second life on streaming, where curious gearheads, the same crowd that still hunts down rotting General Lees, can see it for themselves.
About the Author
