Ropes was a box office bomb, grossing only $6,614,280, with an estimated budget of $39,000,000. It opened up at No. 8 at the box office, grossing $3,038,546 in the opening weekend. The film was released on February 20, 2004 to 1,601 theaters (widest release) gathering an average of $1,897 per theater. The film closed its box office run after seven weeks, gathering a total of $5,884,190 from the domestic market and $730,090 from overseas for an international total of $6,614,280. Critical response The film garnered negative reviews from critics. It received a approval rating on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes, based on reviews with an average rating of , summarizing it as "a bland, dumbed-down package of sports cliches." On Metacritic, it holds a score of 36 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". A. O. Scott of The New York Times commended the performances for displaying "flashes of idiosyncrasy and flair" despite the "pedestrian script" but was critical of the film overall for having various "inspirational sports-movie clichés" and "competence that is more flat-footed than inspiring" in both the drama and boxing scenes. Marrit Ingman of The Austin Chronicle found Ryan "predictably fine" in the "plum role" of Jackie Kallen but criticized Dutton and Edwards for relying too much on "the well-worn underdog formula" when telling her story and not focusing on more "meatier" issues outside of the movie's text. Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club wrote that: "True to form, Against The Ropes favors a much tamer version of the real thing, never getting into the deep fissures that led to the real-life Kallen's long estrangement with Toney. Right up to the ludicrous finale and an even more improbable denouement, everything rings Hollywood-false. More galling still, the filmmakers' inventions take the zing out of the facts." Nick Schager of Slant Magazine criticized the film for being a "lackluster melodrama" with a script containing "corny clichés and metaphors" that uses prejudice to add color to their story, concluding that: "While Dutton's fight scenes are directed with reasonable panache, the rest of the film's visuals are so blandly static that one can imagine the ease with which Against the Ropes will be pan-and-scanned for television." However, the film did receive some positive reviews; Roger Ebert gave it 3 stars out of 4, remarking: "It works near the end of "Against the Ropes," a biopic about Jackie Kallen,