The critical reception was exceptional. Rotten Tomatoes aggregated an approval rating of 93 percent from 239 critical reviews, with an average rating of 8.2 out of 10. Metacritic assigned a score of 82 out of 100, indicating what it categorizes as “universal acclaim.” Roger Ebert, who awarded the film four stars, wrote that it was “like an exercise in conquering the unfilmable.” The film appeared on numerous critics’ top-ten lists for 2010.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated the film for six Academy Awards at the 83rd ceremony, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Franco. It won none of them — an outcome that generated some commentary about the Academy’s apparent reluctance to reward extremely intimate, physically demanding work over more conventional prestige productions. But the nominations themselves confirmed the film’s standing as one of the most significant productions of its year.
At the box office, the film grossed approximately $60.7 million worldwide against its $18 million budget — a solid return for an intimate, difficult film with limited commercial appeal on paper.
Aron Ralston appeared in a cameo at the end of the film, alongside his then-wife and son. He has said the film is “so factually accurate it is as close to a documentary as you can get and still be a drama” — the highest possible endorsement from the person best positioned to make that judgment, offered with the specificity that distinguished him from a generic celebrity who praises his own biopic. He did note one inaccuracy in his vision of his future son — in his actual vision, he appeared with one arm; the film shows him with two — and expressed mild discomfort with the early scene in which he shows two hikers a hidden pool, which in reality was a short climbing instruction.