F1 The Moviehas sped past an astonishing box office record. The new movie, which was directed byTop Gun: Maverick’s Joseph Kosisnki, follows retired Formula 1 driver (Brad Pitt) returning to the racetrack to team with a hotshot young driver named Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris).
TheF1 The Moviereleasekicked off on June 27 with a domestic opening weekend total of $57 million. It kept climbing from there, speeding past the worldwide grosses ofNapoleon($221.4 million) andKillers of the Flower Moon($158.8 million)to becomeApple Studios' highest-grossing theatrical release of all time.
PerDeadline,F1 The Moviehas now hit a cumulative global box office total of $545.6 million. This has surpassed the $540.4 million worldwide haul of 2013’sWorld War Zto make itthe highest-grossing movie starring Brad Pitt of all time.
There is only one movie in which Brad Pitt appears that has outgrossedF1 The Movie. That would be the superhero sequelDeadpool 2, in which the star makes a brief cameo appearance, and which grossed $785.9 million worldwide, making itthe ninth highest-grossing release of 2018.
What This Means For F1 The Movie
This all-time record forF1 The Movieis particularly remarkable becauseBrad Pitt has had a decades-long career full of major successes.
Other thanWorld War Z,some of the highest-grossing movies starring the two-time Oscar winner includeTroy($497.4 million),Mr. and Mrs. Smith($487.3 million), and theOcean’strliogy ($450.7 million, $362.7 million, and $311.3 million respectively).
Altogether, more than 25 differentBrad Pitt movieshave grossed more than $100 million worldwide,bringing his cumulative box office to many billions of dollars. WhileF1 The Moviehas a solid, Certified Fresh, Rotten Tomatoes score of 83%, this level of performance is still completely overwhelming, speaking to the global popularity of both Pitt and the Formula 1 brand.
Our Take On The F1 The Movie Box Office Record
Image via Apple TV+
One peculiar aspect of this box office smash is the fact that thebudget ofF1 The Movieis so high that it might not yet have broken even at the box office. With a reported price tag of up to $300 million,its estimated break-even point could potentially be as high as $750 million, a total which it seems unlikely to ever reach.
However, Apple Studios typically uses their theatrical releases as brand promotion and as a foundation for their movies' eventual streaming run on Apple TV+. By those standards, in spite of this hurdle,F1 The Movieis a smashing success, having garnered more than double the attention of any of their previous big-budget titles.
