Brad Pitt’s Formula One racing spectacle F1: The Movie has delivered a small yet significant victory for the summer box office, accelerating to an impressive $161 million worldwide so far. The film capitalizes on the proven formula that propelled Tom Cruise from Days of Thunder through Top Gun: Maverick, combining high-octane thrills with practical filmmaking.
Critics have responded favorably to director Joseph Kosinski’s latest effort, and like his work in Maverick incentivized the theatrical industry to heal post-pandemic, his Formula 1 actioner is expected to rescue Apple Studios’ silver screen aspirations. Such heroics prove particularly auspicious for the company when accounting for its recent misadventures, which incurred hundreds of millions in losses.
Apple’s Big Screen Ambitions Never Won the Box Office, Until F1
Apple’s decision to expand beyond streaming services and venture into theatrical releases initially showed promise when the company upset Netflix by securing the first-ever Academy Award for Best Picture won by a streaming platform with CODA.
However, the narrative drastically shifted when examining box office performance for their subsequent major releases. Its high-profile projects have consistently failed to connect with audiences despite featuring Hollywood’s biggest names.
Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, managed $158 million (according to Box Office Mojo) worldwide against its reported $200 million production budget. Ridley Scott‘s Napoleon, featuring Joaquin Phoenix as the French Emperor, similarly ended with $221 million worldwide but also carried a speculated price tag of $130-200 million.
Argylle, starring Henry Cavill and Bryce Dallas Howard, materialized as the most catastrophic failure, earning just $96 million globally against its $200 million budget. Even the more modestly budgeted Fly Me to the Moon, pairing Scarlett Johansson with Channing Tatum, could only muster $42 million worldwide.
Combined, these four ventures cost Apple approximately $600-700 million to produce but yielded only $515 million in global revenue, creating substantial losses when accounting for marketing expenses and theater revenue splits. But for the Troy actor, the circumstances appear fundamentally different.
F1’s Critical Reception Paints A Clearer Picture
Brad Pitt‘s F1’s prospects seem to be replicating the Top Gun sequel’s historical performance at a minor level, and viewers have already embraced the adrenaline-fueled experience with an “A” CinemaScore and a stellar 97% Rotten Tomatoes audience rating.
The slew of Apple flops had received mixed to poor reception across the board. Killers of the Flower Moon earned 93% from critics but only 64% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Napoleon scored 61% at the Popcornmeter as Argylle and Fly Me to the Moon struck chords with 71% and 55% of Rotten Tomatoes’ users, respectively.
Evil Robot Dolls and Dinosaurs Won’t Scare Away F1
F1, on the other hand, despite Apple Studios’ largest budget to date at $250 million, spotlights a contrast. Its approval rating, coupled with the growing franchise fatigue evident in poor reception for M3GAN 2.0 and Jurassic World: Rebirth, nudges it toward greater theatrical footfalls.
The racing drama should be conveniently doubling its opening weekend performance for a global cume of $300 million in a matter of days, potentially scoring well above $500 million in the lifetime run.
