Brad Pitt’s “F1” movie on trend to be his most successful yet as box office dominated

It’s been a sensational weekend for Brad Pitt as the long-anticipated F1 movie sees a hugely successful opening weekend with a $140 million opening, according to Deadline. This makes it the actor’s most successful movie yet, surpassing that of World War Z, which saw $112 million on its global launch.

The Apple Original production has smashed records, and with highly positive reviews, it looks as though it’s knocking it out of the park in all areas. 

Recent figures tell a vivid story of success, with $85 million in the United States alone. Another Apple Original production, Killers of the Flower Moon, earned only $23.2 million in its opening weekend in comparison.

For over a decade, World War Z has been Pitt’s most successful picture, with earnings of $540 million worldwide. But F1 looks like it’s got its DRS open and it’s moving in to overtake, with trends looking like this figure could well be beaten. 

The film’s opening day saw $25 million, which included preview screenings worth $2.8 million. At this point, analysts expected an opening weekend between $35-60 million – something the film has blown through. 

Brad Pitt, McLaren MCL60

Photo by: McLaren

Much of this success comes from stellar marketing through Formula 1 itself, while the star power of Pitt alongside Lewis Hamilton and Damson Idris, plus many more, attracted fans from across genres. And with the director Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer utilising and building on the technology they’d already created for use on Top Gun: Maverick, the film’s production team jumped from strength to strength. 

Add in unprecedented access to F1 and its Grand Prix weekends, and it is no surprise that it became such a global success. With a reported budget of $200 million, Apple wasn’t necessarily counting on its theatre performance to pay this back. Instead, they were going to be using the power it had on its streaming service to judge its success. But while this will likely still be a KPI for the business, stress levels will be remarkably lower than expected in its offices. 

The question of success has been answered. The next question is: will there be a sequel?