Brad Pitt and Joseph Kosinski’s “F1” just pulled off something rare — an original film opening above $50M at the box-office. After outperforming Sunday projections with a $15M haul (only down 17% from Saturday), the racing drama finished its opening weekend with $58M, exceeding the $55M reported yesterday, and easily landing the best debut for an original film this year.
It’s also now the second-biggest opening of Pitt’s entire career, behind only “World War Z” ($66.4M) back in 2013. That’s a decade-plus gap between #1 and #2, but “F1” has been a different kind of beast from the start. Shot during actual Formula 1 races, the Apple/WB co-release has been marketed like a prestige action event, and audiences showed up. IMAX screenings helped push the total higher than early weekend estimates predicted.
Of course, despite the strong start, the film’s reported $250–$300M budget slightly complicates matters. It's unclear whether the film can ultimately break even through theatrical alone. Then again, Apple isn't necessarily playing by traditional studio rules; profitability at the box office may be secondary to bolstering their brand and content library.
Regardless, with strong word-of-mouth, and the Fourth of July holiday ahead, “F1” is well-positioned to have legs. For a film not based on pre-existing IP, this kind of performance is becoming exceedingly rare. No surprise then that Kosinski recently hinted that he’d like to merge the worlds of “Days of Thunder” and “F1” for a legacy sequel starring Pitt and Tom Cruise.
Edward Berger seems to have settled on what comes next. His Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, is now holding casting calls, with production eyed for January.