Apple’s “F1: The Movie” premiered in late June, opening to the biggest box office numbers for any Apple film. The film passed the $400 million mark over the weekend, putting the movie firmly in star Brad Pitt’s top five earning films.
Apple hadn’t had a truly successful film until the release of “F1” and its $55 million opening in 3,661 theaters across the United States. The film also simultaneously opened internationally, and total box office take was expected to pass $300 million by the middle of this month. It has performed better than expectations though, as at the time of this writing, Box Office Mojo reports the film is currently estimated to have brought in $460,842,641 around the globe.
While “F1” has seen its numbers slid almost by half each weekend, it is still doing steady business over its first three weekends of U.S. release:
- First US weekend: $57,001,667
- Second US weekend: $25,781,267
- Third US weekend: $13,061,682
While the film’s earnings have declined each weekend, the film continues to be a draw in theaters, even though it is competing with the new “Superman” movie, which has so far brought in $235,033,462 in US box office sales alone.
The “F1” box office numbers compare well against the earnings of Brad Pitt’s most successful previous movies:
- World War Z: $540,455,876
- Troy: $497,409,852
- Mr and Mrs Smith: $487,287,646
- Ocean’s Eleven: $450,717,150
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: $377,426,903
Due to studio math, it’s tough to truly determine when a film crosses into the profitable side of the income statement, so we don’t know if F1 has or will, show a profit. The rule of thumb is that a film must earn 2.5 times its production budget to show a profit.
Apple hasn’t announced the official budget for the film, although several in the industry believe that “F1’s” production budget ranged anywhere from $200 million to $300 million. Apple has to share that with exhibitors, and distribution and marketing costs for the movie are believe to be around $50 million. This all means that “F1” will need to make at least $635 million to show a profit.
Since Apple owns the film, it’s make another good bit of income from the film’s on-demand release, followed by availability on Apple TV+, where it could attract additional subscribers to the streaming service.
