Apple Hits the Fast Lane With ‘F1’ Summer Box Office Smash
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Apple’s big bet on a 2025 summer blockbuster appears to be paying off, as F1: The Movie races past Napoleon to become the highest-grossing film that the company has turned out in its nearly six-year history.
According to Variety, F1 has pulled in $293 million at the global box office since its theatrical debut on June 27. That’s nearly a third more than its last biggest hit, Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, which brought in $221 million in the same time frame.
While Napoleon was considered a modest success, it was part of a trio of theatrical releases that all came out during a six-month run from October 2023 to March 2024 that collectively cost Apple $700 million to produce. Napoleon might have broken even, but the other two lost money; Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon cost $215 million to make while only taking in $157 million at the box office, while Argylle was considered an “unmitigated disaster” with a $200 million price tag and $88 million in box office revenue.
Those results at least partly led to Apple’s decision to scale back on big theatrical releases, making a sharp turn from its early 2023 plans to spend $1 billion a year on blockbuster movies. However, while Apple nixed a few broader theatrical releases, it also decided to put all its efforts into one big score: the deal it had signed with Brad Pitt in early 2022 to bring Formula One racing to the big screen.
Apple was seemingly going for quality over quantity here, and it pulled out all the stops to make F1 a success, from building custom cameras to promoting it through haptic trailers and even controversial notifications in Apple Wallet.
Go Big or Go Home
Apple’s previous films have all featured compelling stories, prominent cast members, and legendary directors. They’re good, solid flicks, but they didn’t have what it took to draw people into theatres to see them. With little reason to see them on a massive theatre screen, many likely just waited for them to come to Apple TV+ (I know I did).
By contrast, F1 is the type of film that demands to be seen in theatres, as evidenced by the fact that Variety reports that a fifth of its worldwide take — $60 million — has come exclusively from IMAX theatres.
The film was shot with immersive IMAX cameras on the outside and custom Apple-engineered cameras on the inside to match the standards required to present all the action in big-screen IMAX quality. Much of the technology from these bespoke cameras even found its way into the iPhone 15 Pro.
However, it wasn’t just the big-screen quality. F1 was helmed by none other than Jerry Bruckheimer and Joseph Kosinski, the duo behind Top Gun: Maverick, and it was filmed on the actual F1 global racing circuit.
If there was one movie that was guaranteed to draw people into theatres, this was it. However, many analysts also believed it was Apple’s last kick at the can. If this one didn’t score big, Apple would be better off sticking with its small-screen successes, such as Severance and Ted Lasso.
Still, while F1: The Movie has been an overwhelming success by Apple’s standards, it’s not time to break open the champagne quite yet. The movie reportedly costs $250 million to produce and an additional $100 million to market, which means it’s still in the red. However, it’s also maintaining good traction, effectively doubling its opening weekend take of $146 million in the seven days afterwards. It’s also performing well in China and the UK, where it has generated $22 million and $17.3 million, respectively, compared to $109.5 million in the US and Canada.
