F1 arrives to strong $144 million opening weekend

It looks like Apple finally has a box office hit on its hands. Following a few struggles in the past, like Napoleon, which raked in $221 million in its entire theatrical run, the newly arrived F1 is on track to dwarf that figure.

Following its opening weekend, F1 drew in a whopping $144 million around the world, which is enough to see the film having one of the biggest opening weekends of the year so far. The split has been mostly international (as expected considering Formula 1’s reach), with $55 million coming from the U.S. market and $88 million elsewhere. It should be said however that F1 was a very expensive movie to make, with the production budget claimed to be somewhere around $250-$300 million, not including any additional marketing fees that would have been incurred on the global press tour for one, nor the revenue that Apple will lose to Warner Bros. who took on theatrical distribution for the movie.

As per Variety, it’s also worth noting that Apple is less reliant on box office figures than other production companies, as it can also lean on digital and on-demand sales, and Apple TV+ subscriptions eventually, to further see the film bring in revenue. The big question now is whether F1 can break even and recoup its costs in cinemas alone.

Have you seen F1 yet? If not, catch our review here.