Apple’s F1 Movie Drops Today: Everything’s Riding on It

Why Apple is risking it all on the biggest F1 film ever made

Jun 26, 2025

We are witnessing something pretty unique in F1 business (hell, all of sports business): A $300M(?) Hollywood film that could actually move the needle for a publicly traded league.

F1: The Movie, starring Brad Pitt, hits theaters officially today. Early projections indicate it will pull in $59–75 million, a strong start for any racing film. (For comparison: Ford v Ferrari opened at $31M. Gran Turismo did $17M.)

But here’s the catch: Apple produced this one. And with a reported budget north of $300M (per Puck’s Matt Belloni), the bar for success is sky-high.

Theaters may fill. Critics may cheer. However, unless it achieves significant success, headlines will likely label it a flop.

But for anyone who reads this newsletter and follows me across social media, you know this isn’t just about the box office.

If F1: The Movie breaks out beyond the hardcore fans, it could do what Drive to Survive did in 2019 by bringing in millions of new viewers, boosting U.S. media rights, and elevating the league’s market cap even further.

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From Apple’s perspective, the tech giant seeks a breakthrough in theatrical prestige.

Their goal? Absolute authenticity.

7x F1 World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, and Eddy Cue, Apple’s services chief and a member of the Ferrari board, championed realism.

Lewis Hamilton, seven-time F1 champion and F1 producer, helped steer realism. He coached Pitt on braking, gears, and helped shape every corner sequence. Director Kosinski himself noted: “The film could not have been made without Hamilton”.

I guess Lewis taught him a thing or two because Brad even drove a real 2023 McLaren at Circuit of the Americas this week. Hitting speeds of over 197 mph, he earned Hamilton’s praise for his “dedication and focus”. The film intersperses real footage of drivers with live action, creating a hybrid that exists between documentary and drama.

To deliver intensity, Apple mounted iPhone cameras at actual F1 events—Silverstone, Abu Dhabi, and Monza—capturing live footage. Filming during real Grand Prix weekends added verisimilitude and prompted discussions about installing permanent on-car lenses.

Apple Chooses the Big Screen

Apple maintains this isn’t their make-or-break, but analysts beg to differ after mixed results from earlier theatrical ventures (Argylle, Fly Me to the Moon).

Cue has made it clear, as if it wasn’t obvious: “You want a lot of people to go see the film.” Apple wants F1 to vault them into box office relevance.

Only Napoleon eclipsed its budget at the box office. Others fell short, fueling Apple’s pivot toward streaming-first releases. Now, F1 combines A-list talent, blockbuster financing, and premium positioning, which hopes to redefine its theatrical trajectory.

Early reviews from The New Yorker and Pitchfork praise the visuals, noting "dynamic editing" and "hair-raising intensity", even while acknowledging some familiar tropes. Pitchfork called it accessible to non-fans, with narrative blemishes but breathtaking cinematography.

Reddit users at recent screenings echoed the sentiment:

“Great movie…on the edge of my seat…would watch it again in Imax.”

Box office forecasts predict a U.S. debut between $48–60 million, well above Apple’s $40 million target.

Why F1 Matters for Apple

Apple isn’t just chasing a singular hit. This film is poised to shape Apple's cinematic identity. Since 2019, its streaming strategy has yielded prestige TV under Cue’s $96 billion services empire (Severance, Ted Lasso).

But movies remain a gap.

Netflix has publicly downplayed the value of theatrical releases. Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos has dismissed cinemas as “outmoded.”

Cue counters emphatically, “Theatrical experiences are great, and I’m a huge fan.”

Still, profitability remains elusive. Videos have yet to turn a profit after strikes and pandemic setbacks. Cue admits, “Maybe we were naive in how hard it is.”

Theaters are no longer the home of guaranteed hits, but F1 arrives with something few films do: real-world horsepower. With Hamilton’s fingerprints all over it, Formula One Media and Liberty Media’s blessing, the Top Gun: Maverick playbook, and Apple’s future in entertainment hanging in the balance, this is Apple setting out to prove something and going all in.