There’s only going to be one winner at the domestic box office this weekend — F1: The Movie. You can watch the trailer above.
Landing in U.S. theaters today, the Apple-produced movie about a Formula One driver (Brad Pitt) coming out of retirement to mentor a younger driver, is forecast to rake in between $45 million and $55 million across the weekend, according to Box Office Pro.
“Warner Bros. and Apple’s Formula One epic F1 has director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer clearly racing to emulate the success of their 2022 smash Top Gun: Maverick,” Box Office Pro said, adding that the movie will get an extra boost from Formula One fans during the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend.
IMDb currently has the $200-million-budget movie rated at 7.9/10 from 8,000 votes, while Rotten Tomatoes is showing an astonishingly positive 98% from more than 500 verified ratings.
Reviews for F1: The Movie have been mostly favorable. NPR described it as “slick, precision-tooled entertainment,” as well as “hugely enjoyable and dazzlingly well-made.”
RogerEbert.com praised the movie’s “sublime excitement … dynamic score … elegant editing,” though added that while F1 is “certainly an expertly crafted crowd pleaser, Pitt can’t match Cruise’s enviable ability to conjoin his star persona with the emotions of the movie. Instead, the rarely transportative F1 is all cold and machinelike.”
IndieWire called it a “solid summer blockbuster” while IGN said: “For 125 or so of its 156 minutes, F1 is every bit the experienced veteran. In its weaker moments though, it reverts to brash-rookie mode.”
In its 4/5 review, Empire said the scenes outside of the race sequences “verge on formulaic,” but added that overall, the “magnitude of what Kosinski and co have accomplished is undeniable.”
It’s worth paying attention to reviews by motoring outlets, too. Road and Track, for example, said that while F1: The Movie is entertaining, “hardcore racing fans will notice plenty of problems that risk breaking their immersion early and often.”
F1: The Movie is a major bet for Apple as it seeks to deliver its first true big-screen hit to justify its high-end content strategy, with a success potentially giving it a foothold in theatrical distribution.
