“F1”, the new Formula One racing movie of Apple Original Films starring Brad Pitt, headed the box office lists during the weekend, the first great success in cinemas for film and television production studies of the technological giant.
Key data
“F1” raised 55.6 million dollars at the national box office during the weekend, according to early figures published in several commercial publications in Hollywood, as well as 88.4 million additional dollars worldwide and 10 million dollars in advances.
The film has not yet recovered its huge budget of 200 million dollars and will need to continue attracting spectators to theaters in the coming weeks to make profits thanks to box office sales.
“M3GAN 2.0”, the sequel to the surprising terror success of 2022 “M3GAN”, was a failure in its premiere weekend, raising only 10.2 million dollars at the box office and being behind titles such as “How to train your dragon.”
Key history
Apple Studios has produced several outstanding films in the last five years, including “Killers of the Flower Moon” by Martin Scorsese, more than three hours long, and “Coda”, winner of the Best Film Award in 2021. However, many of those films did not even gain profits did not even reach the equilibrium point only at the box office. The Scorsese film raised $ 158.8 million at the box office, far from its estimated budget of more than 200 million. Apple’s highest grossing film to date was “Napoleon” by Ridley Scott in 2023, another historical epic whose production cost between 130 and 200 million dollars. “Napoleon” raised 228 million dollars at the box office, and “F1” is on its way to overcome it after its stellar weekend of premiere.
Tangent
The Executive Director of Apple, Tim Cook, has previously stated that the important investment of the company in film and television is not directly related to its main business: the sale of consumer electronics. “I don’t think I’m going to sell more iPhones for it,” Cook told Variety in June. However, the company seems to be using its wide network of buyers to promote the “F1”. Iphone users in the United States received Push notifications during the weekend that offered a discount of $ 10 if they bought two tickets through the Fandango ticket sales service.
Large number
Apple chose director Joseph Kosinski and the legendary producer Jerry Buckheimer for the project, the team behind the 2022 success “Top Gun: Maverick”, which raised more than 1.2 billion dollars at the box office worldwide.
Surprising data
“F1” already recovered part of his money in a way that is familiar to racing fans: brand sponsorships. The “F1” producers sold the rights of name to real brands for the APXGP fictional team, including brands such as Mercedes and Geico in the car and Brad Pitt’s monkey. This operation generated about 40 million dollars for the film, according to producer David Leener to Forbes.
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
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