Whatever you think about Apple’s in-your-face advertising tactics, it seems to be paying off. The F1 movie is set to take in about $145 million in its opening weekend at the box office, with $55.6 million domestic.
This easily outstrips any of Apple Original Film’s prior theatrical debuts, and sets the movie on a path to exceed the gross box office of all previous Apple films … combined.
Apple releases almost all of its original films in small scale showings for some easy press attention and to get awards eligibility. However, more recently, it has tried its hand at true worldwide theatrical runs, covering thousands of screens worldwide.
Here’s how it’s previous big box office efforts fared:
F1 makes all of these previous attempts look small scale. F1 is launching with a $145 million opening, already doubling it previous best outing of Napoleon (which benefited from an extended five-day holiday launch at Thanksgiving, the comparative three-day is esteemed at around $67m).
As well as garnering initially strong ticket sales, audiences are coming out of seeing F1 very pleased with what they saw, which typically transfers to strong word-of-mouth sales for forthcoming weeks. The film is also seen as one to watch on the biggest screen possibly, which means higher demand for the more expensive IMAX tickets.
With such a strong start, the industry analysts now estimate a worldwide gross box office finish in the $500-$600m range. If it crosses $517 million market, that means it would outperform the combined takings of all four previous theatrical Apple Original films to date.
Apple’s future commitment to theatrical remains unclear. The company’s misfires with Argylle and Fly Me to the Moon seemed to scare executives, with a worldwide theatrical launch for Wolfs yanked at the last minute. Although it has a handful of original films in active production, none of them have been given theatrical release dates so far, suggesting they are all destined as straight-to-streaming titles.
One small glimmer of hope is that F1’s director Joseph Kosinski has already sold his next big film package, about the political handling of UFO public disclosure, to Apple. The deal reportedly included a guarantee that the movie would get a wide theatrical run. But plans could change and that film is still years away from release.
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