Brad Pitt’s New 83% Rotten Tomatoes Sports Drama Has Already Passed ‘Babylon’ in Just One Weekend at the Global Box Office

After delivering two back-to-back hits this year with Sinners and Final Destination Bloodlines, Warner Bros. appears to have completed a hat-trick, with the Apple-produced and Brad Pitt-led sports drama F1 massively exceeding expectations in its global box office debut. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the movie unites him with many of his co-collaborators on the landmark hit Top Gun: Maverick. F1, which is set in the high-stakes world of Formula One racing, was similarly well-received by audiences, even though Formula One was perceived to have limited appeal in America.

Formula One racing is an international sport, and has only recently started making inroads into the United States. F1 is hoping to win new converts with its crowd-pleasing narrative and high production values. The movie reportedly cost around $250 million to produce, and has delivered the biggest debut in the history of Apple Studios. With around $55 million domestically and another $88 million from overseas markets, F1’s cumulative global box office haul stands at around $145 million so far.

It has already overtaken past Pitt movies such as the cult hit Fight Club ($100 million worldwide), the unconventional sports drama Moneyball ($111 million worldwide), the period bomb Allied ($119 million), and the epic drama Seven Years in Tibet ($131 million). F1 has grossed over twice as much as Pitt’s 2022 bomb, Babylon. Also starring Damson Idris and Javier Bardem, F1 opened to excellent reviews, and is currently sitting at an 83% score on Rotten Tomatoes. But audiences had absolutely nothing to complain about, awarding it a near-perfect 97% score on the aggregator website.

‘F1’ Opened to Excellent Reviews from Critics and Crowds

By comparison, Maverick earned a 99% audience score on RT, on its way to nearly $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office and a Best Picture nod at the Oscars. F1 features several key figures from the world of Formula One, including drivers such as Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, and was filmed on location during the season. Hamilton also serves as a producer on the project, which Collider’s Ross Bonaime called “quite possibly one of the most impressive and exciting racing films ever made.” You can watch F1 in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.