Apple Now Has The Biggest Original Box Office Hit Of 2025

Original movies, sad to say, aren't exactly thriving in theaters at the moment. For the most part, it's still sequels, remakes, reboots, or motion pictures based on something that already exists dominating commercially. But Apple, of all the players in Hollywood, has now come along to give 2025 by far its biggest original hit at the box office in the form of "F1," aka "F1: The Movie." The Formula 1 racing epic directed by Joseph Kosinski, of "Top Gun: Maverick" fame, has somewhat quietly become an outright, unqualified success this summer.

"F1" added another $6.2 million to its domestic total over the weekend, even as Marvel Studios' "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" opened to a whopping $118 million. All the same, the acclaimed racing drama, which stars Brad Pitt ("Once Upon a Time in Hollywood") in the lead role, has held onto a spot in the top five confidently for five weekends, even as movies like "Fantastic Four" and "Superman" have arrived. More importantly, "F1" has played like gangbusters overseas, pulling in another $20 million internationally this past weekend.

With that, its running total now stands at $510.8 million globally, which includes $165.6 million domestically and a massive $345.2 million overseas. That makes it — by a considerable margin — the highest-grossing original movie of the year. Ryan Coogler's "Sinners" is an unquestioned behemoth and previously held the title, but it topped out at $365.8 million and recently fell out of the global top 10. "Sinners" didn't make nearly as much overseas as it did domestically, and Warner Bros. may have dropped the ball on the film's international rollout. In any event, Apple now gets to claim this coveted crown. Of course, WB is also handling the distribution of "F1" for Apple, so everyone is happy.

The film centers on Sonny Hayes (Pitt), who was once the titular sport's most promising phenom until an accident derailed his career. Decades later, though, he's lured back to the racing track by his former teammate Ruben (Javier Bardem), who owns a struggling Formula 1 team. Thus, Sonny must learn to work alongside Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), an up-and-coming, cocky rookie.

Yes, Apple spent well over $200 million on "F1," but the company's market cap is in the trillions and it's mainly interested in the prestige of being in the theatrical motion picture business, in addition to promoting Apple TV+. The business model isn't the same for the tech giant as it is for a traditional Hollywood studio. That said, big-budget box office disasters like "Argylle" haven't exactly made this seem like a good business for Apple. Even "Napoleon" ($250 million worldwide) and "Killers of the Flower Moon" ($158 million worldwide) were far from box office winners relative to their budgets. In this case, though, Apple has finally secured an unqualified victory.

Pitt's enduring appeal as a movie star was undoubtedly a factor, but the real selling point of "F1" was "We're going to give racing the 'Maverick' treatment." This is to say, the movie promised to put viewers in the cockpit of its racing cars, making for a truly IMAX-worthy experience. That sales pitch very clearly worked like gangbusters, as the film now has a real shot at getting closer to $600 million before all's said and done. To that end, an IMAX re-release is already being planned for August.

So, what went right here? To be clear, original movies are straight-up struggling right now. This is far from the norm. Pixar's "Elio," which is an outright flop and a huge disaster, is the next-biggest original movie of the year after "F1" and "Sinners," with just $138 million to its name to date. Between the effective sales pitch of "you must see this on the big screen" to the right cast and capitalizing on a popular global sport, Apple managed to find a winning formula here. That's elusive these days when it comes to original cinema. In short? It's time for a victory lap.

"F1" is currently playing in theaters.