The upcoming F1 movie — set to release on June 27, 2025, in the United States — has already released its action-packed trailer, which has gotten fans excited. The movie, produced by Lewis Hamilton among others, will feature Brad Pitt and Damson Idris in lead roles. Pitt will play the character of Sonny Hayes, who is an ex-F1 driver who raced in the 1990s.
However, after a massive crash, he had to retire from F1 and race in other disciplines. Hayes only returned to the F1 scene when former team owner Ruben asked him to come out of retirement and mentor an up-and-coming star, Joshua Pearce — played by Idris.
With such a star-studded cast, the film is set to depict a realistic portrayal of the highs and lows of F1 — wherein Hamilton has also provided some creative input as a co-producer. Moreover, with scenes shot during actual Grand Prix weekends, it is no surprise that the budget of this film is extremely high.
Per British journalist Marina Hyde, the initial budget of the film was approximately $300 million, which was already fairly expensive, but the actual cost of the film was much higher after production was often delayed.
She added on The Rest is Entertainment podcast that since the actual cost of the film is somewhere between a whopping $700-$900 million, they will need to make this much just to break even.
Theatrical revenue collection of over $1 billion worldwide would be the primary expectation of the film’s distributors. Filmed for IMAX, the movie will attract a considerable audience across the world, owing to F1’s exponentially increasing popularity.
This is F1. Starring Brad Pitt.
In cinemas Summer 2025.#F1 #F1Movie pic.twitter.com/YQHvqNs5Ir
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 7, 2024
On top of that, the movie does involve the director and producer of Top Gun: Maverick — which grossed nearly $1.5 billion on the big screen in 2022 — Joseph Kosinki and Jerry Bruckheimer. So, it is not unlikely that ‘F1’ also turns out to be a billion-dollar blockbuster.
However, the producers may not care too much about recovering their high costs.
F1 film’s producers are using the movie as a marketing tactic
Soon after Hyde revealed what is likely to be the cost of the upcoming F1 movie, her co-host Richard Osman told her that the producers are simply making this film for marketing purposes.
Since any marketing strategy usually comes with a cost, he believes the producers may not mind it if they do not make any money on this film through ticket sales, if it helps them in the future. Moreover, it could also be that the producers have also recovered a huge portion of the costs thanks to the huge number of sponsors they have attracted.
Just like F1 teams feature several of their sponsor names on their cars’ liveries, the movie’s fictional team — APX GP — also features the names of several partners on its cars. Hyde added that the number of sponsor names on APX GP cars could be greater than what actual F1 teams have.
However, since this movie is also backed by Formula 1 and the Mercedes F1 team, this film may not just attract movie lovers but also fans of the sport, who may not have watched the film if it were not made in collaboration with Formula 1.
