With the budget already exceeding $300 million, an upcoming film about F1 will need to be Brad Pitt’s best movie ever to be deemed a financial success.

Hollywood is no stranger to big budgets, but even in La La Land, spending $300 million on a movie is extremely risky. Alarmingly, recent reports indicate that the budget for Brad Pitt movie about Formula One has crossed that threshold, bringing it close to becoming one of the 10 most expensive films ever.

As yet untitled, the F1 movie is being produced by Apple, and stars Brad Pitt as a retired driver who is asked to come back to the sport in order to mentor a young phenom. But other than Pitt, there are few big name stars to draw viewers, apart from its director, Joseph Kosinski, who’s last movie was Top Gun: Maverick, another film that put its star in real high-speed machinery.

Indeed, Pitt got behind the wheel of a real racecar for his upcoming film, though it wasn’t an F1 machine. Despite just being a modified F2 racer, the actors still needed training, insurance, and other considerations to drive the car, which Screen Rant reports is part of what has pushed the film’s budget so high.

That wasn’t the only factor increasing the budget, though. Production started in July 2023, just a few days before the SAG-AFTRA strike brought Hollywood to a standstill for 118 days, and in filmmaking, delays cost a lot of money. Brad Pitt at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Credit: Audi
If reports that Pitt’s F1 movie has crested the same $300 million figure (first published by Puck) are accurate, it would be just outside the top 10 as one of the most expensive films ever. As a result, in order to be considered a success, it will have to be the actor’s highest grossing film ever.

Although Pitt is considered an A-list celebrity, his best box office performance ever was in 2013 with World War Z, which made $540.4 million globally. That’s a lot of money, but in Hollywood, a movie typically needs to double its budget to reach a “break even” point for the studio. By that metric, the F1 movie will have to make over $600 million to be considered anything other than a failure.

Fortunately, the film has one advantage: it’s being distributed by Apple TV+, which has its own measures of success. In addition to box office returns, Pitt’s F1 movie will also be measured on its ability to win over streaming clients, which could help cover some of the film’s costs.