The good news:
“F1” is Brad Pitt’s biggest opening ever, with $56.6 million in the US and $144 million worldwide.
IMAX is the bulk of the viewing everywhere. Even in China, where “F1” took in $9 million, IMAX sold out. All large format theaters did well. They accounted for almost half the box office.
Each of the top 10 locations in the US were IMAX. I told you, there were many, many empty screens in conventional theaters.
The international market saved the day. The $88 million take was just what Warner’s needed. The biggest market was the UK, with $9.2 million.
The other news: Is that enough? “F1” cost $200 million. It won’t get to break-even for a long time. Of course, Apple paid for it and they have so much money from iPads and so on they won’t think about it. In a month, “F1” will hit Apple TV, and that’s all they care about.
Will there be an “F2”? Unlikely, but the plot could be they drive backwards on the track!
In other areas, Universal is still booming with “How to Train a Dragon” — $19,4 million for the weekend. But the studio’s “M3GAN 2.0” horror film was a bust with $10 million.
“Elio” will set a record for lowest grossing Pixar movie of all time.
“Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning” is hanging in there, trying to get to $200 million. They got a little sad publicity over the weekend from the death of composer Lalo Schifrin.
