Weekend Box Office: F1 Crosses the Checkered for First Place Finish

Key Takeaways

Total 3-Day Weekend Gross:
$127,599,788 | +1.03% Last Week / -17.3% Weekend 26, 2024

F1: The Movie shifted the box office into high gear with an excellent debut, delivering a $55M opening weekend domestically. When Brad Pitt decides to flex his star power he’s usually a force to be reckoned with, and he has helped Apple earn their first major box office hit. Meanwhile, the Blumhouse formula failed to connect with audiences, as M3GAN 2.0 (a sequel to a major hit) cratered far below expectations with a lackluster $10M bow. Overall box office was once again down -17% year-over-year from 2024 when the third frame of Inside Out 2 ruled alongside a big debut from A Quiet Place: Day One ($52.2M).

• Top Title: F1 (Warner Bros.) | $55.6M / 3,661 Screens / $15,187 PSA | Week 1
• Top Opener: F1 (Warner Bros.) | $55.6M / 3,661 Screens / $15,187 PSA | Week 1
• Best PSA: Sorry, Baby (A24) | $86.49K / 4 Screens / $21,623 PSA | Week 1

Highlights From the Weekend

1. F1
Apple / Warner Bros. | NEW
$55.6M Domestic Opening Weekend | $144M Global Total

Apple’s big budget Formula One blockbuster F1: The Movie performed at the highest-end of our expectations with an estimated $55.6M domestic debut on 3,661 screens for a $15,187 PSA. This is star Brad Pitt’s biggest global opening ever ($144M), besting World War Z‘s $111.8M, as well as his second-biggest domestic debut after that zombie movie’s $66.4M. It’s also the biggest debut ever for Apple, who threw big marketing money at this to take it across the finish line.

Here’s how the 3-Day looked, including $10M in Thursday previews…

• Friday – $25M
• Saturday – $17.5M
• Sunday – $13.1M

PLFs represented 55% of business, with IMAX reporting $12.8M for 23% of the domestic frame alongside $27.7M globally in the large format, the 4th best in IMAX history.

“With the most realistic racing sequences ever committed to film, ‘F1: The Movie’ quite simply demands to be experienced in IMAX and audiences around the world clearly got that message,” said Rich Gelfond, CEO of IMAX. “Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer innovated and pushed our technology to new frontiers to deliver a film tailormade for IMAX, and we expect moviegoers will continue to seek out our screens for ‘F1: The Movie’ through the U.S. holiday weekend ahead.”

Critical reviews were decent at 83% RT while audience score was better at 97% alongside an “A” CinemaScore, while PostTrak score was 5 out of 5 stars. Here’s how demographics looked…

• Caucasian – 58%
• Hispanic – 17%
• Asian American – 12%
• African American – 8%
• NATAM/Other – 5%

As producer Jerry Bruckheimer did with pirate movies, he has taken a sub-genre (car racing) with a historically poor box office history (Rush, Gran Turismo, Driven, Speed Racer) and revived it with real star power and production values.

F1 – Opening Weekend
Top Ten Locations – North America
1. AMC Lincoln Square New York
2. Regal Irvine Spectrum
3. AMC Metreon San Francisco
4. Regal Atlantic Station Atlanta
5. Regal Edwards Marq’E Houston
6. Regal Hacienda Crossings San Francisco
7. TCL Chinese Hollywood Los Angeles
8. Cineplex Cinema Laval Montreal
9. Cineplex Odeon Brossard Montreal
10. AMC Empire New York

F1 – Opening Weekend
Top Ten DMAs – North America
1. Los Angeles
2. New York
3. San Francisco
4. Dallas
5. Toronto
6. Houston
7. Washington DC
8. Chicago
9. Atlanta
10. Phoenix

Overseas F1 earned an estimated $88.4M on 44,000+ international screens, opening as the #1 US film in 74 out of 78 markets. The movie can look to these territories (where Formula One racing thrives) to bolster its global outlook over the ensuing weeks.

F1 – Opening Weekend
Top Ten Overseas Markets
1. UK | $9.2M
2. China | $9M
3. Mexico | $6.7M
4. France | $5.4M
5. Australia | $5M
6. Korea | $3.7M
7. Germany | $3.4M
8. Japan | $2.8M
9. India | $2.8M
10. United Arab Emirates | $2.7M

4. M3GAN 2.0
Universal Pictures/Blumhouse | NEW
$10.2M Domestic Opening Weekend | $17.2M Global Total

Despite Universal’s best efforts on the social marketing front, it looks like M3GAN 2.0 is another misfire from Blumhouse, which has not had a major hit since Five Nights At Freddy’s over two years ago. The sequel to their 2023 smash took in $10.2M on 3,112 screens for a $3,278 PSA, well below even our lowest estimates. To add insult-to-injury, M3GAN was routed by Pixar’s Elio, which took third place at $10.7M.

Here’s how the 3-Day looked, including $1.5M in Thursday previews…

• Friday – $4.55M
• Saturday – $3.24M
• Sunday – $2.41M

M3GAN 2.0 landed with a splat critically at 56% RT (vs 93% for the first M3GAN) while audiences gave it 84% as well as a “B+” CinemaScore. Ticket buyers were 52% female and 67% in the 25+ bracket, with 18-24’s representing 56% of the younger adult audience. Here’s how demographics played out…

• Caucasian – 46%
• Hispanic – 24%
• African American – 17%
• Asian American – 7%
• NATAM/Other – 6%

Many are blaming the tonal shift from fun horror to camp action alongside questionable CGI for the lack of interest, although putting a genre sequel like this on the summer playing field was perhaps a bridge too far. A host of other recent AI-themed films (including The Creator, the last two Mission: Impossible’s, Companion, and Blumhouse’s own 2024 dud Afraid) may have also muddied the waters. The first M3GAN brought in $95.1M domestic and $181.79M WW from its January opening two years ago, and certainly had the makings to be Jason Blum’s next long-running horror franchise before this weekend put a fork in those aspirations.

M3GAN 2.0 brought in only $7M in 80 markets including Mexico ($1.17M), UK/Ireland ($689K), and Brazil ($370K). The first film nearly doubled its money overseas ($95.15M domestic/$86.6M international = $181.79M global), yet these territories are not coming to the rescue as audience ambivalence is apparently universal.

Other Notable Performances

Universal’s live-action How to Train Your Dragon landed at #2 with $19.4M in its third frame, crossing the $200M line domestically with $200.05M. That places it at #8 on DreamWorks Animation’s all-time domestic Top 10, and should pass the first Kung Fu Panda ($215.7M), Madagascar 3 ($216.3M), and the original How to Train Your Dragon ($217.85M) by next weekend. The global total is currently at an estimated $454.4M.

Even though Elio dropped -49% in its second weekend, dashing hopes that it could hold strong after a disappointing opening, Disney still has momentum on Lilo & Stitch which earned $6.9M to take #6 while crossing to exactly $400M domestic.

The dramedy Sorry, Baby took in $86,492 on only 4 screens for a best of the weekend $21,623 PSA, a good start after A24 shelled out around $8M for the movie at Sundance where it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. The writing and directing debut of star Eva Victor (Billions) earned critical raves (96% RT critical). The story of a young woman recovering from sexual assault co-stars Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges, and John Carroll Lynch, and according to the studio will continue to roll out over the next few weeks. A24’s Materialists also continues to do well, earning $3M for the weekend and $30.4M total to pass Warfare ($25.78M) as their biggest movie of the year.

Next Weekend

A mere three years after Jurassic World Dominion delivered a $1 billion global box office haul, Universal Pictures is attempting a soft reboot sans any of the previous cast with Jurassic World Rebirth. They have a bonafide superstar in Scarlett Johansson alongside Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali to help deliver what the studio hopes will be a third trilogy in the three-decade+ old franchise. Director Gareth Edwards has experience breathing fresh life into aging IP with the $1.05B grossing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, aided by the first Jurassic Park‘s screenwriter David Koepp.

Sunday Studio Estimates | Weekend 26 – 2025
Total 3-Day Domestic Gross: $127,599,788 | (-17.3% vs 2024)

Title	Weekend Estimate	% Change	Locations	Location Change	PSA	Domestic Total	Week	Distributor
F1: The Movie	$55,600,000		3,661		$15,187	55,600,000	1	Warner Bros.
How to Train Your Dragon	$19,400,000	-47%	4,127	-246	$4,701	200,057,000	3	Universal
Elio	$10,700,000	-49%	3,750	n/c	$2,853	42,225,747	2	Walt Disney
M3GAN 2.0	$10,200,000		3,112		$3,278	10,200,000	1	Universal
28 Years Later	$9,700,000	-68%	3,444	n/c	$2,816	50,354,000	2	Sony Pictures
Lilo & Stitch	$6,900,000	-29%	2,900	-475	$2,379	400,070,904	6	Walt Disney
Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning	$4,150,000	-36%	2,157	-446	$1,924	185,996,000	6	Paramount Pi…
Materialists	$2,999,423	-53%	1,931	-913	$1,553	30,401,382	3	A24
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina	$2,130,000	-53%	1,796	-741	$1,186	55,473,000	4	Lionsgate
Karate Kid: Legends	$1,000,000	-58%	925	-1,081	$1,081	51,592,000	5	Sony Pictures
Final Destination: Bloodlines	$905,000	-52%	742	-600	$1,220	136,689,000	7	Warner Bros.
The Phoenician Scheme	$700,000	-52%	508	-593	$1,378	17,815,000	5	Focus Features
The Life of Chuck	$375,120	-62%	455	-617	$824	5,667,694	4	Neon
Sinners	$365,000	-56%	293	-243	$1,246	278,031,000	11	Warner Bros.
The Last Rodeo	$124,174	-54%	202	-103	$615	15,055,252	6	Angel Studios
Thunderbolts*	$120,000	-68%	145	-275	$828	189,777,989	9	Walt Disney
Bring Her Back	$97,727	-75%	126	-280	$776	19,254,505	5	A24
Sorry, Baby	$86,492		4		$21,623	86,492	1	A24
In the Mood for Love	$52,000		2		$26,000	52,000	1,274	Janus Films
Hot Milk	$40,500		375		$108	40,500	1	IFC Films
Friendship	$35,738	-67%	28	-113	$1,276	16,178,616	8	A24
Familiar Touch	$21,060	94%	15	14	$1,404	36,773	2	Music Box Films