Many years ago, Brad Pitt and Jason Statham worked together on Guy Ritchie‘s Snatch, the cult classic crime comedy that remains an excellent showcase of their skills. Now, 25 years later, the two stars are facing off at the box office. On Tuesday, Pitt’s new film, the mega-budget sports drama F1, overtook The Beekeeper, Statham’s sleeper hit from not that long ago. Produced on a budget that has been reported to be as high as $300 million, F1 is set in the high-stakes world of Formula One racing, and features Pitt as a weathered driver who’s called in to save his old buddy’s team from crashing out.
The movie has made $153 million at the global box office so far, which puts it $1 million ahead of the $152 million that The Beekeeper ended its theatrical run with in 2024. The action-thriller was directed by David Ayer, and produced on a reported budget of $40 million. It was successful enough for a sequel to be put into motion. But although Statham’s returning to headline it, Ayer’s sitting it out, ironically because he has a movie to make with Pitt. The Beekeeper received positive reviews, and was widely embraced by audiences, who awarded it a stellar 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The crowd’s response to F1 has been even better; the movie holds a near-perfect 97% score on the aggregator website, whose consensus reads, “Driven by Brad Pitt’s laidback magnetism and sporting a souped-up engine courtesy of Joseph Kosinski’s kinetic direction, F1 The Movie brings vintage cool across the finish line.” Directed by Joseph Kosinski, F1 opened with $150 million in its first weekend of release globally, marking the biggest-ever debut for a film produced by Apple Studios. The movie is being distributed theatrically by Warner Bros.
‘F1’ Could Become Pitt’s Biggest Hit
Considering its hefty reported budget, it would need to gross over half-a-billion dollars at the worldwide box office in order to break even. But Kosinski’s last film was Top Gun: Maverick, which made nearly $1.5 billion worldwide. If F1 meets expectations, it could even end up becoming the biggest hit of Pitt’s career, beating out World War Z, which concluded its run with $530 million globally a little over a decade ago. You can watch the film in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
