Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in March 2025 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
In its opening weekend, the ambitious racing blockbuster F1 blew past the finish line and grossed over $140 million in the global box office. In the U.S., the movie pulled $25 million on its opening day alone.
The film stars Brad Pitt, Damson Idris and Javier Bardem and is a glimpse inside the emotional peaks and valleys of racing.
Bardem is Ruben Cervantes, the owner of APXGP, a struggling F1 team who is desperately working to persuade his old teammate, former Formula 1 driver Sonny Hayes (Pitt), to join Cervantes’ team for one last shot at glory. Along the way, Hayes has to learn how to co-exist with rookie racer Joshua Pearce (Idris), who’s eager to establish his own legacy.
As of the end of opening weekend, the film had a score of 84 percent from 58 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and earned a score of 69 percent on Metacritic from 24 reviews. Critics praised the film’s fast-paced action and adreneline-packed racing scenes, while being critical of “how much it plays into the cliches.”
F1 is the latest from Top Gun: Maverick producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joseph Kosinki — and the film was made with input from seven-time F1 champ and movie co-producer Lewis Hamilton. F1 was shot on location at actual Grand Prix weekends, and filmmakers consulted with all 10 F1 teams, their drivers, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, and race promoters – all to create as authentic a racing film as possible. Pitt even prepped for the role by driving at the Silverstone racetrack during five months of training for the role.
Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, Sarah Niles, Kim Bodnia and Samson Kayo also star.
“I look to my left, it’s Brad Pitt. I look to my right, it’s Javier Bardem. I look at my hands, they’re shaking,” Idris told Vanity Fair about filming F1 last year. “And we shoot all of this epic stuff and all the amazing drivers are there, from Lewis [Hamilton] to [Max] Verstappen to everyone.”
For Idris, this is his first feature film since 2021s Outside The Wire, but the British actor has stayed busy since the end of his hit drama Snowfall back in 2023. He co-starred alongside Dominique Fishback and Chloe Bailey in the acclaimed miniseries Swarm from Donald Glover and Janine Nabers, and he’s currently filming Gina Prince-Blythewood’s Children Of Blood and Bone. Watch the trailer for F1 for yourself below.
F1 premiered in theaters and in IMAX on June 27, 2025 and internationally on June 25, 2025.
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