'F1: The Movie' roars to the top of the domestic box office

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA :The high-octane racing film "F1: The Movie" roared to the top of the domestic box office this weekend, according to Comscore.

The movie, which stars Brad Pitt as a Formula 1 racer who returns to the track after an accident nearly ended his career, brought in $55.6 million in ticket sales in the United States and Canada. That tally blew past the $45 million to $55 million pre-weekend domestic forecast from The Boxoffice Company.

Worldwide receipts topped $88 million, propelled by the sport's strong fan base in Europe and Latin America. 

Racing films typically sputter in theaters, according to Daniel Loria, senior vice president of The Boxoffice Company, a theatrical ecommerce and data services firm. The most successful of the genre, the widely acclaimed "Ford v. Ferrari," opened to a modest $31 million in November 2019. 

"We haven't had that many movies about car racing that have broken through," Loria said.

One notable outlier is the "Fast & Furious" action series that expanded beyond its street racing roots to include heists, espionage and an improbable moon shot. 

"F1" had several factors weighing in its favor. The film's director, Joseph Kosinski, brought the same high-intensity cinematic treatment of Formula 1 racing that he lent to the fighter jet sequences in his 2022 movie, "Top Gun: Maverick."  

Netflix's "Drive to Survive" series also helped fuel the popularity of Formula 1 racing, particularly in the United States.

Apple  put some marketing muscle behind the movie, an Apple Original Film that Variety reported cost in excess of $200 million to make. The tech giant touted it during CEO Tim Cook's keynote at this year's Worldwide Developer's Conference, and offered a movie discount to iPhone