Two months. That’s how long F1 held the theatrical track before swerving onto digital. Warner Bros. and Apple confirmed Joseph Kosinski’s racing spectacle will hit VOD on August 22, 2025—almost exactly two months after its late June release. In today’s market, that gap feels like an eternity. And the fact that audiences kept showing up in droves says a lot about the rare velocity of this film.
Let’s be clear: F1 is more than a glossy car commercial. It’s adrenaline in widescreen. Kosinski, who made Top Gun: Maverick hum like a jet engine, has now done the same with Formula 1 racing, letting us feel every gear shift, every swerve, every split-second decision. The race sequences don’t just impress—they overwhelm. Sitting through them, you almost forget to breathe.
And then there’s Brad Pitt. At 62 years old, he just landed the biggest hit of his career. F1 has already surged past the $536 million worldwide haul of World War Z, making it Pitt’s top-grossing movie. By the end of the month, it’s on pace to hit $600 million globally—potentially even surpassing the box office run of Superman. Not bad for an actor some thought had aged out of box office dominance.
There’s something almost poetic here: Pitt’s career-defining milestone comes not from a sequel, a superhero, or a franchise engine, but from a wholly original piece of cinema. His last six years have seen steady wins—Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Bullet Train—but F1 is different. It’s loud proof that audiences will still rally behind originality when it’s delivered at full throttle.
That point matters. In an era of endless IP resurrections, Kosinski and Pitt proved a movie about racing—without a comic-book logo, without a decades-old brand—can dominate. Outside of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, you’d be hard-pressed to find another “original” film of the past decade that reached this level of cultural saturation. Pitt, famously uninterested in sequels (apart from Soderbergh’s Oceans films), has once again banked his chips on singularity—and won.
So yes, F1 will be available in living rooms soon. But let’s not kid ourselves: this was designed for the largest possible canvas. Watching it on a flat screen is like sipping champagne from a paper cup. You’ll still get the taste—but the fizz, the elegance, the grandeur? That belonged to theaters.
What This Means for Moviegoers
A late-summer digital debut
VOD arrives August 22, two months post-release—long by current standards, a testament to its theatrical legs.
Brad Pitt’s career peak
At 62, he now holds his highest-grossing film ever, eclipsing World War Z and reminding everyone of his star power.
An original box office titan
F1 proves that original, non-franchise films can still crack half a billion globally.
Kosinski’s momentum
After Top Gun: Maverick, Kosinski cements his reputation as Hollywood’s go-to for immersive, big-screen action.
Theatrical experience matters
VOD may broaden access, but nothing replicates the sensory overload of seeing F1 in theaters.
