Apple's Formula for F1
First a quick word. I finally saw F1 last night. As god – or at least, Christopher Nolan – intended, on an IMAX screen. It was quite literally spectacular. As everyone is undoubtedly well aware by now, the movie itself is sort of a throwback to the sports/action movies you might see in the 1980s or 1990s. Yes, yes, Top Gun and Days of Thunder, but also the plot has shades of Major League of all things.
Anyway, it's good fun. Definitely worth seeing on a big screen and yes, the biggest screen possible. With all due respect to Killers of the Flower Moon, which was obviously well made but sort of tedious to watch and certainly far from enjoyable for most of it, this is by far the most watchable movie that Apple has made to date. It's good without any caveats needed.
I feel the need to say that because I know some people think I'm ragging on Apple too much for the movie. But that has nothing to do with the movie itself – which I suspected and predicted would be good from the moment I first saw the trailer – but because of how much it cost Apple to make.
It just feels like we're grading on some weird curve with Apple as a studio both because all of their movies have flopped to date. and because they don't technically need to make money on their movies for the company overall to perform well financially. In fact, it's hard to imagine that even a massive blockbuster would move Apple's financial needle all that much. Certainly not the top line. Apple is simply too big of a company to care about this business from a fiscal perspective. That's just the reality of the situation.
Luckily for us, they do seem to care about it for other reasons. Whether it's the "intersection of technology and the liberal arts" Steve Jobs mantra or its the halo effects that Hollywood can bring to their products – their actual products (Brad Pitt seems to have AirPods Pro glued on to his ears from scene one forward, which is sort of humorous since part of the plot is also that he's constantly broke and filing for bankruptcy – I might suggest he finds some cheaper headphones?). It's a good thing that Apple is in this business, spending top dollar when it results in top quality movies, as it did here.
Having said all that, it's still worth pointing out that Apple is very unlikely to make money on F1 – at least not at the box office. The movie was simply too expensive to produce and certainly to market. And that matters because if the company ever were to hit tough times, such lavish spending would be the first thing on the chopping block – I mean, it already has been in ways – and certainly if it's not profitable spending. Which it's not. It's a top line "hit" movie but it's very unlikely to be a bottom line one.
But again, there are other reasons to do F1. As Samuel Agini and Michael Acton report today for The Financial Times:
Apple is in talks to acquire the US rights to screen Formula 1 as the tech group chases the success of its hit movie based on the race car series and delves further into showing live sport.
The iPhone maker is challenging Disney’s ESPN — Formula 1’s current American broadcaster — when the broadcast contract becomes available next year, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
The interest comes as F1 starring Brad Pitt becomes the company’s first big box office success since moving into the business of making original content for its Apple TV+ streaming service.
To beat the dead engine: it depends on how we want to define both "big" and "success" here. But this is certainly the perception now, which is good for Apple. Of course, the perceived success of a movie is not reason enough for Apple to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on expensive sports rights, so let's not pretend they're only doing this because the movie is a "hit". I can say this confidently because I predicted they would be a bidder here, six months ago, well before the movie was released. As I wrote back then (on the news that Netflix was weighing bidding on the F1 rights):
One more thing: Apple remains a wildcard given their own sports ambitions. And the fact that their biggest swing yet for Apple TV+, the Brad Pitt-starring, Joseph Kosinski-directed F1 movie, is coming this summer. Then again, they seemingly like deals such as the one they have with MLS for worldwide rights. Per this report, F1 would prefer to spread such rights out and Sky Sports in the UK already has a much longer deal with F1, so worldwide is likely out of the picture. Still, it would be cool to see an F1 race in 'Immersive Video'. And I'd bet that Eddy Cue agrees (and don't forget)...
This F1 deal would be an outlier for Apple because other entities hold the rights around the world and because F1 itself has a streaming service for the true die-hards of the sport. And yes, Apple's own movie may have just made those rights more expensive – back to the Agini and Acton report:
The race car series makes in the region of $85mn a year from its existing broadcast partner ESPN. F1 also streams live races on its own streaming service in the US, charging fans directly.
Analysts at Citi have previously estimated that F1’s next US broadcast deal could be worth $121mn a year, although that was before the release of the F1 film. Its total global media rights revenue grew almost 8 per cent to about $1.1bn in 2024.
ESPN actually had an exclusive window to renew the rights but let them lapse. This led to the reports that Netflix might swoop in given their Drive to Survive show which has clearly bolstered the popularity of the sport. It was always a bit weird that different entities owned the streaming rights to the races, the show, and the movie. Now Apple is perhaps trying to consolidate two of those.
The problem may actually be on the other side: Apple TV+'s audience remains tiny compared to the other streaming services – and certainly compared to what ESPN can offer on cable. Would F1 be okay signing up for far smaller reach potential? Again, they already have their own, more niche, streaming service. The NFL and other sports like to spread the rights around to ensure they can maximize both money and reach, so that's seemingly working against Apple here.
But the relationship thanks to the making of the movie clearly helps them here. Especially if, as feels inevitable now, we're going to get a sequel – please, please call it 'F1 2' – as does a certain Apple executive who negotiates such rights being on the board of Ferrari... As I wrote a couple months ago after a new F1 trailer hit:
The new trailer for F1 — aka, the movie that will make or break Apple’s feature film ambitions after some comically bad decisions — continues to look great. The exact type of movie that demands you see it in a theater. Ideally, an IMAX. And it should cement Joseph Kosinski as the king of big budget action movies in Hollywood. Still weird that Apple isn’t pushing harder for the actual F1 rights in light of this?
Weird.
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler