Although the budget for Brad Pitt’s upcoming racing drama might be massive, Top Gun: Maverick proves the movie could be a hit. Brad Pitt’s career has seen the actor enjoy his fair share of success as well as weathering plenty of flops. Some of Brad Pitt’s best movies weren’t box office successes upon their original release, with Fight Club and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford both struggling financially. Pitt’s high success rate means that he has remained an A-list actor despite these risky projects, but one upcoming movie could change his blockbuster status.

Brad Pitt will play Formula 1 driver Sonny Hayes in an upcoming racing drama from Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski. Although this project does not yet have a title, it does have a promising synopsis. Hayes is a retired F1 driver haunted by a horrifying accident that ended his racing career prematurely. When he attempts to lead a young prodigy, Joshua Pearce, and the Apex Grand Prix Team to success, Hayes is forced to face his past and contend with his legacy. This premise makes Pitt’s upcoming F1 movie sound exciting, but the project comes with a major catch.

Brad Pitt’s Formula 1 Movie Is Copying One Vital Trick Behind Top Gun: Maverick’s Success

Both Movies Gave Audiences A Front Row Seat For Their Action Sequences

Pitt’s new movie reportedly cost $300 million to produce, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made. This price tag is significantly higher than the budget of any other upcoming Brad Pitt movie, meaning there will be huge expectations for the project to succeed. Fortunately, Kosinski’s pedigree means that Pitt’s upcoming movie could live up to these expectations. Top Gun: Maverick wowed audiences by offering viewers a visual spectacle they had never seen before. By putting cameras into the cockpits of real fighter jets, Kosinski’s sequel managed to match director Tony Scott’s original cult classic Top Gun.

Pitt’s F1 movie can now do the same with racing, literally putting viewers in the driver’s seat. Some of the movie’s actors even drove while filming racing sequences, lending the finished production a sense of urgency and verisimilitude not seen since Top Gun: Maverick. It is tough to see how Top Gun 3’s story will outdo the aerial acrobatics of the sequel, but Pitt’s movie has the benefit of novelty. There has never been a racing drama that brought viewers this close to the action, despite attempts like Days of Thunder and 2023’s recent hit, Gran Turismo.

Brad Pitt’s Formula 1 Movie Won’t Make As Much Money As Top Gun: Maverick (But Can Still Succeed)

Top Gun: Maverick Benefited From Brand Recognition And Nostalgia

Admittedly, even Pitt’s star power and Kosinski’s reliable blockbuster direction won’t be enough to equal Top Gun: Maverick’s historic box office success. Top Gun: Maverick earned a staggering $1.5 billion upon release, outdoing the original movie even when adjusted for inflation. That sequel had both brand recognition and a nostalgia factor working in its favor, neither of which Pitt’s movie will benefit from, and Formula 1 is also less popular in America than it is in Europe. That said, Brad Pitt’s Formula 1 movie doesn’t need $1.5 billion to break even, so the project could still replicate Top Gun: Maverick‘s success.