19/09/2013
NEWS STORY
Rush, Ron Howard's movie about the 1976 Formula One season, finished in second place in the UK box office standings in its opening weekend according to ratings website Box Office Mojo. The movie, which stars Hollywood A-Lister Chris Hemsworth as the late British F1 champion James Hunt, raked in £2m ($3.3m) over the two days following its launch on Friday 13 September. It finished behind horror flick Insidious Chapter 2 which also opened on Friday and made £2.8m ($4.6m) in the UK.
Rush has an estimated budget of over £31m ($50m) and was financed by two production companies Cross Creek Pictures and Exclusive Media. The former reportedly put in its own cash whilst the latter took out a bank loan made against pre-sales in 2011. The movie generated £20.4m ($33m) in foreign pre-sales and hauled in another £7.4m ($12m) through its structure as a UK-German co-production.
As Pitpass has reported, Howard has made it clear that the F1 community "didn't have anything to do with the movie" though it has been well-received by it. Speaking recently to Pitpass' business editor Christian Sylt, F1's boss Bernie Ecclestone said that his only criticism was that Hemsworth's performance doesn't live up to Hunt himself. "Nobody could play James. He was a bit special. He would have livened the film up an awful lot," he said.
Pitpass has already given the movie a thumbs-up and concluded that it is well worth seeing. Mike Lawrence described it as "the best motor racing movie ever made".