Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Wednesday, July 2nd.

Today on Forbes, how this Hollywood producer turned Brad Pitt into a $40 million

F-1 ad.

F-1, Apple Original Film's new Formula One racing movie starring Brad Pitt, topped the box office charts over the weekend, the first

major hit in theaters for the Tech Giants film and television production studios. F1 grossed $55.6 million

at the domestic box office in its opening weekend, as well as an additional $88.4 million worldwide

and $10 million from previews.

For the past three years, Apple has been selling F1 as a can't-miss summer blockbuster

set in the high-octane world of Formula One, with the prestige of producer Jerry Bruckheimer,

director Joseph Kosinski, and star Brad Pitt. But for David Liener, the producer in charge of

the movie's product placement, his sales pitch was far simpler, turning one of the world's

highest paid actors, Pitt is earning an estimated $30 million for this film, into a human billboard.

For significant portions of the film, Pitt's character wears fire suits,

helmets, and other apparel adorned with more than a dozen logos for brands, including

Mercedes, IWC, Geico, EA Sports, and Expensify, each of which also have branding on the fictional

APX-GP team's car, and paid millions for the privilege.

Liener, a pioneer of brand integrations in movies for nearly 30 years, says he brought in more

sponsor money for F1 than any film in his career by far, including Top Gun Maverick,

the two National Treasure Pictures, and several Transformer movies.

Forbes estimates Liener's sponsorships for F1 have brought in at least $40 million,

covering a significant part of a production budget that may be as high as $300 million.

And that doesn't include the tens of millions spent in cross-promotional ads, where brands,

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