Apple spent billions making movies for theatrical release, it didn’t really work

Apple will send more movies straight to streaming as it switches up its plan to pump $1 billion every year into theatrical releases, having spent more than $20 billion on a string of hit-and-miss movies and TV shows over the last 5 years. Its most recent effort, Wolfs — starring Brad Pitt & George Clooney — landed on Apple TV+ after a very limited theatrical run.

Two bites at the apple

While a handful of Apple’s efforts have proved popular with critics — it became the first streamer to pick up the Best Picture Oscar in 2022 with CODA — audiences haven’t always flocked to see them in theaters. Argylle, for example, was seen as a flop when it hit cinemas in February, grossing just $96 million at the global box office. However, the movie found success when it was later released on Apple TV+, perhaps taking some of the sting out of the film’s failure to meet the reported $500 million break-even point.

While the iPhone-maker’s decision to pivot to making around a dozen movies each year, most of which will head straight to Apple TV+ and cost less than $100 million to produce, isn’t particularly exciting news for film fans, it makes sense from a business perspective. Even Apple’s biggest hits have lost money in theaters: the company’s 3 top-grossing movies of all time (Argylle, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon) took a total of $476 million around the world, but cost Apple at least $700 million to make and market, per Variety.

If Apple execs need any other evidence that big budgets aren’t enough to guarantee success, they need to look no further than last weekend’s Megalopolis. The largely self-funded passion project of Hollywood royalty Francis Ford Coppola, which was rejected by studio after studio, took just ~$4 million domestically over its opening weekend. It cost ~$120 million to make.