Is Apple Scaling Back on Big Theatrical Releases?
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Even before Apple launched its video streaming service in 2019, the movie industry was abuzz with Apple’s aspirations to become an Oscar-winning studio and plans to produce blockbuster feature films that would help it stand out among its rivals.
Those were no small ambitions, but the multi-trillion-dollar company certainly had deep enough pockets that it wasn’t implausible — and Apple surprised everyone in 2022 when it became the first streaming service in history to win an Academy Award for Best Picture for 2021’s CODA, beating out Netflix which has yet to walk away with the Best Picture Oscar, even after several nominations over the years.
CODA was historic in several other ways, as it was also the first Best Picture winner that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where Apple had picked it up for a recording-breaking $25 million. It also marked the first time a Deaf male actor has received an Oscar — Troy Kotsur received the award for Best Supporting Actor, along with a BAFTA Award, a SAG Award, a Film Independent Spirit Award, and a Critics Choice Award.
However, theatrical releases are a critical component of winning Oscars. While the rules around those were relaxed during the COVID-19 pandemic, top Hollywood brass have long been vocal about films playing in theaters as more than mere “token” releases to meet the bare minimum eligibility requirements. This was the tactic employed by Netflix, which got Steven Spielberg’s hackles up, and Apple knew it had to do better.
As a result, we’ve seen a string of big theatrical releases from Apple over the past year. These included Killers of the Flower Moon, which was directed by no less of a legend than Martin Scorsese and starred Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, Ridley Scott’s Napoleon with Joaquin Phoenix, and the star-studded spy thriller, Argylle.
Together, these three films reportedly cost Apple $700 million to produce and market, but they also all turned out to be box office disappointments, taking in only $466 million. While that doesn’t mean they weren’t profitable — there are other “ancillary revenue streams” such as Apple TV+ subscriptions and premium video-on-demand (PVOD) services — they still weren’t the hits Apple executives had clearly hoped for.
This has left many pundits wondering if Apple should rethink its theatrical release policy, and this week, we saw the first evidence that it might be doing precisely that. According to Deadline, one of Apple’s big fall projects, Wolfs will now see only a “limited” theatrical release before appearing on Apple TV+.
Wolfs stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt as a pair of professional “fixers” who are hired independently from each other to clean up after a high-profile crime and forced to work together on the case. When Apple signed the deal in 2021, it was expected to be another one of its big theatrical hits. However, now it seems Apple will settle for a token release and bring it to Apple TV+ sooner than expected.
Specifically, Deadline reports that Wolfs will debut in theaters on September 20 and then hit Apple’s streaming service globally on September 27. That’s a stark contrast to its previous three big releases, which ran in theaters for at least six weeks before even showing up on premium video-on-demand services, much less Apple TV+. For example, Killers of the Flower Moon made its theatrical debut on October 20, 2023, went on sale through Paramount Home Entertainment on December 5, and didn’t show up on Apple TV+ until January 12, 2024.
While the pivot on Wolfs is unusual, sources tell Deadline that it doesn’t represent a broader shift in Apple’s strategy. It still plans to do wide theatrical releases of other films, including Brad Pitt’s F1, which it’s hoping will be a 2025 summer blockbuster in the same category as Top Gun: Maverick.
However, it seems likely Apple is being a bit more selective about how much it spends on wider releases, especially in light of reports that it’s tightening its purse strings in other areas. Despite the Clooney-Pitt team-up, Wolfs isn’t expected to be one of the studio’s hotter releases, but rather a lighter “crowd pleaser” that will likely get a much bigger audience on Apple TV+ than it will in theaters. The Instigators with Matt Damon and Casey Affleck was also released on Apple TV+ today after a limited theatrical release similar to the one now expected for Wolfs.
