Apple reboots its movie ambitions

Apple has surprisingly moved its upcoming feature Wolfs from a wide-theatrical release to a one-week showing and then straight to streaming just as Sony was about to ramp up its marketing efforts for its release next month.

The Big Picture: After a series of box-office misfires, Apple is pulling back its theatrical ambitions in favor of putting more movies directly on its Apple TV+ service. But with the streamer stubbornly failing to attract high viewership, there’s fear that the pullback from theaters is the first step toward a bigger step away from Hollywood.

Between the Lines: A meeting between Apple’s corporate overlords and film and TV execs earlier this year shifted the entertainment division’s mandate — no more than two big-budget, theatrical movies a year, while the rest will be budgeted under $85 million and go straight to streaming.

• Wolfs, which paid a total of $85 million just to George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and filmmaker Jon Watts (the Tom Holland-led Spider-Man trilogy), was held back because Apple was concerned that it too would flop… and the company is allegedly tired of the negative headlines of its string of bombs, including last month’s Fly Me to the Moon.
• Instead, Apple hopes that Wolfs mimics the success of its latest release, The Instigators — contributing 50,000 new subscribers, according to data from Parrott Analytics.

Closing Thoughts: Apple, the biggest company in the world, got into the movie business to seemingly create the highest quality marketing for the brand that money could buy. However, Apple isn’t happy with the returns, so the company has put pressure on its entertainment division to rein in budgets and change its reputation as a buyer with a blank check. It still has the buzzy, Brad Pitt-starring Formula 1 movie, F1, on the docket for next summer… but that may now be an outlier moving forward unless it’s a huge hit.

Go Deeper: Apple has really, really been trying hard to make it in Hollywood.