Here’s a report that claims Apple TV+ lost over $1 billion last year.
The tech giant, which spends $5 billion a year on “content,” decided to trim the number down by about $500 million last year. Then again, since Apple Corp. earns $391 billion in annual revenue, I believe the company will survive the measly failures of its streaming platform.
Apple recently reviewed their overspending on movie projects and decided to pull back on theatrical rollouts by capping the budget for “most” of their future releases at $80M or less.
This “pivot” was, more or less, an admission from Apple that their wide-release strategy wasn’t working out, or at least, wasn’t worth the bad PR that came with failing to meet certain expectations. No wonder Apple TV+ recently fired their head of marketing — it’s a total mess when it comes to their original films.
The streamer is also going to be limiting “event-worthy theatrical runs” to just 1 to 2 films per year. This comes after Apple’s recent commercial failures, some of which cost $200M+ to produce (“Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Napoleon, “Argyle”).
Last year, Apple canned theatrical distribution on their Brad Pitt/George Clooney film, “Wolfs,” which cost over $150M. They sent that one straight to streaming. A planned “Wolfs” sequel was also aborted. Other recent big-budget Apple failures include “Blitz” ($150M budget), “Fly Me to the Moon” ($100M), and “The Gorge” ($80M).
All of this, and I failed to mention Joseph Kosinski’s “F1,” starring Brad Pitt, which cost well over $300M; It remains to be seen if the racing film will amass a wide enough audience this summer to recoup that budget.