Apple is finally dusting off “Mayday,” a completed Skydance film it has been sitting on for almost two years. The survival movie stars Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh, and not only do we now finally have a trailer, but also a release date: September 4—straight to streaming.
Yep, “Mayday” is going straight to Apple TV+. No theatrical release for this $100M+ costing project.
“Mayday” is a Cold War-era action-adventure thriller starring Reynolds as a commercial airline pilot who survives a plane crash in hostile territory and becomes entangled in an international espionage conspiracy. As he fights to stay alive, he is drawn into a dangerous clash involving intelligence agencies and global power players, including a key antagonist played by Branagh.
What makes the streaming decision eyebrow-raising is the scale of the project—and the star attached to it. “Mayday” is a big-budget Skydance production that reportedly cost well into nine figures. It’s a glossy, star-driven studio movie directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who have a solid track record (“Game Night,” “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”) and were recently tapped to reboot the next “Star Trek” film for Paramount.
And yet, Apple is skipping theaters entirely. That’s notable because Reynolds is widely regarded as one of the few genuinely bankable movie stars left. The “Deadpool” films are billion-dollar franchise entries, “Free Guy” was a theatrical hit, and his brand of meta-comedy has proven durable across multiple demographics. Then again, he was also Netflix’s go-to star for big-budget, disposable action fare like “6 Underground,” “The Adam Project,” and “Red Notice.”
This also underscores Apple’s increasingly streaming-first philosophy. Despite earlier ambitions to become a serious theatrical player, Apple Original Films has steadily retreated, reserving theaters primarily for prestige titles (“Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Napoleon”). Based on past reporting, however, the disappointing box office performance of 2024’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” starring Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson, prompted the company to rethink its strategy. That film reportedly lost more than $80 million, and “Mayday” appears to be another casualty of that shift.
“Mayday,” reportedly finished since mid-2024, has been sitting in limbo ever since. There has been no clear indication of creative trouble—no rumors of reshoots, and test screenings were reportedly positive. Instead, this appears to have been a business decision on Apple’s part.
Festival press conferences have turned into landmines of political questioning, to the point where some artists would probably prefer to turn down being a juror at Cannes, Venice, or Berlin.