More on “F1 The Movie” Success, Capex vs. Depreciation, Keep an Eye on Big Tech Headcount
Happy Monday. We will kick off a new week of updates with some follow-up to topics that we discussed last week.
Let's jump right in.
More on “F1 The Movie” Success
In what probably shouldn’t have come as a complete surprise, some people aren’t happy about the way Apple's “F1 The Movie” is being talked up in terms of box office receipts. The film pulled in another $26M this past weekend in the U.S., bringing worldwide gross to $293M.
Over on a site called Cosmic Book News, Matt McGloin doesn’t understand why people are claiming “F1 The Movie” is a success given its budget and the estimated figure needed for the film to break even.
Here’s McGloin:
“Sure, it’s nice to see something original open for once, and which is also a crowd-pleaser (97% RT fan score), but at the end of the day, this isn’t about ‘artistic wins’ or ‘social media buzz.’ F1: The Movie needs to make money. And right now, it’s looking like it’s stuck in reverse.”
McGloin wasn’t alone in holding such an attitude as a few social media accounts made a similar point. Interestingly, a common theme to such criticism seems to be interest in the superhero film genre. It’s possible that some people are upset that an increasing number of superhero films are being labeled as flops or duds while “F1 The Movie" receives positive commentary and praise.
The point regarding “F1 The Movie” needing to pass a certain box office threshold to reach breakeven deserves follow-up.
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Apple’s “F1 The Movie” Scores at Box Office, A Big Win for Tim Cook and Eddy Cue, Apple’s Controversial Apple Pay Promotion
Happy Monday. It feels good to be back after some time off. Fortunately, it looks like the news flow was on the light side last week. We will use the down time to follow-up on several topics in addition to focusing on a few new topics.
Let’s jump right in.
Apple’s “F1 The Movie” Scores at Box Office
Here’s Variety:
“It’s lights out and away we go at the box office as ‘F1,’ a big-budget racing drama starring Brad Pitt, impressively revs to $55.6 million in its domestic opening weekend.
With great reviews and a promising ‘A’ grade on CinemaScore exit polls, ‘F1’ landed in the middle of expectations of $50 million to $60 million. At the international box office, the film collected a strong $88.4 million from 78 markets. Those initial ticket sales are significant given ‘F1’ is an adult-skewing tentpole that’s not part of an existing film franchise — a rarity in today’s I.P.-dominated movie theater landscape…
‘F1’ also marks the first commercial hit for Apple, the tech giant that financed the nearly $250 million-budgeted movie. (Apple put the production budget at $200 million but others have reported the number is closer to $300 million). That’s not including the many millions on promotional efforts, including a globe-spanning press tour. And since Apple doesn’t have a distribution arm, the company is paying a fee to Warner Bros. to put the film in theaters. WB will also receive a percentage of theatrical revenues that increases with certain box office benchmarks.”
While we still need to see how “F1 The Movie” performs over the next few weeks, including the all-important long Fourth of July weekend, there is no question that the film will become Apple’s highest-grossing movie, surpassing “Napoleon” which grabbed $221M.
It’s rational to conclude Apple’s unprecedented marketing push contributed to the film’s opening weekend success. Apple leveraged nearly every one of its content distribution services to let users know about the film in some way (as Apple should do). Hollywood is envious of Apple today as anyone behind a potential blockbuster film craves Apple’s ability to use its ecosystem to promote a film. There is a larger discussion to be had when it comes to Apple using its products and services to inform users of other Apple products, services, and content. We will tackle that topic tomorrow.
While extensive marketing certainly helps a film’s prospects at theaters, box office success has become far more complicated.
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Become an Above Avalon member and receive the following privileges and benefits:
Exclusive Analysis. Receive the Above Avalon Daily newsletter, widely-recognized as the leading daily newsletter dedicated to Apple. Now in its tenth year.
Archive Access. Access previous newsletters sent to members.
Member Forum Access. Access all channels in the Above Avalon forum in Discord.
Email Access. Receive timely responses from Neil to email inquiries.
Access to Add-ons. Customize a membership with the AVALON, Podcasts, Inside Orchard, and Financial Models add-ons.
Above Avalon Support. Play an active role in supporting Above Avalon as an independent voice and resource.