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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Apple Reportedly Pursuing Movie Theater Releases, Streamers Embracing Movie Theaters, TVOD vs. Theatrical Releases (Daily Update)
We kick things off with Neil’s thoughts on Apple reportedly thinking of putting blockbuster movies through theatrical releases. The discussion includes a broader look at how streamers have embraced movie theaters. We then examine the argument that theatrical releases remain a viable way to bring in extra revenue, and how those prospects compare to the TVOD (transactional video on demand) route in streaming.
Hello everyone. Welcome to Monday.
Let's jump right in.
Apple Reportedly Pursuing Movie Theater Releases
“Apple Inc. plans to spend $1 billion a year to produce movies that will be released in theaters, according to people familiar with the company’s plans, part of an ambitious effort to raise its profile in Hollywood and lure subscribers to its streaming service.
Apple has approached movie studios about partnering to release a few titles in theaters this year and a slate of more films in the future, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private. The list of potential releases includes Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio; the spy thriller Argylle, from director Matthew Vaughn; and Napoleon, Ridley Scott’s drama about the French conqueror. A spokesperson for Apple declined to comment.
The investment is a significant increase from years past. Most of Apple’s previous original movies have either been exclusive to the streaming service or released in a limited number of theaters. The company has pledged to put movies in thousands of theaters for at least a month, said the people, though it hasn’t finalized any plans.”
One may read Bloomberg's article and conclude Apple is looking to place a big bet on movie theaters. That does not look to be the case.
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