By Starting with “Wolfs” later this month, and as previously reported, Apple has pulled back on theatrical rollouts of its films.
So, aside from one or two “event-worthy theatrical runs” reserved for big-budget projects, Apple Original Films will only get a very limited theatrical run followed by a release worldwide on the Apple TV+ service. Budgets are also being limited.
Apple has not revealed the cause of this shift in strategy, though many suspect it’s due to the theatrical run failures of several titles in the past year, ranging from “Napoleon” to “Argylle,” to the most recent with Greg Berlanti’s “Fly Me to the Moon”.
Now Deadline, who broke the news of the change of strategy in the first place, suggests much of the blame rests on ‘Moon’.
The outlet indicates Apple Studio chiefs Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, buoyed by sky-high test screening scores and the star power of Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, bet that the $100 million-budget film would work in cinemas as ‘summer counterprogramming’.
It didn’t, rather spectacularly. The film scored mixed reviews and grossed just $20 million domestically and $42 million worldwide – ultimately costing Apple tens of millions. As a result, Erlicht and Amburg received ‘the shrapnel’ from Apple brass who shifted the studio’s strategy with “Wolfs” which hits the service September 27th.
Apple isn’t expected to try again with a wide theatrical release until the Brad Pitt-led “F1” movie from “Top Gun: Maverick” filmmaker Joseph Kosinski next year.
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