Apple Inc. (AAPL) has been extremely successful at almost everything, but its entry into the film and television industries has been the one exception.
Therefore, it is racing into the weekend in the hopes that its expensive racecar movie “F1 The Movie,” which stars Brad Pitt and was directed by Joseph Kosinski of “Top Gun: Maverick” and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, will help it win the box office gold.
The $250 million movie is a big wager for Apple’s film and television business. The business has established a reputation for creating highly regarded movies and TV series since launching its Apple Original Films studio and streaming service in 2019, but very few of these have become huge box office successes.
With a 3,650 theater release and distribution by Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. (WBD), Apple is hoping that “F1” will be as successful as the most recent “Top Gun,” which made close to $1.5 billion globally. Benchmark Research projects that “F1” will earn between $55 million and $74 million domestically on its first weekend of release.
Eventually, Apple TV+ will provide the movie for streaming.
Apple, which has generally released its films on its own streaming service either concurrently with or prior to theatrical distribution, is taking a different approach with a wide theatrical-only release.
“Unlike Apple’s prior streaming-first films, F1 gets a wide theatrical release backed by promotions like a $10 Fandango coupon via Apple Pay, positioning it for box office upside, awards eligibility, and downstream Apple TV+ engagement,” according to a note from Benchmark. “While Apple’s past theatrical efforts (Killers of the Flower Moon, Argylle) underperformed, F1 leverages recognizable brands Pitt, Kosinski, Formula One to improve commercial prospects.”
Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro’s 2023 film “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which received a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, made only $159 million worldwide on a budget of more than $200 million. Despite having a nearly $200 million budget, the spy thriller “Argylle” only made $96 million.
Similar to this, Apple’s 2021 release “CODA” saw a small theatrical run and was primarily watched on the Apple TV Plus streaming service, resulting in a muted commercial success despite winning the Oscar for best picture that year.
In addition to investing a lot of money in expanding its streaming business, the tech behemoth has created popular shows like “Ted Lasso” and “Severance.” Despite having almost 45 million users, the tech news site the Information reported in March that it loses more than $1 billion annually.
In the end, Apple, which made a net profit of $93.7 billion in its fiscal year 2024, can afford to lose money in its streaming business.
