It wasn’t long ago that Apple looked like it would be making a big push into theatrical releases, believing what has been true for most other distributors: a theatrical release and its subsequent marketing push helps a movie’s cachet once it (eventually) lands on streaming later. It worked with other studios — mixing up the partner on each — on the release of films like “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Paramount), “Napoleon” (Sony), and “Argylle” (Universal). And with “F1: The Movie” in partnership with yet another distributor in Warner Bros., it found its biggest hit to date — and quietly one of its biggest successes of the year at the box office — grossing $629 million worldwide.
Apple rewarded that success with a run in theaters that has lasted 14+ weeks, even as the film has already been available for premium rental since August. Few filmmakers get that sort of runway, but for Joseph Kosinski, who certainly did for “Top Gun: Maverick,” they were willing to give him the privilege, and his movie made the most of it.
Now Apple has finally announced a release date for the movie on streaming on what is now just Apple TV (not Apple TV+), hitting the service globally on December 12. It’ll be nearly six months since the film opened on June 27; a theatrical window like that is virtually unheard of.
But that’s no guarantee the same will happen to an Apple movie again. Despite its success, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the “F1” theatrical experiment is over.
Within a matter of months of each other, both Apple and Amazon were reported to be dipping their toes into theatrical releases. After some success with “Air” and a few others, Amazon MGM is now all in, targeting as many as 14 theatrical releases a year and offering them beefy theatrical windows before they land on streaming. The studio is still doing some direct-to-streaming movies, but it has made clear its priorities.
Apple, on the other hand, before “F1” had a string of costly misses and has since been rolling back that approach. The losses for movies like “Argylle” and “Fly Me to the Moon” were well-documented, and the straw that broke the camel’s back was its approach with the George Clooney-Brad Pitt thriller “Wolfs.” That movie was going to have a robust theatrical release up until Apple yanked the rug out at the last minute and said it would drop on streaming after little more than a week. The studio tried to placate the filmmakers by saying it had already greenlit a sequel to “Wolfs,” but director Jon Watts openly said that after the theatrical fiasco, he “no longer trusted” Apple as a creative partner.
Since then, some of its higher-profile films have all been quietly and modestly released in theaters before landing on streaming, if they got a theatrical release at all, a stark contrast to what was agreed upon and stuck to with “F1.” Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest” spent a couple weeks in theaters, grossing just a reported $1.5 million, before hitting the streaming service. Paul Greengrass’ “The Lost Bus” did the same, opening in just a few select theaters and did not report box office totals.
Apple is not under the same pressure as its peers to produce for the box office and hope that streaming can pick up the slack. Back in March, a report suggested that Apple TV loses $1 billion a year on streaming and has in the vicinity of 45 million subscribers. It’s fine operating it as a loss-leader and using it as a means to continue selling iPhones.
The company also has never been bound to one approach, and it stands to reason that, if another project on the scale of “F1” with a director like Kosinski attached was on the table, it could pursue a similarly lengthy theatrical release strategy. Some of its upcoming movies sound like they could have that pedigree. There’s the Skydance-produced “Mayday” starring Ryan Reynolds, the Mattel movie “Matchbox” starring John Cena, and the Ben Stiller and Jake Johnson pickleball comedy “The Dink.” Have we mentioned movie theaters need more comedies like that last one?