Report: Apple is Scaling Back Theatrical Release Plans for its Original Films

After some of its big budget original films disappointed in the box office, Bloomberg is reporting today that Apple is scaling back its theatrical release plans. The news follows a previous report detailing recent cost-cutting measures to make the company’s Apple TV+ service more sustainable financially.

Wolfs, a new Apple Original action comedy film featuring Brad Pitt and George Clooney was initially set to be distributed in thousands of theaters globally. However, after previous Apple-funded films such as Ridley Scott’s Napoleon and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon failed to sell a lot of tickets, Apple ultimately chose to only release Wolfs in a limited number of theaters before making it available on Apple TV+ today.

“Apple plans to use a similar approach with the next few titles on its calendar, including the World War II drama Blitz,” the Bloomberg report reads. F1, an upcoming sports film starring Brad Pitt is said to be the next Apple Original film to get a global theatrical release in June 2025.

According to the report citing people familiar with the company’s plans, Apple spent up to $200 million on some of the original films it previously brought to theaters. The company’s upcoming F1 movie reportedly cost more than $300 million to produce.

Apple previously planned to spend no less than $1 billion a year on films for cinemas. However, a series of box office disappointments has put Apple’s Hollywood studio is now under scrutiny. Going forward, the company will reportedly aim to produce a dozen of movies a year, with the majority of them costing less than $100 million.

“Apple will still aim to take one or two big theatrical swings a year with films exceptionally approved for higher budgets, such as F1. But films like Wolfs, for which Clooney and Pitt earned a combined sum of tens of millions of dollars, will be marketed as streaming rather than theatrical titles,” the report said.

If most of Apple’s original films and TV shows have received critical praise, Apple TV+ is attracting just 0.2% of TV viewing in the US, according to Nielsen rankings. To make the service more competitive against Netflix and other streaming services, Apple has recently struck licensing deals to bring more Hollywood movies to Apple TV+.

While it may still make sense for Apple and its competitors to bring some of their blockbuster movies to theaters, the pandemic has also led Netflix and Amazon to rethink their content strategies. Spending millions of dollars to make films with a potential theatrical release appears to be increasingly risky, and there’s no doubt that the performance of Apple’s F1 movie should be a hot topic next year.