Apple To Splash $1 Billion a Year on Films To Break Into Cinemas (bloomberg.com) 48
Apple plans to spend $1 billion a year to produce movies that will be released in theaters, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, citing 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. From the report: 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. 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.
Why not? (Score:2)
It's a good fit these days. A lot of movies spend a month in theaters and go straight to streaming since COVID. They have plenty of money to throw around and we get a few years of decent movies, maybe. Although if throwing money at movies made them good we'd already have more good ones.
Apple gave me apple tv for free (Score:1)
Re: Apple gave me apple tv for free (Score:5, Funny)
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After party was also good, Loot is worth a watch. Greyhound and the other Tom Hanks movie with the robot were both good (can't think of the name right now). Apple TV+ has some sci-fi that might be good (but I haven't watched yet) such as Foundations (based on the Isaac Asimov books). Severance won some awards but it was just too dark for me.
But video
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For All Mankind is silly but enjoyable.
Foundation was okay, waiting for season 2. Lee Pace was a standout.
Severance was really good, but I'm worried they will run out of ideas. Fingers crossed for season 2.
Mythic Quest was okay for the first season, but then I lost interest.
Apple movies could be decent, depends really if they offer good terms to get good people onboard.
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I donâ(TM)t know if this model will generate profits. If I had a kid in school Apple TV would be superior to Disney. But will this be enough?
That sounds like a lot of money (Score:2)
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I agree, but the question is where this will go. It could be abandoned in a few years. It could roughly break even and provide a steady stream of content for AppleTV+. It could also grow into a major film studio.
I figure they're hoping for the latter option, but will be happy with the middle. And if it fails, it's less of a loss than Disney has taken on Disney+, so it's not that big of a deal.
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As long as they spend some of it on decent writers. They seem to be exceedingly rare these days though.
There's a reason for that. Hollywood destroys decent writers and discourages them from participating in the industry by taking every idea and workshopping it until they've wrung all the originality and decent story-telling or character building completely out of it so it can appeal to the lowest common denominator, then shove it through cultural filters to be sure you don't offend China, India, or any other market that might have something resembling an economic pulse. Then, once that part of the deconstruc
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I'm about to go out on a limb, and ask maybe they take a wild "new" route and try to make some films with actually good dialog, acting....engaging story???
Where's the next Godfather? Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid? Pulp Fiction? Taxi Driv
Re:That sounds like a lot of money (Score:4, Interesting)
Where's the next Godfather? Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid? Pulp Fiction? Taxi Driver?
They're all out there. I mean the summary lists one movie by Scorcese, the literal director of Taxi Driver. We also had Everything Everywhere All at Once, Women Talking, The Fabelmans, Banshees of Insherin, etc all very good movies with excellent performances jus tthis past year. Tarantino is also filiming his "last movie" this year.
actually funny comedies? Blues Brothers? Animal House? Caddyshack? Ferris Bueller?
Comedy films have been kinda dead for like the past decade after the "bro" comedy peak in the mid aughts but even just the year we had "Triangle of Sadness" and "The Menu" which are both comedies, albeit quite dark comedies. TV really is the realm of comedy for a long while though.
Where's the next Hitchcock?
We've got Robert Eggers, Alex Garland, Jordan Peele, Daniels, plenty of good directors making interesting thriller and horror pictures.
It's easy to fall into the nostalgia trap but there are still very good artists doing artistic work today, it's just not gonna fall right in front of you at the local cineplex. Just like there are new but really good bands making music today but it ain't gonna be on the radio.
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Well, if it isn't on the usual mediums people regularly see....how are we supposed to know about it?
It worked just fine for the music and movies of the past....
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Well we are dealing with two eras now, pre-internet and post-internet because before then we didn't have the option to discover and view these things in other means. Now we have what is probably way too many means and theres exponentially more content. There was a certain simplicity in the past but there's no going back, it's over johnny
Just syaing this stuff is out there but the old Hollywood Studio and Music Label conglomerates don't have nearly the sway over thigns they once did, they used to make itt
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You justify that not being a lot of money because it only makes 10-20 movies and that doesnt make a bit of sense. 10-20 movies from one, brand new production company is a lot.
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I dont think you really have a strong idea on the numbers of movies a year most major studios make. Take a major studio like Warner Brothers https://www.the-numbers.com/mo... [the-numbers.com] . 20 movies a year seems to be their average.
Sure, Disney probably makes a ton more but they are not the norm.
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Contrast that with, say, Disney - who released 37 "major" films in 2022 and it is hard to see how Apple is going to move the needle much.
Many of Disney's movies are basically glorified commercials for their theme parks and resorts. They can afford to dump money into entertainment because they'll make it back and then some when tourists come to their parks to see characters from, and ride attractions based on, their favorite Disney films.
Apple, on the other hand, really has no good reason to be dabbling in the entertainment industry. I'm surprised they've even bothered with having their own streaming service, as it is the market has become
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ahh yes, famously woke director by the name of *checks notes* Martin Scorcese?
the anti-woke yet again have become somehow stupider and more annoying than the thing they are supposed to be fighting back against
give me a thousand black ariels before i have to listen to another soft-skulled guy in oakleys tell me about how whitey doesn't get a break anymore from the front seat of his f150. godamn insufferable
Re:iWoke movies? Go woke go broke (Score:4, Insightful)
Then again, better not. You might be one of those who whines about [yahoo.com] drag [nbcnews.com] queens [businessinsider.com], then is arrested for child porn or child sex.
I can break into cinemas too... (Score:1)
What's next? Investment in fax tech? (Score:3)
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People just need the right reason to get out and go which are going to be the big budget popcorn flicks and ironically cheap horror movies.
In 2022 we had Avatar 2 ($2.4B) and Top Gun: Maveritck ($1.5B) which shows people are still willing to pay and make time for the "theater experience" if you give them something worthwhile as well as something like "The Black Phone" which barely cost $20M but cleared over a $160M in theaters.
That middle ground style and budget of cinema like comedies and dramas though has
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That middle ground style and budget of cinema like comedies and dramas though has just been annihilated by television.
Has it? Don't get me wrong, almost no one is making major comedic movies anymore but TV has always had huge amounts of comedy on it. How are today's TV comedies effecting cinema in ways that past TV comedies didnt?
I dont have an answer for why Hollywood doesnt make comedies any more but the one you floated here doesnt seem to fit.
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I guess when i say "television" I mean the availability of streaming services and the era of television we are in today.
Basically with the amount of streaming content out there people are not going to get out and pay $15+ to see a straight up comedy film in a theater. The amount of money for a night out means most peopel are going to demand something "big and noisy" basically, nor is it the fun experience seeing a horror flick in a theater with a crowd of people. It falls into this weird grey area of view
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I guess when i say "television" I mean the availability of streaming services and the era of television we are in today.
For the purposed of this conversation streaming and TV are exactly the same, they're both at home entertainment and 80's and 90's TV was awash in comedies. Streaming hasnt changed anything in regards to that specifically at all.
Basically with the amount of streaming content out there people are not going to get out and pay $15+ to see a straight up comedy film in a theater. The amount of money for a night out means most peopel are going to demand something "big and noisy" basically, nor is it the fun experience seeing a horror flick in a theater with a crowd of people.
I remember people commenting on theaters being expensive all the way back to my childhood in the 80's and if the price has gone up relative to inflation at least in my own area it does seem amenities have gotten much better so there is something being gained by the consumer. Meanwhil
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Streaming hasnt changed anything in regards to that specifically at all.
I mean it kinda has, there is no more realy production/distribution/network system anymore. Netflix, Amazon and many others now produce their own showsn with their own production companies for their own platforms and audience engagement and metrics are more important now than a stright nielsen number. Also the mere fact of time shifting has changed TV irrevocably. In the 90's if i wanted to watch Seinfeld that week i better be at my TV at 9PM Thursday. I admit these are not direct causations but the lan
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Has it? Don't get me wrong, almost no one is making major comedic movies anymore but TV has always had huge amounts of comedy on it. How are today's TV comedies effecting cinema in ways that past TV comedies didnt?
I dont have an answer for why Hollywood doesnt make comedies any more but the one you floated here doesnt seem to fit.
We've got huge HDTVs at home now and lots of streaming services providing a ton of content.
People mostly only go to theaters now for the blockbuster movies that really benefit from the huge screen and fancy sound system. For most other movies, people generally prefer to watch at home now.
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e've got huge HDTVs at home now and lots of streaming services providing a ton of content.
That was true 3 years ago and theater attendance was going great so that doesnt seem to hold up to me.
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People just need the right reason to get out and go which are going to be the big budget popcorn flicks and ironically cheap horror movies.
Personally, post-covid there just hasn't been anything I've felt was really worth seeing in the cinema. I was really hoping that direct-to-streaming would continue to be the new normal and that most people would boycott the inconvenience of having to actually go out to see a movie.
But yeah, I guess people still go out to movies as a social activity, so we're probably stuck with cinemas.
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When you think about it most of the movies today are not quite direct to streaming but the delta between theater release and streaming release is measures in weeks now rather than months like it used to. Sometimes it's just days. Most of the "Best Picture" nominees this year were available to rent online within about 6 weeks of their theater release. It's really only those giant budget features that even have the option to drag out their home releases to maximize cinema revenues.
Re: What's next? Investment in fax tech? (Score:3)
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Eh, I've been seeing Slashdot users who dont like going to theaters crow about their inevitable death for a couple of decades now. Honestly I think their biggest problem is the shitty state of Hollywood movies and the fact that they cant seem to make original productions anymore. Everything else you list (aside from Covdi of course) was here before Covid and attendance was fine.
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And it likely won't die. From a North American perspective it seems like cinema might die, but outside it won't. And even more, cit
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With the US' growling housing crisis we're on the path to smaller homes as we speak. California is on the forefront of that and I can tell you from living here that homes are indeed getting smaller.
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In general, you need to show in theaters to be eligible for Academy Awards. Award nominations are marketing for future productions.
The incremental spend to get into theaters is basically coming out of the marketing budget.
Buy Theaters? (Score:2)
Why doesn't Apple simply buy theaters?
Oh, yeah, here's why:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org].
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Exactly why Apple should be prevented from entering too many markets. Much the same should apply to other large companies, eg Amazon. Something too large and with fingers in too many pies ends up being anti-competitive and ends up disadvantaging the general public and squashing competition. If it wants to get into something new it must divest something else first.
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The Paramount Decrees were lifted 2 1/2 years ago.
I know burglars who would work for much less (Score:2)
Cinemas are not so difficult to gain entry to. They typically have double doors which are notoriously insecure, and if they have any hamburgler alarms at all, they're old and not sophisticated. But really, what do you want in there? You won't get access to the films.
Tom Hanks shall not retire (Score:1)
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Apple made me jump through an hour of hoops (Score:2)
I don't imagine they've gotten any less negligent or entitled since then, so I'm not interested unless these movies are made available on other services.