Following 'Greyhound' success, Apple eyes more blockbuster-style films
Apple may be preparing to release upwards of a dozen feature-length movies a year to Apple TV+, according to sources familiar with the situation.
This new strategy comes after the success of Tom Hanks' Greyhound, a World War II drama that follows Hanks' character as he convoys dozens of ships across the North Atlantic.
Of the twelve movies a year, up to four would be comparable to Greyhound in scale, according Fast Company's sources. Another source said Apple has begun searching Hollywood for tentpole film projects.
At launch, Apple TV+'s strategy was to capture the prestige TV crowd by releasing its own straight-to-screen series like "See", "The Morning Show", and "Dickinson."
While Apple's strategy has included movies from the beginning, it often chose to highlight smaller, more intimate pieces, like "Hala."
A pivot to producing blockbusters, while somewhat risky, could help draw in more subscribers. While Apple doesn't release official viewing numbers, it was suspected that "Greyhound" 's opening weekend rivaled that of a traditional summer box office hit. Additionally, 30% of viewers who watched "Greyhound" were first time Apple TV+ subscribers.
With the ongoing pandemic, Apple will likely have the opportunity to pick up more movies that won't be seeing a traditional theater release. However, the company will likely follow its prestige motto, only picking up titles that fit its highly curated catalog.
"They don't want to be Costco," a source told Fast Company. "They want to be very curated."
Without a backlog of content, similar to how Disney+ subscribers can access Disney's entire movie library, Apple's willingness to adapt is critical. The move to host twelve films a year may help to bolster its subscriber count.
This new strategy comes after the success of Tom Hanks' Greyhound, a World War II drama that follows Hanks' character as he convoys dozens of ships across the North Atlantic.
Of the twelve movies a year, up to four would be comparable to Greyhound in scale, according Fast Company's sources. Another source said Apple has begun searching Hollywood for tentpole film projects.
At launch, Apple TV+'s strategy was to capture the prestige TV crowd by releasing its own straight-to-screen series like "See", "The Morning Show", and "Dickinson."
While Apple's strategy has included movies from the beginning, it often chose to highlight smaller, more intimate pieces, like "Hala."
A pivot to producing blockbusters, while somewhat risky, could help draw in more subscribers. While Apple doesn't release official viewing numbers, it was suspected that "Greyhound" 's opening weekend rivaled that of a traditional summer box office hit. Additionally, 30% of viewers who watched "Greyhound" were first time Apple TV+ subscribers.
With the ongoing pandemic, Apple will likely have the opportunity to pick up more movies that won't be seeing a traditional theater release. However, the company will likely follow its prestige motto, only picking up titles that fit its highly curated catalog.
"They don't want to be Costco," a source told Fast Company. "They want to be very curated."
Without a backlog of content, similar to how Disney+ subscribers can access Disney's entire movie library, Apple's willingness to adapt is critical. The move to host twelve films a year may help to bolster its subscriber count.
Comments
I know many people who qualify for the free year of Apple TV+ and almost nobody uses it.
I qualify by multiple devices and do not see much of anything worth watching.
But your concept that you don’t know anyone who saw Greyhound, therefore nobody saw it, is as foolish as it sounds. There are 1.4 billion iOS devices around the world, many of which have access to Apple TV+ in the nation of the owner. If half have access to ATV+, then that is 700M devices. If 5% of those devices watched Greyhound, that would be 35M views. Given a subject matter which crosses international boundaries (war and action movies) and a global star in Hanks, interest would figure to be high.
If movie tickets ballpark for $10 each, a $200M opening is 20M tickets sold.
Even if you don’t know anyone who saw it, the numbers are quite plausible.
THAT movie was nice. Poster may be talking about anti-male propaganda instead of race, which most people who criticize the left complain about.
If more hit movies gets people talking about TV+, good. It's still not too Kate to change the name btw.
I’d strongly encourage movie companies reconsider their distribution options. I suspect they’re missing out on a strong at home audience. After watching Greyhound on AppleTV+ I checked iTunes to see if I could purchase it to add to my library, but it’s not available there. They’re definitely leaving money on the table.
AppleTV Plus for free is nice. I wouldn't subscribe to see something interesting every few months. Offering AppleTV Plus for free to generate an audience while Apple works out the content was a great idea.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/07/trumps-lies-about-coronavirus/608647/
You're considerably more than naive if you think that shutting down certain aspects of the economy temporarily is a bad idea to protect the longterm health of the nation and to get the economy back to normal as quickly as possible. There were many nations that acted smart. Here's one you can look into.
https://www.dw.com/en/jacinda-ardern-leadership-in-coronavirus-response/a-53733397
I'm a very cynical and jaded viewer of movies and am forever picking holes in, continuity, costume (for period set movies, since my wife is a movie/theatre costume designer), ridiculous lighting and prop use, plus completely implausible and unrealistic scenes. Now I wouldn't say it's the best 'action' pic I've ever seen, but considering it's based on a true story, hats off to the screenwriters and actors. All of my cynic's red flags were dead on accurate for WWII and it was thoroughly enjoyable.
Very weird story all together. I found the Captain's actions in this movie ridiculous. Stopping protecting the ships in the convoy for a funeral? Really? Time and time again he showed very poor judgement. Who gives a damn if his feet bled, he hadn't eaten his sandwich or he was cold, poor baby? People were dying on ships all around due to his stupidity. I honestly thought the movie would end with his court martial.