Tom Hanks film 'Finch' sets Apple TV+ film premiere record

AppleInsider · November 11, 2021 12:09AM

Tom Hanks film "Finch" broke Apple TV+ records this past weekend when its premiere attracted more viewers than any other movie to debut on the service, according to a report on Wednesday.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Deadline reports that "Finch" outperformed previous record holder "Greyhound," another Hanks film, to notch the largest opening weekend in Apple TV+ history.

The film was released in over 100 countries on Friday, Nov. 5, and more than doubled its opening day audience through Saturday and Sunday, the report said. Apple has not revealed official viewer numbers.

A post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama, "Finch" stars Hanks as a robotics engineer who is one of the few survivors of a cataclysmic solar event. Living in a bunker for 10 years, Finch creates a robot, played by Caleb Landry Jones, to care for his dog when he no longer can. As the trio embark on an adventure to the American West, Finch attempts to show his creation the wonders of life.

"Finch" is the third collaboration between Apple TV+ and Hanks. Along with "Greyhound" and "Finch," Hanks is producing limited WWII series "Masters of the Air" with Steven Spielberg. A sequel to HBO's award-winning "Band of Brothers," the show is currently filming in the UK.

Apple is preparing an impressive slate of feature films including "The Tragedy of Macbeth," directed by Joel Cohen and starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand, as well as Will Smith vehicle "Emancipation."

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shareef777 · November 11, 2021 12:19AM

Watched it, and found it to be a complete waste of time. The story/plot was non-existent. It’s like they thought if they just showed Hanks for 2 hours that it’d mean it’s a good movie. 2 hours and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the point of the story was. How are there literally only 3 characters in the entire move (and only one of which was an actual HUMAN) and we had absolutely ZERO character development!?

lkrupp · November 11, 2021 12:23AM

But things like this don’t matter to the critics here. All that matters to them is the NUMBER of offerings, not the quality of the content. So they judge Apple TV+ as a failure. Using that same logic Apple Music is a failure because Spotify has more subscribers, iOS is a failure because there are more Android devices, the Mac is a failure because there are more PCs sold.

williamlondon · November 11, 2021 12:45AM

This movie is very enjoyable, basically an exploration into what it means to be human. A typically strong performance by Tom Hanks, it's definitely worthy of watching.

Do yourself a favour and ignore negative nellies proclaiming otherwise, this is a great addition to the ATV+ catalog.

blurpbleepbloop · November 11, 2021 12:59AM

So, one wonders what is that record number of viewers tuning in? What does it take to be numero uno?

JWSC · November 11, 2021 1:14AM

Each scene was well scripted, directed and acted. Of course it was a one man Hanks show. But geez, pretty thin story arc (robot emerges with human characteristics in post apocalyptic hell) and a downer of an ending without any great emotional payoff. No great “wow” discovery at the end. Glad I saw it but will never watch it again.

boltsfan17 · November 11, 2021 1:31AM

It baffles me how this film got the green light. The plot is pretty nonexistent. I usually enjoy watching films with Tom Hanks, but this wasn't one of them. I am looking forward to Masters of the Air however. Hopefully that mini series releases sometime next year.

shareef777 · November 11, 2021 1:50AM

boltsfan17 said:

It baffles me how this film got the green light. The plot is pretty nonexistent. I usually enjoy watching films with Tom Hanks, but this wasn't one of them. I am looking forward to Masters of the Air however. Hopefully that mini series releases sometime next year.

Yeah, it’s crazy to think how Tom Hanks was able to do more with less in Castaway.

RadMax · November 11, 2021 1:58AM

shareef777 said:

boltsfan17 said:

It baffles me how this film got the green light. The plot is pretty nonexistent. I usually enjoy watching films with Tom Hanks, but this wasn't one of them. I am looking forward to Masters of the Air however. Hopefully that mini series releases sometime next year.

Yeah, it’s crazy to think how Tom Hanks was able to do more with less in Castaway.

They should have named the robot Wilson.

roundaboutnow · November 11, 2021 4:47AM

JWSC said:

Each scene was well scripted, directed and acted. Of course it was a one man Hanks show. But geez, pretty thin story arc (robot emerges with human characteristics in post apocalyptic hell) and a downer of an ending without any great emotional payoff. No great “wow” discovery at the end. Glad I saw it but will never watch it again.

My take exactly.

petri · November 11, 2021 9:22AM

I sort of enjoyed this film for the most part but the more I reflect on it, the more I really hate it tbh.

**Spoilers ahead!**

1. I imagined to begin with that the film was set after some climate emergency had finally finished off most of humanity - certainly that’s the way it looked, it’s perfectly plausible and would have given the film some emotional weight as a warning from the future… but no, later on we discover that it was actually just some random solar storm. Completely beyond our control, not man made at all, nothing to see here! A cynic might wonder whether apple had a say in steering the film away from any sensitive topics here.

2. We’re meant to sympathise with Hanks’ character who, as the last human who knows he’s dying, is desperately trying to make sure his dog (the last dog?) is cared for when he’s gone. But his solution is to create a new sentient being, a robot with AI so complete that he even dreams, to look after this dog for the remaining few years of its life and then… what? This newly sentient creature who - as the story demonstrates is essentially as human as you or
I, and who thrives on companionship - is then destined to walk the barren earth forever alone. The filmmakers even kill off Hanks’ other robot dog earlier on just to make sure. It actually just leaves me thinking how cruel the main character must be to do that.

GeorgeBMac · November 11, 2021 1:20PM

lkrupp said:

But things like this don’t matter to the critics here. All that matters to them is the NUMBER of offerings, not the quality of the content. So they judge Apple TV+ as a failure. Using that same logic Apple Music is a failure because Spotify has more subscribers, iOS is a failure because there are more Android devices, the Mac is a failure because there are more PCs sold.

That's how things work these days: People seem to have to attack and tear down whatever they can -- and the best way to do that is to focus on only part of the truth, part of the story -- basically only looking at one side of the coin -- and then using that to create a false narrative in order to to denigrate and condemn the whole thing through generalization.

"Apple is a complete failure as a company because they haven't created an _______."

caddyman33 · November 11, 2021 1:22PM

I thought it was awesome.

GeorgeBMac · November 11, 2021 1:23PM

williamlondon said:

This movie is very enjoyable, basically an exploration into what it means to be human. A typically strong performance by Tom Hanks, it's definitely worthy of watching.

Do yourself a favour and ignore negative nellies proclaiming otherwise, this is a great addition to the ATV+ catalog.

Well, if it doesn't have fear, hate, sex, violence or cynicism in it, what good is it? /s

Beats · November 11, 2021 3:52PM

lkrupp said:

But things like this don’t matter to the critics here. All that matters to them is the NUMBER of offerings, not the quality of the content. So they judge Apple TV+ as a failure. Using that same logic Apple Music is a failure because Spotify has more subscribers, iOS is a failure because there are more Android devices, the Mac is a failure because there are more PCs sold.

Apple has created content for just 2 years so it’s easy to criticize from that angle against a company that has a century of content (Disney). Now, had Apple acquired Disney the goalpost would be set differently.

pjg · November 12, 2021 12:26AM

Can't believe he got the island after all those year, only to see all life on the planet wiped out by solar flares.

gerard · November 12, 2021 1:36AM

Wow, some pretty rough critics in the comments. I found the movie interesting in the sense; I wasn’t watching the clock to see when it would be done. Granted he created such a sophisticated robot with minimal resources is questionable. But none the less I would say it was a good movie. It did remind me of castaway though with a one character movie

jeff fields · November 12, 2021 2:17AM

shareef777 said:

Watched it, and found it to be a complete waste of time. The story/plot was non-existent. It’s like they thought if they just showed Hanks for 2 hours that it’d mean it’s a good movie. 2 hours and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the point of the story was. How are there literally only 3 characters in the entire move (and only one of which was an actual HUMAN) and we had absolutely ZERO character development!?

Cool story, bro. But you might have skipped over the part where an intelligent life form was literally created by the hand of man, and then movingly evolved to embody its creator. I, for one, count that as character development.

GeorgeBMac · November 12, 2021 10:50AM

jeff fields said:

shareef777 said:

Watched it, and found it to be a complete waste of time. The story/plot was non-existent. It’s like they thought if they just showed Hanks for 2 hours that it’d mean it’s a good movie. 2 hours and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the point of the story was. How are there literally only 3 characters in the entire move (and only one of which was an actual HUMAN) and we had absolutely ZERO character development!?

Cool story, bro. But you might have skipped over the part where an intelligent life form was literally created by the hand of man, and then movingly evolved to embody its creator. I, for one, count that as character development.

Good point...

I have not yet watched it. But, in addition, from the description & comments it sounds like the entire thing could be a metaphor for aging: the old person knowing that they're the last of their friends and family and knowing that their time is limited. Where do they go? What do they do? Finch didn't decide to find a rocking chair and wait to die.

MacPro · November 12, 2021 2:14PM

I am looking forward to watching it. I also enjoyed The Midnight Sky starring George Clooney, which is also one of those one-person show movies (OK there is a young girl, not a robot and dog), which are pretty few and far between. The Old Man and the Sea with Spencer Tracy is probably the notable original in that genre. It is, of course, not an uncommon thing in theater productions.

Fidonet127 · November 12, 2021 4:40PM

I watched the whole thing and thought it was good. This isn’t a Disney movie where everything turns out great in the end. Finch is an engineer, with a lab of tools, so creating an AI robot is believable. Actually he had a AI robot prior to the current two legged version. Personally I think it was well done. Finch ensured the dog made it to a better place to live on, where there is signs of people. The dog wasn’t his to begin with, however the girl and her mother were killed, prior to the start of the movie. So you have the backstory of Finch, the dog and the creation of the robot as character development. Yes solar storms can destroy a lot of stuff, so you don’t need man made destruction. Through the story does cover humans killing each other, over what little resources were left.

Tom Hanks film 'Finch' sets Apple TV+ film premiere record

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