Apple is going to the cinemas, but not as part of the audience.
The Cupertino-based tech giant's streaming service is reportedly venturing into film, with it planning on showcasing a few movies of its own sometime in 2023.
Apple has yet to reveal more specific information about the movies it plans to release on the big screen.
Apple TV+ Film Venture Details
An Apple TV+ logo during a player interview after a game between the Houston Astros and the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on April 08, 2022 in Anaheim, California.
Anonymous sources revealed that Apple recently approached a few studios about a partnership to release some of the company's titles in theaters in 2023, with more than a few more in the foreseeable future, per Bloomberg. The tech giant also plans to spend $1 billion a year to produce the movies it will release in theaters.
The sources, who are Apple employees familiar with the matter but asked not to be identified because the plans are private, explained that these efforts are part of Apple's plan to attract more attention in Hollywood and attract more subscribers to its Apple TV+ streaming service.
The publication mentioned that Apple TV+ has between 20 million to 40 million subscribers - a number much fewer than Netflix's 231 million paying subscribers and Disney's 161.8 million Disney+ subscribers, per Statista and Forbes.
While the information is scarce, Apple allegedly plans to release Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" staring Leonardo DiCaprio, the spy thriller "Argylle" by director Matthew Vaughn, and "Napoleon," Ridley Scott's historical drama about the French Emperor.
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Gizmodo notes that while Apple previously released a few movies for the big screen before, like "Cherry," which Tom Holland stared in, this would be its first widespread reach into the film industry.
As previously mentioned, Apple is reportedly reaching out to a few studios to release and distribute its titles in 2023, with Paramount Pictures being one of the few studios reportedly confirmed to do so. The studio is said to be releasing Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" since it originated there, though it would take a 10% fee from Apple for distributing the film.
It is unclear if Paramount Pictures will also distribute Apple's other movies from its line-up, though it has yet to agree to do that. Apple is forced to rely on these studios to distribute its films for it as the company doesn't have the infrastructure to distribute them on its own.
A Race To Become The Grandest
Apple is not the only one to come up with such an idea. Amazon is also investing in the film industry, with the company producing and distributing films that people could watch on the big screen, per CNBC.
The popular e-commerce company plans to produce 12 and 15 movies for theaters each year, along with investing $1 billion annually to support such an endeavor.
Both Apple And Amazon's plans to use the theaters to showcase their content could provide the jump-start the movie theater industry needs to return profits to pre-pandemic levels, which happened due to a lack of film content as people subscribed to streaming services during the pandemic's onset.
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