{"id":211018,"date":"2025-10-13T23:52:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/211018\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T23:52:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:52:13","slug":"the-movie-lands-streaming-date-apples-last-big-theatrical-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/211018\/","title":{"rendered":"The Movie’ Lands Streaming Date, Apple’s Last Big Theatrical Push"},"content":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t long ago that Apple<\/a> looked like it would be making a big push into theatrical releases, believing what has been true for most other distributors: a theatrical release and its subsequent marketing push helps a movie\u2019s cachet once it (eventually) lands on streaming later<\/a>. It worked with other studios \u2014 mixing up the partner on each \u2014 on the release of films like \u201cKillers of the Flower Moon\u201d (Paramount), \u201cNapoleon\u201d (Sony), and \u201cArgylle\u201d (Universal). And with \u201cF1: The Movie<\/a>\u201d in partnership with yet another distributor in Warner Bros., it found its biggest hit to date \u2014 and quietly one of its biggest successes of the year at the box office \u2014 grossing $629 million worldwide.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/a> \"Dave<\/a> <\/p>\n

Apple rewarded that success with a run in theaters that has lasted 14+ weeks, even as the film<\/a> has already been available for premium rental since August. Few filmmakers get that sort of runway, but for Joseph Kosinski, who certainly did for \u201cTop Gun: Maverick,\u201d they were willing to give him the privilege, and his movie made the most of it.<\/p>\n

Now Apple has finally announced a release date for the movie on streaming on what is now just Apple TV (not Apple TV+<\/a>), hitting the service globally on December 12. It\u2019ll be nearly six months since the film opened on June 27; a theatrical window like that is virtually unheard of.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s no guarantee the same will happen to an Apple movie again. Despite its success, it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise if the \u201cF1\u201d theatrical experiment is over.<\/p>\n

Within a matter of months of each other, both Apple and Amazon were reported to be dipping their toes into theatrical releases<\/a>. After some success with \u201cAir\u201d and a few others, Amazon MGM is now all in, targeting as many as 14 theatrical releases a year<\/a> and offering them beefy theatrical windows before they land on streaming. The studio is still doing some direct-to-streaming movies, but it has made clear its priorities. <\/p>\n

Apple, on the other hand, before \u201cF1\u201d had a string of costly misses and has since been rolling back that approach. The losses for movies like \u201cArgylle\u201d and \u201cFly Me to the Moon\u201d were well-documented, and the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back was its approach with the George Clooney-Brad Pitt thriller \u201cWolfs.\u201d That movie was going to have a robust theatrical release up until Apple yanked the rug out at the last minute and said it would drop on streaming after little more than a week. The studio tried to placate the filmmakers by saying it had already greenlit a sequel to \u201cWolfs,\u201d but director Jon Watts openly said that after the theatrical fiasco, he \u201cno longer trusted\u201d Apple as a creative partner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since then, some of its higher-profile films have all been quietly and modestly released in theaters before landing on streaming, if they got a theatrical release at all, a stark contrast to what was agreed upon and stuck to with \u201cF1.\u201d Spike Lee\u2019s \u201cHighest 2 Lowest\u201d spent a couple weeks in theaters, grossing just a reported $1.5 million, before hitting the streaming service. Paul Greengrass\u2019 \u201cThe Lost Bus\u201d did the same, opening in just a few select theaters and did not report box office totals. <\/p>\n

Apple is not under the same pressure as its peers to produce for the box office and hope that streaming can pick up the slack. Back in March, a report suggested that Apple TV loses $1 billion a year on streaming<\/a> and has in the vicinity of 45 million subscribers. It\u2019s fine operating it as a loss-leader and using it as a means to continue selling iPhones. <\/p>\n

The company also has never been bound to one approach, and it stands to reason that, if another project on the scale of \u201cF1\u201d with a director like Kosinski attached was on the table, it could pursue a similarly lengthy theatrical release strategy. Some of its upcoming movies sound like they could have that pedigree. There\u2019s the Skydance-produced \u201cMayday\u201d starring Ryan Reynolds, the Mattel movie \u201cMatchbox\u201d starring John Cena, and the Ben Stiller and Jake Johnson pickleball comedy \u201cThe Dink.\u201d Have we mentioned movie theaters need more comedies like that last one?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t long ago that Apple looked like it would be making a big push into theatrical releases,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[1572,15915,49,48,578,49008,1554,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-211018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-apple","tag-apple-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-f1-the-movie","tag-film","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}