r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • 16d ago

News Apple Losing Over $1 Billion a Year on Streaming Service

https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-losing-over-1-billion-year-streaming-service-information-reports-2025-03-20/
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u/grilledcheeseburger 16d ago

I feel like this is a prestige thing for them and they don't really care if it makes money. They get about $200 billion in revenue a year from the iPhone alone, a billion a year is probably worthwhile for them.

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u/Zipurax 16d ago

Oh, they do care about it. That's why they pulled the plug on Wolfs' theatrical release after their other movies bombed.

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u/gatsby365 16d ago

And the Wolfs sequel

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u/NeoNoireWerewolf 16d ago

According to Jon Watts, he killed the Wolfs sequel after Apple backed out of the theatrical release.

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u/gatsby365 16d ago

Good for him. Movies deserve theaters.

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u/Lurk3rAtTheThreshold 16d ago

Was Wolfs any good? It looked like it could be entertaining.

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u/NeoNoireWerewolf 16d ago

No, it’s a bad Elmore Leonard impersonation. The banter between Pitt and Clooney is not good enough to carry the film, and the plot doesn’t even really get moving until like 75+ minutes in. I’m baffled Watts cashed in his Spider-Man clout for it.

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u/Heavy-Possession2288 16d ago

Perfectly fine in the moment but extremely forgettable imo

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u/hightrix 16d ago

I enjoyed it. It was clever and has 2 great actors as "leads".

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u/Noobasdfjkl 16d ago

The tepid initial critical response didn't help either.

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u/-Badger3- 16d ago

Doesn’t that support the suggestion that it’s more of a prestige thing for them though?

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u/Zipurax 16d ago

I don't know, cancelling the theatrical release of one of your biggest productions at the last minute and burning bridges with the stars and director of the project doesn't exactly scream "prestige" to me.

In fact, after so many financial flops and no awards recognition, they overhauled their entire strategy on streaming to get their shit together. Don't know why people on this thread are acting as if loosing a billion dollars is a 4D chess move LOL

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u/Florian_Jones 16d ago edited 16d ago

no awards recognition

They are currently the only streaming platform to ever win the Oscar for best picture. That's some pretty substantial awards recognition.

I'm not a subscriber and likely never will be, so I don't have a clue what their strategy is, and I can't speak to the correctness of any of your speculation, but I found this bit funny.

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u/Zipurax 16d ago

Yep, Coda indeed was a hell of a victory for them (winning three Oscars on a $10 million budget).

But then they went all in by giving auteurs and big-name stars budgets of $100-200 million without attaining the same level of success. Their 2024 crashout received a lot of coverage months ago if you are interested in how it went.

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u/CaineBK 16d ago

the Oscar for best picture.

Ah yes, an award famous for its transparency and fairness.

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u/NeoNoireWerewolf 16d ago

It’s worth noting Coda isn’t technically an Apple movie. It was independently financed and produced, Apple only bought it at Sundance after rave reviews. Apple also way overpaid for it; they set a festival record paying $25 million when the budget was only $10 million and it went on to gross $2 million at the box-office, but that’s with COVID factored in. All of their films actually developed in-house have been legit poor performers. As others have pointed out in this thread, Apple is very aware of how bad their movie division is doing, and they’ve been taking a lot of steps to course correct since mid-last year. People acting like they’re cool with losing hundreds of millions of dollars on something like Killers of the Flower Moon are crazy. You don’t become a trillion dollar company by just shrugging off massive losses even when you can afford to weather them.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

[deleted]

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u/grilledcheeseburger 16d ago

Never heard of loss leaders?

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

[deleted]

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u/rickjamesia 16d ago

This builds the brand. That is how Apple operates. They do whatever they can to get customers to feel attached to their brand so that they will pick their devices and services for as many aspects of their life as possible.

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u/joaby1 16d ago

Glad someone said it

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u/tankmode 16d ago

its totally a vanity business so their execs can socialize with high status celebrities and hollywood VIPs.   Same as when they spent $3 Billion on Beats By Dre so they could bring in Jimmy Iovine & Dr Dre.

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u/ascagnel____ 16d ago

They bought beats half for the headphone tech, half for streaming licenses Beats had after the labels refused to negotiate directly with Apple (after Apple had them at their mercy during the pay-per-song years). 

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u/tankmode 16d ago

for streaming … yes, it was a payoff to Jimmy Iovine who controlled one of the most important record labels in that era

the tech was probably played up to investors but i doubt it was interesting.  Beats hardware was derivative, it was a branding exercise.  Apple was likely already developing the AirPods at that point.  

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u/leo-g 16d ago

This is a prestige thing. They literally use the shows as glossy content to play on their iPhones ads.