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.

18 Comments

davgreg 1046 comments · 9 Years

About 4 years ago

So how do we know it was a success without any trusted metrics?

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.

matrix077 868 comments · 9 Years

davgreg said:

I qualify by multiple devices and do not see much of anything worth watching.

Then it’s your loss.

SpamSandwich 32917 comments · 19 Years

If Apple wants to be very picky about what they make and show, then they should buy or get a long term exclusive to carry the movie library from Criterion or TCM. Frankly, Apple’s own series tend to suffer from Left-Progressive politics syndrome.

george kaplan 169 comments · 16 Years

davgreg said:

So how do we know it was a success without any trusted metrics?

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.

We don’t know for sure (same problem with Netflix, which also doesn’t report viewership).

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.

fluffhead 55 comments · 8 Years

davgreg said:

I qualify by multiple devices and do not see much of anything worth watching.

You can only redeem one free year so the amount of qualifying devices you have really doesn’t matter.