Buy or rent 'Napoleon' before its Apple TV+ debut

Image Credit: Apple

Following its theatrical run, "Napoleon" is being brought to paid streaming services and download stores on January 9, instead of going straight to regular Apple TV+.

In an unusual move, Apple TV+ movie "Napoleon" is not going to directly to the streamer following its theatrical run. Apple has announced that in partnership with Sony, the film will now be released "on premium video-on-demand and for digital purchase with leading digital retailers."

Neither Sony nor Apple have listed any services where the movie will be available from January 9, 2023. Sony Pictures' own site says that the film is available to "buy or rent on digital tomorrow," and currently has only a dead link to Apple TV.

It's all but certain that the movie will be available through the Store in Apple's TV app.

There is as yet no pre-order listing for the film there, and no indication of what a rental or purchase price will be.

Apple says that the film will be available to rent or buy in over 100 countries, "before streaming globally on Apple TV+." There has been no announcement of a streaming date.

"Napoleon," directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by David Scarpa, stars Joaquin Phoenix as the French emperor. The movie was a box office success when it debuted in theaters in November 2023, though it has been less well received by critics.

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2 Comments

StrangeDays 12752 comments · 8 Years

About 3 months ago

So lame. Penalizing your paying customers is not the way to go. Even HBO Max got that right…

Marvin 15182 comments · 18 Years

StrangeDays said:

So lame. Penalizing your paying customers is not the way to go. Even HBO Max got that right…

It's probably not sustainable to go straight to streaming, that's the lowest revenue option.

Napoleon came in 24th worldwide at $213m, a bit higher than Killer's of the Flower Moon:

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/world/2023/

It says here it needs another $300m to break even but that's napkin math based on traditional movie production and marketing:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/napoleon-movie-box-office-passes-epic-milestone-but-its-still-300-million-short/ar-AA1m8H4y

If Apple has 30m paid subs on Apple TV+, they generate 30m x $120 = $3.6b revenue, which has to cover all their productions for the year and then profit. It was reported Apple made 50 TV productions and movies in 2023 so $72m per production to break even. Some were probably lower cost than this so the bigger budget movies could be attributed $100-150m.

The Napoleon rental is priced at $20. If they can sell just 5m rentals, they make an extra $100m.

I think this is the way the industry will go: cinema ($10 per person), rental ($10-20 per rental), streaming ($10 per month of content).

$213m cinema + $100m rentals + $100m streaming subs is probably break even or mildly profitable once costs and revenue sharing are factored in.