Report: Apple Shifts Movie Releases From Theaters to Streaming Service

Apple reportedly dialed back its plans for releasing movies in theaters, planning to instead keep many of them on its streaming service.

This shift followed disappointing box office results from some big-budget films, Bloomberg reported Friday (Sept. 27), citing unnamed sources.

Apple did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

In one example of the shift, the company released “Wolfs” — a movie starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt — on Apple TV+ Friday, according to the report.

Apple released that film on its streaming service after showing it in only a limited number of theaters. The company had earlier planned to show “Wolfs” in thousands of locations around the world, the report said.

It plans to use that approach with some other upcoming titles as well before returning to making a global theatrical release in June 2025, per the report.

Apple is looking to reduce costs after spending about $100 million to $200 million on films like “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Napoleon,” “Argylle” and “Fly Me to the Moon,” according to the report.

Moving forward, the company plans to produce most of its movies for under $100 million, the report said.

It will still spend $1 billion a year on films, as it committed to do earlier, but it will change its release strategies to include only one or two wide theatrical releases per year, per the report. Others will be shown on its streaming service.

Apple’s shift in strategy came at a time when Netflix and Amazon are changing their movie strategies as well, the report said. Netflix plans to make fewer movies and reduce costs by doing more in-house, while Amazon is making fewer films than it had earlier planned.

Video streaming was the No. 1 digital activity in seven of the 11 countries surveyed for the PYMNTS Intelligence report, “How the World Does Digital,” which tracks digital transformation across 40 different activities showing how consumers work, live, pay, have fun, stay well and more.

Of the four countries that didn’t list video streaming No. 1, three of them ranked it as No. 2, the report found.