Apple is reportedly refining its strategy for Hollywood spending after seeing a limited performance at the box office.
In a new report published by Bloomberg, Apple's senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue, is reportedly pushing co-video programming leads Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht to examine budgets and push them to "exert more control over spending on projects." According to Bloomberg, the goal is to eliminate Apple's reputation as a big spender on Hollywood projects and attract audiences to its streaming service, Apple TV+.
While Netflix is the studio that buys the most Hollywood projects, Apple spends the most on individual titles. As Bloomberg reports, the studio spent over $500 million combined on movies, such as Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon and Ridley Scott's Napoleon, while the company also spent "upward of $250 million" on the Apple TV+ original miniseries Master of the Air. In the case of the former, while most of Apple TV's films are met with a slew of award nominations, its accolades do not equate to box office success.
More interestingly, Bloomberg reported that Apple TV+ generates fewer viewers in a month than Netflix does in a single day. According to the data firm Nielsen, Apple TV+ attracts 0.2% of TV viewing in the United States alone.
Bloomberg notes that due to Apple TV's struggle to attract new viewers, the streaming service is now more likely to renew original programming than when it launched back in 2019. Some notable Apple TV+ original series that were canceled include Constellation, Mr. Corman, and High Desert.
While Bloomberg paints a grim picture for Apple TV+, a firm number of viewers watching Apple TV+ original content remains a mystery as the iPhone maker does not share numbers, not even on hit shows available on its platform like Severance, The Morning Show, or Ted Lasso.
Despite Apple TV+ not obtaining the level of viewership success as Netflix, many would argue the streaming service is among the best, with popular shows including For All Mankind, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and Presumed Innocent along with hit movies like Killers of the Flower Moon. However, its limited back catalog and focus on original programming has also arguably held it back in a field where older shows like Lost and Friends are immensely popular.
For more, take a closer look at the State of Streaming as well as the biggest TV shows releasing in 2024.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
