Apple’s days of spending $200m on a single film might be coming to an end, with the firm set to cut its TV and film spend.
The era of the Silicon Valley spending spree could be officially over, according to a new report that suggests that Apple is looking to be far more judicious with its budgets from now on.
One hallmark of the rise of the Silicon Valley streamers over the past decade has been their willingness to shell out incredible amounts of cash for projects that had quite simply proven too expensive for traditional Hollywood studios.
Whether it was Netflix paying $469m for two Knives Out sequels or Apple forking out huge amounts for auteur projects like Killers Of The Flower Moon, the streaming platforms changed the economy of filmmaking.
Things have changed of late though. Netflix has been reining in spending for some time and the appointment of Dan Lin as the company’s new Head of Film has only accelerated that process. Over at Amazon, the company has also rolled back spending, upsetting filmmakers by refusing to pay for theatrical releases.
Until now, Apple seemed to be the sole streamer that was still willing to lay out huge sums with a seeming disregard for profitability. This year’s Masters Of The Air, a hugely expensive WWII aviator drama, was yet another example of a company happy to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on projects that few people actually see.
That’s set to change though, according to a recent report. According to Bloomberg, ‘Apple services boss Eddy Cue has been having regular meetings with studio chiefs Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht to go over budgets, pushing them to exert more control over spending on projects. Van Amburg and Erlicht have told some of their top creative partners that they want to change their reputation as the biggest spender in town, according to these people.’
The company has spent over $20bn on film and TV programming, often focusing on costly singular projects rather than volume. $500m of that came from just three films, those being Napoleon, Killers Of The Flower Moon and Argylle.
These expensive projects haven’t really moved the needle for the company though, with Apple TV+ still only picking up around 0.2% of the US streaming market. From now on, it looks like the company is set to cut its cloth more accordingly and as such, we might see the US film industry having to adjust slightly as the deepest-pocketed player in town shifts its strategy moving forwards.
