Apple spends crazy amounts of money on its films: is it profitable?

While the 2024 Oscars are being held this Sunday, March 10, 2024, Apple is very well placed for this ceremony. The Cupertino company has in fact13 nominationsfor this event, just behind Netflix.

The apple brand can thus count on nuggets that it has very generously financed.Varietythus teaches us thatKillers of the Flower Moon cost $215 million. If we take this feature film into account,Napoleon, etFor Argy, the studio invested no less than $700 million, while these productions only grossed $466 million at the worldwide box office.

A good strategy for Apple?

Is this a fiasco? Not at all according to the specialist media's sources. Indeed, Apple has made the creations of Martin Scorsese and Ridley Scott very profitable by reselling them on the App Store. Likewise, both of these films are likely good loss leaders for the streaming service, although we don't have hard numbers on that.

However, this is not the time for triumphalism on the part of the Cupertino company, and some observers wonder if it could not have spent its billion dollars of investment differently.

Apple TV+ will focus on advertising

Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, explains:“The quality of the films has been extremely impressive and has attracted significant demand for the Apple TV+ service. But the Achilles heel is not quality. They just don't have enough content. I think that's the crux of the matter with Apple: they've achieved a high level of quality and won Oscars, but they don't have a library in this content arms race.”

In any case, Apple seems to be working on a way to generate new sources of revenue from streaming. This could happen through advertising, and recent recruitment seems to confirm this idea.

According toBusiness Insider, Joseph Cady, head of advertising at NBCUniversal, has reportedly joined the apple brand. He is expected to work alongside Winston Crawford, Apple's head of global advertising sales.

Apple also continues to release content that appeals to the public. This is the case ofConstellation, a science fiction series. The original is ranked number 3 on JustWatch's streaming list for the week ending March 3. She is fourth in the top 10 proposed by RealGood according to a ranking which concluded on March 6.