A still from the romantic comedy film Fly Me to the Moon.Apple
Before it struck gold with last year’s F1, Apple Studios had experienced a series of setbacks in its efforts to crack the theatrical distribution model. Nearly half a dozen Apple movies underperformed at the box office, despite massive budgets, major stars, and the support of legacy studios at their disposal. F1, however, was both a critical and commercial hit; it grossed more than $630 million worldwide and went on to earn a Best Picture nod at the Oscars. No Apple movie had made even a third of this amount at the box office previously, although Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon earned a Best Picture nod. Scorsese’s film failed to recover its reported $200 million budget, grossing only around $160 million worldwide. However, it wasn’t Apple’s biggest underperformer.
That title goes to another period movie featuring A-list stars, which grossed just around $40 million worldwide against a reported budget of $100 million. It made less money at the box office than fellow Apple underperformers Argylle, the Henry Cavill espionage comedy that grossed around $95 million worldwide, and Napoleon, the period epic from Ridley Scott that grossed a little more than $200 million globally. The situation was so dire that Apple removed the George Clooney and Brad Pitt-led crime comedy film Wolfs from its theatrical release schedule, and debuted the movie directly on the Apple TV service. This caused a dispute between the company and Wolfs director Jon Watts, who publicly slammed Apple for canceling the film’s theatrical release and declined to return for a sequel.
The Apple Dud That’s Heading to a New Streamer
Who knows how Wolfs would have done had it been released in theaters, but for now, the title of the worst-performing Apple movie rests with Fly Me to the Moon. Starring Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson, the movie was directed by Greg Berlanti and released in theaters by Sony. It earned mixed-to-positive reviews and is now sitting at a 66% critics’ score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The website’s consensus reads, “Sustained by Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum’s screwball chemistry even when its plotting strains credulity, this throwback romance is a pleasant enough trip to the moon and back.” The movie’s 89% audience score is perhaps the biggest reason for its sustained success on home video, which can continue on Starz beginning March 1.
Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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