Henry Cavill‘s Argylle opens to disastrous box office numbers; Apple suffers third $200 million dud – Tracking the numbers for the studio

Apple has backed three movies in the past two years including Argylle, Killers Of The Flower Moon, and Napoleon.

Apple suffers three back to back box office duds

The discussion about millions of dollars invested in making movies sounds crazy to us civilians, but it has definitely become a normal conversation for the ones dealing with it. Apple, who ventured into making films with a model that was new for the entire ecosystem, has been making some interesting choices as a production company. But are interesting choices enough for a studio to survive in a business that runs more on numbers than intellect? Well, the studio has now witnessed the release of their new $200 million tentpole movie, Argylle, with the former Superman Henry Cavill in the lead. The movie has opened to disastrous global numbers. What does this say?

Argylle Box Office

Starring Henry in the center of it, Argylle is directed by Matthew Vaughn and also stars Dua Lipa, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, and an ensemble. The movie had made a massive buzz and was also a part of the most anticipated listicles that made their way to the internet at the start of 2024.

But it seems like the anticipation has not reached anywhere as the movie has failed to even garner a decent opening. In the domestic market, Argylle stood on an $18 million opening, which was the highest this week but also not enough.

Also Read: Argylle review: Rife with too many twists that tie the film into a messy knot

On the global front, it collected a very worrisome number with a $53 million collection. This is far from even calling decent, forget profitable. What does this say about the studio? Apple, who ventured into producing original movies in 2019, has an Oscar for CODA in the kitty but no hit film as of now. In the past two years, the studio has seen 3 releases and none even turned out to be profitable, there is no mention of hit at all in the resume.

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Killers Of The Flower Moon Didn’t Work?

They had Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lilly Gladstone, multiple awards already in store, 10 Oscar nominations, and a couple of victories there too certainly on their way. But is that enough? The movie was made at a budget that is said to be around $200 million and only managed to make $156 million in global sales. The numbers are not enough to call it a profitable venture at least at the box office. This means, at the business level, the Scorsese masterpiece has not done enough for the studio.

But What About Napoleon?

Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby starrer Napoleon was indeed a very massively mounted film by Ridley Scott and it even enthralled a decent number of audiences. However, the movie only made $219 million at the global box office and was still not a profitable film for the studio.

While Apple is also about streaming and the model they came up with changed some of the grammar of the release format back in 2019, the studio has yet to give a film that is profitable in theaters and on streaming too. Stay tuned to OTTplay for more on this and everything else from the world of streaming and films.

Also Read: Argylle: Henry Cavill and Bryce Dallas Howard's thriller is headed to AppleTV+

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