Aug 13, 2024

Wolfs or Woofs?

Apple's weird maneuver on their George Clooney/Brad Pitt movie...

We're just about a month away from Apple's new George Clooney and Brad Pitt movie Wolfs, so of course they're gearing up with a big marketing blitz for its massive theatrical push... wait, I'm sorry, what's that?

Apple has pivoted on the Jon Watts-directed George Clooney & Brad Pitt starrer Wolfs, which makes its world premiere at the 81^st Venice Film Festival. Apple Original Films has made a deal with Watts to write, direct and produce a sequel vehicle for Clooney and Pitt.

At the same time, Apple has changed its plan for Wolfs to have a wide theatrical release before it lands on Apple TV+. It instead will receive a limited theatrical release September 20, and then debut globally on Apple TV+ on Friday, September 27.

So two of the five biggest movie stars in the world, starring in a movie together, which they were last seen doing in the massive Ocean's trilogy, and one month before the release of this new team up Apple is pivoting to a one-week run in "limited" theaters? Um, WTF?

There are a few possibilities here, I imagine. Let's explore:

1) The movie is not great. Fleming cites sources saying it "tested strongly" and is a "crowd pleaser" but who knows. You can find sources in Hollywood to say anything in any direction. And even if it is a fun movie, Apple might be preparing for it to get shredded by critics, which would also not be a good look for them – or their two massive movie stars.

2) Apple has no idea how to market this movie. As we've seen time and time again with Apple's foray into movies, they can't seem to figure out how to get the word out about them. It's weird for a company that is perhaps most synonymous with marketing. But they stink at this particular flavor of marketing, for whatever reason. Just look at their Matt Damon + Casey Affleck movie which just was released this week: The Instigators. I'm guessing no one had any idea about this movie before they booted up their Apple TVs on Friday and saw it there, ready to stream. Apple's latest big theatrical push, Fly Me to the Moon, absolutely bombed at the box office. Perhaps rather than risk that fate again, they're shifting strategy.

3) This is meant to bolster Apple TV+. Another possible strategy is that Apple thinks this movie will drive adoption of Apple TV+ if they get it on the streaming service faster. It's certainly possible that people would sign up for a service to see a full-on Clooney/Pitt movie right after its release. But whatever Apple TV+'s faults are, they certainly don't lack star power in their projects. Maybe this moves the sign-up needle a bit but is it really a game-changer for Apple TV+? Their issue is lack of back catalog which both makes users question the value of the service and leads to churn if they can't find something else to watch. Buying Warner Bros Discovery (and with it, HBO) would help in this regard but again, it's not a lack of perceived star power right now.

4) This is a two-pronged strategy. One other strategy here could be sort of a combination of a few of the above things. Perhaps Apple knows this won't do as well as they (or their stars) would hope given either movie or marketing challenges, but they believe that if they can push it to an audience – quite literally – on Apple TV+, they can then blow the doors off for a sequel in theaters in a couple years. I don't think this general strategy is a bad idea, in fact I think Hollywood should do more of this, leveraging streaming to build hype and demand. But is Apple that smart about this right now? Maybe, but it seems less likely than the other possibilities.

5) Apple is done with theatrical. This also seems less likely given their desire to work with the highest profile talent, and the theatrical demands such talent often makes. But maybe Apple, like Netflix, is not seeing the value in releasing in movie theaters beyond keeping talent happy. Maybe the new strategy is exactly what they're doing here (and what they also did with The Instigators), release a movie in theaters for a few days, basically just for marketing purposes and to give it a theatrical sheen, and then pull it back and push it to streaming. Again, seems far less likely that Apple would do this than Netflix, and their next Pitt project, F1, is clearly going to get a massive theatrical push – in IMAX too – so...

6) Apple is cost-cutting. Given the reports along these lines within Apple TV+, you can't discount this to zero. But it seems pretty unlikely that Apple would risk pissing off two massive stars – one of which they're teaming up with in an even bigger way with the aforementioned F1 movie next year – just to save a few million dollars. Warner Bros Discovery might do that because they really need the money. Apple doesn't need the money. They just need to be smarter about their Apple TV+ strategy, so I think that's more likely the driver than actual dollar savings here.

The ultimate answer could very well be some combination of the above. But it's weird, regardless. Especially given the timing. And the pre-emptive greenlighting of the sequel before they even know how it's performing at all is equally weird. And suggests that it's a make-up call, as it were, for Apple making a call that Watts/Clooney/Pitt don't like. Remember that the stars are also producing this movie under their own banners, so there's even more at stake for them. So you can imagine Apple going into a meeting with something like:

INT. APPLE STUDIOS OFFICE -- DAY

An APPLE TV+ EXECUTIVE is in his office with GEORGE CLOONEY and BRAD PITT, the two stars (and producers) of Apple's forthcoming movie 'WOLFS'. Two of the biggest movie stars in the world. The executive is as close to shitting himself as a person can be without having yet done the actual discharge. It could go either way.

APPLE TV+ EXEC

George, Brad, we love the movie. So funny. So cool. What a crowd-pleaser. It's so unique that we had an idea we wanted to throw out there. What if instead of the usual, boring Hollywood launch, we use 'Wolfs' to usher in what we think will be a new era of film? We still do a theatrical push to start, but it's limited to whet the appetite and drive demand. Then we go to Apple TV+ a week later, leveraging all the marketing done to promote the release to get it in front of tens of millions of eyeballs, instantly. This is just the first part of the story, so it seeds a fan base which builds and builds until 'Wolfs 2' is ready to go. That one we go big with in theaters given the awareness and fandom you drove with the first film. You've seen what 'Dune 2' and 'Twisters' and 'Inside Out 2' have been able to do thanks to leveraging streaming leading up to the sequels. We think 'Wolfs' is going to pave a new path for all original IP in this way. Thoughts?

Silence

APPLE TV+ EXEC

Also we're willing to give you both $25M plus points for the sequel which we're greenlighting right now.

The men shake. Clooney and Pitt exit. A sphincter loosens.

Update September 2, 2024: Clooney and Pitt have spoken a bit more about the shift at the premiere of Wolfs...