Apple TV Plus just needs to stop making movies — here’s why

Apple TV Plus should stop making movies.

I promise you, this isn’t a hot take with no reasoning behind it. I recently thought about recent movies released on the Apple streaming service like “Wolfs” and “Fly Me to the Moon,” and thought about how much better recent shows like “Slow Horses” and “Silo” are than just about every movie Apple has ever put on its streaming service.

Before you grab the perfectly designed pitchfork next to your MacBook Air, I’ll fully concede that Apple has produced and distributed a few good movies. But few is the operative term there. And it’s not just my opinion — the data bears it out. Here’s why Apple needs to stop making movies and just stick to TV shows.

The analytical case against Apple movies

To build my case, I looked through every movie that Apple either distributed or produced. I looked for a movie that was a box office success or one that got a nomination in an Oscar category.

Objectively, none were box office successes once you accounted for the movie’s budget. But that’s okay. These movies are ultimately meant for the Apple TV Plus library. Box office is arguably irrelevant.

But Academy Award nominations are not, and for Apple, they’ve been few and far between. Of the 35 feature films that Apple has distributed, just six garnered at least one Oscar nomination and only three were co-produced by Apple Studios.

Of course, two of those six were huge successes. “CODA” famously became the first streaming service movie to win a Best Picture Oscar, and “Killers of the Flower Moon” scored an impressive 10 nominations. But six hits out of 35 attempts is a mere 17% success rate. It’s not good enough.

That’s especially the case when Apple is just as likely to make a disaster. There’s “Ghosted,” a movie starring Chris Evans and Ana de Armas that scored three Golden Raspberry Awards for how awful the stars’ acting was. There’s “Argylle,” which made $96.2 million on a $200 million budget and was one of the worst movies I’ve seen in recent memory. “The Instigators” also flopped at the box office in a very limited release, pulling in a mere $11,106 and equally poor reviews.

But that’s still better than what happened with “Wolfs.” Apple’s action comedy starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt was pulled from theaters, causing director Jon Watts to publicly rebuke the company and kill a previously announced sequel. Oh, and on top of that, the movie was critically panned, including by us.

Apple TV Plus is just better at producing great shows — it needs to lean into it

Compounding this, Apple Studios actually does do something good. It puts really good TV shows on Apple TV Plus. Of the 56 original dramas released on the streaming service, 17 have scored Creative Arts or Primetime Emmy Awards. That’s a 30% hit rate. And that doesn’t include “Silo” (which I’d be shocked to see not pick up a nomination for season 2 in some category or another) or “Presumed Innocent,” which was a massive success for Apple TV Plus.

That figure also doesn’t include any of the comedies Apple has distributed or produced. That means it doesn’t include “Loot,” “Shrinking” or “Mythic Quest,” all of which have Emmy nominations. And it doesn’t include “Ted Lasso,” which is considered one of the best TV comedies of this century and won 11 of its 61 Primetime Emmy nominations.

But what that figure does include is “Severance,” “Slow Horses,” “For All Mankind” and “Pachinko.” If those names sound familiar to you, they should. Those four shows are considered among the best you can watch on any streaming service, even though “Pachinko” remains criminally underrated.

So Apple, it’s time to admit defeat. Stop wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on “Fly Me to the Moon” and “Luck” — a $140 million animated Pixar competitor that was utterly forgettable — and keep churning out incredible shows. Apple will be better for it and we’ll be better for it. It’s an easy win-win.

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