Apple Tried To Help Movie Theaters With Argylle – It Just Didn't Work Very Well

For the third time in just four months, Apple has released a massive $200 million movie that will ultimately wind up on its streaming service in theaters. This time, they partnered with Universal Pictures to release director Matthew Vaughn's original comedic spy thriller "Argylle." Given how barren the early part of 2024 has been at the box office, this is a movie that theaters truly needed. So, in that way, it's certainly nice that it played on more than 3,600 screens all across North America over the weekend rather than have it dumped directly to streaming. It's just a shame that audiences weren't nearly as interested in seeing the film in question as the industry at large had hoped.

"Argylle" opened atop the charts over the weekend. That's the good news. The bad news? It fell short of the already modest industry expectations with $18 million domestically. The film, which boasts an A-list cast led by Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell, also pulled in $17.3 million overseas for a global debut just north of $35 million. Given that the only other release of note was "The Chosen" season 4, this is revenue that theaters were happy to have, but it's certainly not going to be enough to help keep the box office afloat until "Dune: Part Two" arrives on March 1.

Given that "Argylle" carries a rough C+ CinemaScore to go along with very mixed responses from critics (read our review here), it's probably going to fall off a cliff next weekend. So, on the one hand, Apple is doing its part to try and keep theaters afloat. On the other hand, that help is only going so far and it's not nearly enough to turn the tide in a meaningful way. It leaves us with a host of questions both when it comes to Apple's future strategy regarding theatrical distribution and, more broadly, the state of the exhibition side of the industry.

While Netflix is, for the most part, still very much keeping its movies on its streaming service no matter how much money they cost, they are now an outlier. Apple, Amazon, and just about everyone else in the media business believe that theatrical distribution is vital to a healthy movie industry going forward. Not just for the revenue provided by ticket sales, but because movies that are released in theaters do better on streaming, even if they weren't particularly successful during that theatrical run. However, that all depends on the existence of a healthy string of movie theater chains. As it stands, AMC and other major exhibitors are in a precarious situation.

It's no secret that the pandemic has been extremely hard on AMC, Regal, and just about every other theater operator in the world. AMC is saddled with debt, lots of smaller theaters had to close down, and Regal's parent company filed bankruptcy. This all happened before last year's Hollywood strikes upended the 2024 release calendar. It goes without saying that these businesses can ill afford another downturn like we're seeing right now. The box office is down significantly compared to 2023 and February currently looks like it's going to be worse than January was. It's a bad situation and any movie underperforming right now only serves to make it worse.

This is where Apple comes in. It shelled out a reported $200 million for "Argylle" as a package deal. The idea was to build a potential franchise for Apple TV+. Rather than make a pure streaming play, it opted for a theatrical release after doing the same for "Killers of the Flower Moon" and "Napoleon." Are these movies going to turn a profit purely in theaters? Not even close. But it's revenue theater owners are happy to have. Whether or not it's enough revenue for them to do more of this in the future? That's the bigger, lingering question right now.

"Argylle" is now playing in theaters.