appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Tribune News Service

In the first episode of the Apple TV+ show The Studio, Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese sells his script to the fictional Continental Studios, only to be told later by a studio chief played by Seth Rogen that the project, about Jonestown, has been killed.
Instead, the company is fast-tracking a soulless brand-based cash grab: a Kool-Aid movie.
“Just give me back my movie and let me go sell it to f****** Apple, the way I should have done it in the first place,” a despairing Scorsese says.
The line could practically be an ad for how Apple TV+, the tech giant’s streaming service, has positioned itself as a creative haven for filmmakers trying to sell bold, original ideas.


The service, which was introduced in 2019 with a splashy event featuring Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, found success with comedy shows like Ted Lasso and 2022 best picture Academy Award winner CODA.
But the question hanging over the company was, just how serious was it about its Hollywood ambitions? Would it be the next big power player? Or would it become just another deep-pocketed short-timer?
Lately its efforts have come more into focus. It has been on a run of critical success with shows such as Severance, The Studio and Your Friends & Neighbors. Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in a recent call with investors that Apple TV+ “has become a must-see destination” and posted record viewership in the quarter.
Some have compared it to HBO – before Warner Bros Discovery began making cuts – developing a reputation for being willing to pay big for A-list stars and creatives.
“It has been brilliant at defining its niche … and the quality of what it does is simply superb,” said Stephen Galloway, dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. “The question is, is the niche big enough to justify the expense?”


Apple TV+’s subscriber base remains small compared to competitors, including Netflix. While it has good shows and films, it lacks the volume and breadth of its competitors, according to critics. The quality over quantity approach has its doubters.
Further, tech and business news site the Information reported that Apple TV+ is losing US$1 billion a year. The company’s strategy has left some rivals scratching their heads.
“I don’t understand it beyond a marketing play, but they’re really smart people,” said Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos in a March interview with Variety. “Maybe they see something we don’t.”
Apple declined to comment.
Observers noted that it can take a long time for streaming services to become profitable. NBCUniversal’s Peacock is still losing money, for example.

In recent years, subscription streaming services have been under pressure from investors to produce more profit. But Apple thinks differently about entertainment compared to its more traditional studio rivals, people familiar with the company say.
Apple TV+ is just one part of the company’s larger strategy to grow its subscription services business under Eddy Cue, which includes Apple Music, iCloud storage and Apple News.
The services category represented 25 per cent of Apple’s overall sales of US$391 billion in its last financial year.
Apple TV+’s programming strategy has taken a talent-friendly approach, favouring projects with big-name stars.


One of its early major bets was The Morning Show with Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell. Drama Your Friends & Neighbors stars Jon Hamm from Mad Men. Its survival drama film The Gorge stars Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy.
One of Apple’s biggest releases will happen this summer with Formula One film F1 (featuring Brad Pitt), which hits cinemas in June, including on IMAX screens. Warner Bros is handling the cinematic release for the film directed by Joseph Kosinski, who also directed Top Gun: Maverick.
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, hopes F1 will play like Top Gun: Maverick on a racetrack. Some of Apple’s previous filmmaker-driven, star-studded films, including Fly Me to the Moon and Argylle, struggled at cinemas.
“This is a huge movie for Apple,” Dergarabedian said. “I think they picked a perfect project to really amplify their filmmaking acumen and their filmmaker relationships.”
The way Apple treats talent has a personalised touch, say creatives who have worked with the company.


Tomorrow Studios president Becky Clements said she was “forever grateful” that Apple took a shot on Physical, an original series starring Rose Byrne about a 1980s housewife who struggles with an eating disorder and finds strength through aerobics.
“It has an original piece, which is often a difficult thing to pull off in the marketplace,” Clements said.
Clements credited Apple with supporting the filmmakers and not micromanaging the show, which delved into difficult material.
Ben Silverman, an executive producer on coming Apple TV+ series Stick starring Owen Wilson, said the show’s budget allowed for travelling to North Carolina for filming, where prominent golf commentators Trevor Immelman and Jim Nantz were during the PGA Tour.
“I think a lot of platforms are supportive of their creators right now, but they may not have the bandwidth to go as deep as Apple can on individual projects because they’re just not doing as many,” said Silverman, chairman and co-chief executive of Propagate Content.

Not all creatives have been happy with Apple.
It threw observers for a loop when it did a short and limited cinematic release for last year’s Pitt and George Clooney action-comedy Wolfs, instead of a more traditional wide release.
Director Jon Watts told Deadline he backed out of a sequel because he was surprised by Apple’s “last minute” shift and that Apple ignored his request to not reveal that he was working on a follow-up. Apple has not addressed the controversy publicly.
Like other streamers, over time, Apple TV+ has made changes to help generate more revenue, cut costs and increase customers. Last year, Apple TV+ reached a deal to sell subscriptions through Amazon.
Some people who work with Apple said it is too early to judge Apple’s success based on its estimated subscriber counts so far, and they’re placing chips on the venture succeeding in the long run.
“It’s about investing early and long-term,” Silverman said. “I’m always an entrepreneurial spirit who wants to lean in early to these platforms and partnerships, hoping that I can build a beachfront relationship.”


Meet Robert De Niro’s 7 children – from actors to a broker and an aspiring model

14 new Hollywood movies to watch in autumn 2026, from Digger to Avengers: Doomsday

Netflix K-drama Four Hands, Two Sonatas: Song Kang, Lee Jun-young as rival piano prodigies

Meet Tony Romo’s wife, Candice Crawford – sister of Chace Crawford of Gossip Girl fame

TV shows and streaming video

Apple TV+ is willing to pay good money for creative ideas, but can quality beat quantity?

Olivia Wilde (left) and Seth Rogen in a still from Apple TV+ series The Studio. In the first episode, Martin Scorsese’s character has a film project killed by Rogen’s studio chief and wishes he had sold it to Apple, neatly encapsulating the streaming platform’s reputation. Photo: TNS

Reese Witherspoon (left) and Jennifer Aniston in a scene from the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show. Photo: TNS

Brad Pitt (left) and George Clooney in a still from Wolfs. Photo: Sony Pictures

Sex, food and politics in Apple TV+ drama Carême, about France’s first celebrity chef

Benjamin Voisin in a scene from Apple TV+ show Carême. Antonin Carême went from poor kitchen boy to a leading French chef in his time. Photo: Apple TV+ via AP

Lyna Khoudri (left) as the mysterious Henriette and Benjamin Voisin as Antonin Carême in a scene from Carême. The series dropped its first two episodes this week. Photo: Apple TV+ via AP

Jeremie Renier as cunning diplomat Talleyrand in a scene from Carême. Photo: Apple TV+ via AP

Alice Da Luz, who plays Agathe in Carême. Photo: AFP

(From left) Renier, film director and screenwriter Martin Bourboulon and Voisin at a screening of Carême in Paris. Photo: AFP

Dope Thief author on why Apple TV+’s adaptation had to be shot in ‘magnetic’ Philadelphia

Wagner Moura and Brian Tyree Henry in a still from Dope Thief. Photo: Apple TV+/TNS

Dennis Tafoya at the Dope Thief premiere. The author says Ridley Scott, executive producer of the novel’s screen adaptation, insisted it was filmed in Philadelphia. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

Moura and Henry in a still from Dope Thief. The series was mostly filmed in and around Philadelphia. Photo: Apple TV+

Moura in a still from Dope Thief. Photo: Apple TV+

‘Nonsensical’ Trump foreign-film tariffs shock Hollywood, countries where US makes movies

Hollywood struggled to make sense of US President Donald Trump’s announcement on social media of a 100 per cent tariff on foreign films, intended to revive movie production in the United States. Photo: AP

Filming of a scene for Netflix production That 90s Show under way in a studio in Los Angeles. Unions are struggling to understand whether US President Donald Trump’s tariff on foreign films applies to TV shows. Photo: TNS

Hollywood has still not fully recovered from the 2023 strikes by writers’ and actors’ unions (above). Photo: AFP

Studio Central recreates an old New York set on a Hollywood backlot. Photo: TNS

Actors Jon Voight (left). Mel Gibson (centre) and Sylvester Stallone have been tasked by US President Donald Trump with bringing Hollywood back “bigger, better and stronger than ever before”. Photo: AFP

US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House a day after announcing tariffs on foreign films. “I’m not looking to hurt the industry. I want to help the industry,” he said. Photo: AFP

What killed Bruce Lee? 4 leading theories medical and martial arts experts proposed after his shock death 50 years ago in July, 1973

Bruce Lee on the set of “The Big Boss”. Lee died two years after the movie’s 1971 release, and in the years since, competing theories have been posited as to what exactly killed the martial arts star.  Photo: Yau Leung

Bruce Lee in a still from “Fist of Fury” (1972).

Lee with Taiwanese actress Betty Ting Pei. The two spent time together soon before Lee’s death.

Bruce Lee in a still from “Enter the Dragon” (1973). Photo: TNS

 Lee circa 1970. He had “chronic fluid intake” by virtue of his alcohol- and juice-based diet. Photo: Getty Images

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

Business

Companies

Apple TV+ has a reputation for making expensive, big-name, high-quality content, but some question whether it’s a sound business strategy


Apple TV+ has a reputation for making expensive, big-name, high-quality content, but some question whether it’s a sound business strategy.


Apple TV+ is willing to pay good money for creative ideas, but can quality beat quantity?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Apple TV+ has a reputation for making expensive, big-name, high-quality content, but some question whether it’s a sound business strategy

Apple TV+ has a reputation for making expensive, big-name, high-quality content, but some question whether it’s a sound business strategy