William Gallagher
No one can say that Apple has taken a light touch in promoting, "F1: The Movie," but the film is being distributed theatrically by Warner Bros. — and Apple reportedly wants more power.
It's perhaps a sign of confidence in how "F1" is going to fare at the box office, and it's definitely a turn around from when Apple said to be cutting back on both big-budget movies and theatrical releases of them. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple executives looking at moving into film distribution.
Apple does tend to prefer to own the whole stack in any field, and a lot of its iPhone success has been down to how it controls everything from the processors to the software. And unlike Netflix, Apple TV+ has also always pushed to have global rights to any production it shows.
It's not always been successful. Most recently in March 2025, Apple TV+ thriller "Suspicion" was sold on by its makers to the UK's ITV, because of Apple's failure to secure total rights.
Similarly, while Apple TV+ is legitimately the first streamer to win the Best Picture Oscar, it did so with "CODA", and it does not fully own the rights to that film. Despite a reported "incredibly heated" series of negotiations, "CODA" is not owned by Apple in Japan, Mexico, Italy and some other territories.
So Apple has always pursued control over ownership, but it hasn't attempted film distribution. With that, the costs and the complexities are such that Apple has relied on partnerships with other firms. Specifically, "F1" is actually be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. — and if there isn't an actual problem, there is the potential for one.
Apple fought — and failed — to get global rights to "CODA," which still then won it a Best Picture OscarFor Warner Bros. is of course also distributing movies that it has produced itself. And one of those is the very high-budget "Superman," which is due to be released in cinemas two weeks after "F1."
Consequently there has to be a question over whether Warner Bros. would naturally put more effort into marketing its own show rather than Apple's. A spokesperson for Warners said no, the company is running a "robust global marketing campaign that befits a film" of the size of "F1."
Under the deal with Apple, Warner Bros. will get an increasing percentage of box office revenue depending on how well ticket sales go. So it is in the distributor's interests to promote the film highly.
Nonethless, it's reported that unspecified sources familiar with Apple's plans, have said that Apple executives are now discussing starting their own theatrical distribution division.
The benefits and the costs to Apple
There are no further details at this time. A new division would take time to set up, as well as presenting Apple with greater upfront costs for its film marketing.
In 2024, the story was that "F1" was a test, that if it flopped as previous high-budget Apple films had, it would prompt a change to how the company produced films — and how many it did. Perhaps as a consequence, there is as yet little information of Apple's future plans in high-budget movies, or at least few details of a schedule.
There is "Highest 2 Lowest," which will debut in theaters on August 22. Its overall budget has not been revealed, but reports claim that its star Denzel Washington has been paid $35 million — some $15 million more than Brad Pitt for "F1."
It's not a requirement that only high-budget movies get a good distribution deal, but they are the movies where the difference in the costs versus revenue will be most noticeable.
If Apple does enter the theatrical distribution market, it could perhaps do so with its as-yet-untitled UFO conspiracy thriller. It was revealed in March 2025 that Apple had spent tens of millions just to sign the makers of "F1" to work on this, their next project, for the company.
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Andrew Orr
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3 Comments
Yawn.. While other Mag 6 companies promote and attract investors with AI-driven products, Apple comes up with dead Hollywood which has been dead since Netflix.
Tim Cook rather hangs out with Hollywood celebrities while Jensen Huang meets politicians of all nations to promote Nvidia´s future.
Doesn´t Apple have anything better to do except promoting a movie, which pops up in my wallet?
It's worth pointing out that the Services Division has been the fastest growing business unit at Apple since before the pandemic.
It's important to remember that Apple views itself primarily as a software company: one whose software and services run best on their own proprietary hardware.
Remember that things like Apple TV and Apple Music run on hardware other than Apple's own devices. A lot of the hardware categories that Apple is involved in are saturated in industrialized nations. There's more growth potential in emerging markets.
It's also worth pointing out that something like F1 has worldwide appeal, not like Nascar which is basically limited to North America.
There's precedent in someone taking more control in film distribution. Taylor Swift did it with her Eras Tour film, bypassing the studios and film distribution network by negotiating with the major theater chains. That means the studios and distributors got shut out of a revenue cut which is where most of your movie ticket goes (the theaters actually get very little, their profitability is mostly from concessions -- that pricey tub of popcorn and soda).
Taylor Swift steamrolled the competition and the handful of studio releases that happened around the Eras Tour film release got crushed at the box office. It was a mic drop moment for the film industry. Along with her re-recorded releases of many of her earlier albums shows the entertainment industry that artists having more control over business strategies can work.
Clearly Apple took note of this. Hell, she's the one who convinced Apple to change their streaming royalty system to more fairly serve the artists.