Apple's Oscar-Winning Ambitions to be Spearheaded By Six Original Movies a Year, With a Budget up to $30 Million per Film

Apple plans to produce six small-budget movies a year with an eye toward stories that could win Academy Awards, according to The New York Post.

appletvplus 1
The Post's sources claim Apple wants to spend between $5-$30 million on each movie, and that it has already approached "elevated" directors and other film talent about bankrolling projects with Oscar-winning potential.

Apple is looking to spend $5 million to $30 million per project, sources said, adding that the company is being driven by Netflix’s recent spate of Oscar nominations and win for Best Foreign Film with "Roma" — legitimizing Netflix head Reed Hastings' standing in Hollywood.

"They are taking meetings and hiring," one agency source said of Apple, adding that the meetings are being generated by the company's original feature films unit, headed by Matt Dentler, formerly of iTunes Movies.

According to the report, Apple's search for six small-budget movies is not related to its multiyear agreement to make films with A23, the studio that produced the Oscar-winning "Moonlight."

Apple is working on dozens of original TV shows and movies with high-profile directors, producers, and actors, with all of that content set to be available through a new Apple TV+ app that's going to be released this fall. Check out our dedicated roundup to learn everything that we know so far about Apple's new streaming TV service.

Popular Stories

iPhone SE 4 Vertical Camera Feature

iPhone SE 4 Rumored to Use Same Rear Chassis as iPhone 16

Friday July 19, 2024 7:16 am PDT by
Apple will adopt the same rear chassis manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 that it is using for the upcoming standard iPhone 16, claims a new rumor coming out of China. According to the Weibo-based leaker "Fixed Focus Digital," the backplate manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 is "exactly the same" as the standard model in Apple's upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, which is expected to...
iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Just Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Monday July 15, 2024 4:44 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
bsod

Crowdstrike Says Global IT Outage Impacting Windows PCs, But Mac and Linux Hosts Not Affected

Friday July 19, 2024 3:12 am PDT by
A widespread system failure is currently affecting numerous Windows devices globally, causing critical boot failures across various industries, including banks, rail networks, airlines, retailers, broadcasters, healthcare, and many more sectors. The issue, manifesting as a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), is preventing computers from starting up properly and forcing them into continuous recovery...
iphone 14 lineup

Cellebrite Unable to Unlock iPhones on iOS 17.4 or Later, Leak Reveals

Thursday July 18, 2024 4:18 am PDT by
Israel-based mobile forensics company Cellebrite is unable to unlock iPhones running iOS 17.4 or later, according to leaked documents verified by 404 Media. The documents provide a rare glimpse into the capabilities of the company's mobile forensics tools and highlight the ongoing security improvements in Apple's latest devices. The leaked "Cellebrite iOS Support Matrix" obtained by 404 Media...
Apple Watch Series 9

2024 Apple Watch Lineup: Key Changes We're Expecting

Tuesday July 16, 2024 7:59 am PDT by
Apple is seemingly planning a rework of the Apple Watch lineup for 2024, according to a range of reports from over the past year. Here's everything we know so far. Apple is expected to continue to offer three different Apple Watch models in five casing sizes, but the various display sizes will allegedly grow by up to 12% and the casings will get taller. Based on all of the latest rumors,...
tinypod apple watch

TinyPod Turns Your Apple Watch Into an iPod

Wednesday July 17, 2024 3:18 pm PDT by
If you have an old Apple Watch and you're not sure what to do with it, a new product called TinyPod might be the answer. Priced at $79, the TinyPod is a silicone case with a built-in scroll wheel that houses the Apple Watch chassis. When an Apple Watch is placed inside the TinyPod, the click wheel on the case is able to be used to scroll through the Apple Watch interface. The feature works...

Top Rated Comments

baryon Avatar
67 months ago
The more companies produce movies, the better for the movie industry and the audience. The monopoly of a handful of big studios is never good.

What I hate though is the exclusivity. If you want to watch an HBO series, you need to subscribe to HBO Go. Netflix film? Netflix subscription. Apple TV? Subscribe.

I think films should be free from the restraints of studios. You should be able to rent them, buy them or watch them anywhere, regardless of which company produced it. You should be able to watch a Netflix film on iTunes or an Apple TV film on Netflix. Exclusivity is poison.

Before, you could watch any film at the cinema, on TV, DVD, BluRay, iTunes, etc... It didn't matter who produced it, you were free to watch it on whatever platform you wanted. You shouldn't have to subscribe to every single damn service just to be able to watch all films that are being released. Renting or buying films one by one like on iTunes should be possible for every single film ever made.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
keysofanxiety Avatar
67 months ago
Stick to computers Apple. Don't forget your core business. (waiting for the onslaught)
Shame they didn’t take your advice and could have prevented that disastrous foray into the music player, phone, and tablet business.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sparkie7 Avatar
67 months ago
Stick to computers Apple. Don't forget your core business. (waiting for the onslaught)
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
keysofanxiety Avatar
67 months ago
“Oscar-winning ambitions” at “5-30 million” USD. LOL.
Ex Machina had a $15 million budget and Battlefield Earth had a $73 million budget.

You can’t throw money at a film to make it good. $10 million+ is still a significant budget and can produce some incredible results in the right hands.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
juanm Avatar
67 months ago
Well, at least someone will buy their new Mac Pro, I guess.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
apolloa Avatar
67 months ago
30 mil a film? Wow, really, even those crappy ScyFy films with extremely cheap CGI effects cost more!
Really not sure what they think they’ll achieve here..?
I can imagine Cook has grand visions of him on stage at an event promoting how many awards their film has won.....
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)