On 23rd, March, Apple officially announced its plan for an annual ten billion USD investment on movies played in theaters in the U.S. Many movies will be streamed longer than expected owing to this great amount of money. This is an attempt aiming to increase the number of users on Apple TV+ and the popularity of it. Apple has been streaming self-produced movies only on its streaming service, Apple TV+, which explains why many people have not been able to easily approach movies from Apple. However, according to an anonymous industry insider, Apple is currently planning to stream its movies at thousands of theaters for a month in addition to the plan for the investment.
Several movies are expected to be streamed such as <Killers of the Flower Moon>, <Argylle>, and <Napoleon>. The biggest motivation that got Apple to take such action is the fact that the number of users and the popularity of Apple TV+ are much lower than other OTT platforms such as Disney+. While other platforms keep enlarging and expanding their size, the number of Apple TV+ users is estimated only about 20 million to 40 million, which is a relatively lower number in comparison to other platforms. Another reason why Apple began to actively invest resources into movies is <Coda>. Apple TV+ purchased the movie at the Sundance Film Festival for about 25 million USD and released it simultaneously through movie theaters and the streaming service. After the movie was awarded at the Academy Awards, Apple quickly took a step into the movie industry as well.
After COVID-19, movie theaters have had great difficulties as people rarely got to visit there and turned to OTT services. Thus, Apple's new plan is hopefully expected to help the film industry recover.