In February, "Argyll: Mystery**" directed by Matthew Vaughn was officially released.
In North America, "Argyll: Mystery**" (hereinafter referred to as "Argyll") opened for less than 20 million US dollars, and was criticized by the mainstream **, making it difficult to make waves in the off-season market. This is the third major investment of $200 million in recent films, the first two being "Killer of the Flower Moon" and "Napoleon".
Apple's spending in the field of production is eye-catching, but its performance in theaters has not improved, which shows that it is not easy for tech giants to switch to the content field.
According to IMDBpro statistics, "Argyle" began to roll out to 3,605 theaters in North America from the 2nd, and topped the first day with more than $6.48 million, but it was lower than the same period performance of "The Beekeeper"; Then on Saturday, "Argyle" recorded a rare 7% increase, and the next day it turned to a 42% decline, closing at $17.47 million in its opening weekend, with a single museum revenue of $4,847, replacing "Mean Girls" as the champion.
Even if this is slightly better than the opening box office of "The Beekeeper" ($16.58 million), it is second only to "Mean Girl" among new films this year; But in Matthew Vaughn's directing sequence, "Argyle" ranks relatively low, far inferior to the previous two "Ace**" figures of more than $30 million, and even less than the 2010 famous "King Haibian" ($19.83 million), only higher than "Ace**: Origin", which fell in the "Christmas file".
In terms of audience composition, 52% of the ticket buyers of "Argyle" are male, and 76% are over 25 years old, and 51% of them are over 35 years old; By race, white, Hispanic, African-American, and Asian-American make up 10% and 10% respectively, largely overlapping with Beekeeper's target audience.
In terms of word-of-mouth, "Argyle" has a low freshness of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes, and critics believe that "its intricate plot and long running time" have eliminated the fun; At the same time, "Argyll" has a popcorn index of 72%, indicating that the audience is still positive about this spy thriller. For comparison, Beekeeper achieved 70% and 92% on Rotten Tomatoes respectively. In the post-screening session, the Cinemascore of "Argyle" was only C+, and it was also left behind by "The Beekeeper" (B+).
In addition, the first three episodes of the American drama "The Choice Season 4" were released by Fathom Events, which earned $5.94 million in 2,280 theaters, coming in second after "Argyll." In fact, this is not the first time that the show's related works have appeared on the big screen: as early as December 2021, the premiere of the special "Christmas and the Chosen One: The Courier" received about $4.25 million, and finally broke the $10 million mark in China; The following year, the first two episodes of "The Chosen Season 3" also entered the offline market, and the cumulative total was further increased to $14.61 million. Next, "The Chosen Season 4" also plans to release episodes 4 to 6 and 7 to 8 in batches, highlighting the popularity of religious themes in the off-season.
Even in the face of direct competition from Argyll, The Beekeeper showed considerable momentum, with a weekend harvest of **21% to $5.28 million; In contrast, "Mean Girl", which had previously completed three consecutive championships, dived more than 40% and quickly dropped to 6th place. In addition, "Wonka" has accumulated to 2. in North America eight weeks after its screening0.1 billion US dollars, becoming the first song and dance film in history to earn more than 200 million US dollars. In terms of literary films, "American**" added 200 theaters to 1,902, and "Poor Things" both remained in the top ten; A24**'s "Area of Interest" bucked the trend by **9%, and the total box office is estimated to be close to $5 million.
Driven by films such as "Argyll", the North American weekend** rose by 11% to more than $60 million, but it is still the second lowest point of the film market this year, failing to reverse the recent dilemma of hovering at the bottom; In the just-concluded January, total North American output was more than 4The $9.5 billion closing was 15% lower than last year's lead by "Avatar: The Way of Water," highlighting the detrimental impact of the absence of blockbuster blockbusters at the start of the year.
For Apple, "Argyle" is the third major investment of $200 million in recent times, but its performance in theaters has not improved. In October last year, Martin Scorsese's new work "Flower Moon Killer" was the first to be released, and it was the runner-up with $23.25 million, losing to "Taylor Swift: Times Tour"; In November, Ridley Scott's "Napoleon" relayed its debut, earning only $20.64 million in its opening weekend, behind The Hunger Games: A Song of the Songbird and the Snake. Although "Argyle" finally reached the top this time, the opening number is actually at the bottom of the three films.
After 16 weeks of screenings, "Killer of the Flower Moon" has accumulated $67.78 million in North America, and has earned more than 1$500 million; "Napoleon" barely touched the 60 million line in China, but fortunately, the share of the overseas market reached 70%, pushing the total score to exceed 200 million US dollars. But compared to the high shooting budget, Apple is afraid that it will lose money on both projects.
From this point of view, the prospects for the return of "Argyll" are not optimistic. According to Comscore, Argyle has entered 79 countries and regions, and the revenue outside of North America is about $17.35 million. Specifically, the United Kingdom was the top voter with $2.63 million, followed by Australia ($1.57 million), France ($1.53 million) and Mexico ($1.32 million). Combined with the mainland, "Argyll" fell around $35 million in the first week worldwide, about $10 million less than "Killer of the Flower Moon" and less than half of "Napoleon". If Argyle were to end up being significantly lower than the other two works, it would inevitably result in an even more significant deficit.
Of course, Apple's big investment is not just about box office performance, but also about building brand awareness. In the 96th Academy Award nominees, "Killer of the Flower Moon" was shortlisted for a total of 10 important awards, including "Best Picture", "Best Director" and "Best Actress", etc., "Napoleon" will also participate in the battle for three technical statuettes, making Apple the top of the major studios in terms of quantity. Even if "Argyle" itself will not directly benefit from the awards season, in the case of Apple's overall ** increase, it may still push up the expectation of subsequent paid purchases or rentals, and make a more adequate warm-up for the launch of Apple TV+.
It is worth mentioning that "Argyle" has also become the latest example of the confrontation between the two tech giants. The aforementioned "Beekeeper" was produced by MGM, which was acquired by Amazon, and the internally incubated Amazon Pictures is good at streaming ** movies, forming its double-arrow model in the field of production; In contrast, Apple directly operates projects such as "Argyle" under its own labels, and accumulates Hollywood connections by recruiting directors. According to Indiewire, Apple's total spending on content last year was estimated to be about $7 billion, with an additional $1 billion allocated for the development of original theatrical films.
According to the financial report, Amazon's total investment in film and television will reach $18.9 billion in 2023, nearly 14% more than the $16.6 billion in the year before, and it has not been affected by the double strike that lasted for nearly half a year. This is also higher than the $12.6 billion amount of Netflix, the leader of the stream, last year, which shows Amazon's firm confidence in content investment. According to Moffett Nathanson's estimates, Amazon's Prime Video received about $10.1 billion (or just over half of the total), up from $8.8 billion the year before.
Judging from the reaction of the capital market, Apple's share price walked out of the downward curve after the earnings report, and the total market value fell to less than $3 trillion; In contrast, Amazon surged nearly 8% in a single day, helped by better-than-expected earnings reports, showing investors' different expectations for the future direction of the two companies. After Argyll, the competition between Apple and Amazon in the film and television industry will continue.