Ridley Scott's Napoleon Conquered The World Over Thanksgiving (At The Box Office)
Ridley Scott's latest historical tale is already off to a much better start than "The Last Duel." In fact, "Napoleon" conquered the worldwide box office over Thanksgiving, and while it came in second to "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes" domestically, it still beat Disney's new release "Wish" to second place. Overall, the Joaquin Phoenix-led biopic significantly outperformed expectations for it heading into the five-day holiday weekend.
Produced by Apple Original Films and distributed by Sony Pictures, "Napoleon" grossed $78.8 million worldwide over the five-day frame, with $46.3 million of that from overseas markets. Rather appropriately, given the film's depiction of the Napoleonic Wars, the biggest overseas hauls were from the UK ($6.6 million) and France ($5.6 million). Internationally, its debut doubled that of Apple's other recent prestige picture, Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon," though that's over a five-day frame vs. the traditional three-day weekend for "Flower Moon." In total, "Napoleon" played across 14,900 screens in 56 markets.
With an estimated budget of $200 million, "Napoleon" is still some distance away from breaking even at the box office. But, like "Killers of the Flower Moon," profit isn't necessarily the point for this movie.
Putting a shine on Apple
Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that Apple plans to spend $1 billion per year making films intended for theatrical release. That sounds like a lot of money, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to Apple's overall operating expenses, which were almost $269 billion for the most recent financial year. With Apple already dominating the tech market, entertainment represents a growth opportunity for the company. Funding big-budget prestige projects from beloved filmmakers like Scott and Scorsese is a way to establish Apple Original Films as a serious contender and attractive business partner in Hollywood — as well as drawing subscribers to the Apple TV+ streaming service, where "Killers of the Flower Moon" and "Napoleon" will both eventually end up.
So, while it would certainly be nice for these movies to break even at the box office, or at least not lose too much money, Apple doesn't necessarily need them to be profitable on their own. After all, it's not like the goal here is to launch "Killers of the Flower Moon" and "Napoleon" movie franchises. It's about establishing a brand in Hollywood by getting these films in front of a significant number of audiences and, ideally, getting some awards season accolades.
Maybe it'll pay off for Apple in the long term, and maybe it won't. But for fans of Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese, the two directors scoring $200 million budgets to make their passion projects is already a win.