A movie like Wolfs getting sent to streaming no longer feels apocalyptic for theaters

On Wednesday, August 7, 2024, Apple TV+ announced it was changing its release plans for the George Clooney/Brad Pitt movie Wolfs. This Jon Watts directorial effort was originally set for a traditional theatrical wide release on September 20th courtesy of Sony/Columbia Pictures. However, Apple TV+ is now releasing the title in only a handful of theaters on September 20th. After that, it will drop on Apple TV+ on September 27th. This drastic demotion in its roll-out led to Apple TV+ simultaneously announcing that Wolfs 2 was in development. Watts is reportedly back writing and directing with Clooney and Pitt returning in the lead roles.

The actual quality of Wolfs is totally unknown right now. Nobody will know this movie's artistic merits until it’s available to the public (what a concept!) However, the demotion to a streaming-exclusive release already suggests ominous things for the production. Even more foreboding is announcing a sequel like this a month before the first movie comes out. In recent years, corporations and studios have announced sequels to movies that either wholly or partially debuted on streaming services as PR cover suggesting "see??? This movies a hit!" Remember the PR hullaballoo around Red Notice 2? How about Disney’s hastily announcing Jungle Cruise 2? It’s been four years since Greyhound and it doesn’t look like Apple TV+ is any closer to making Greyhound 2 a reality.

Who knows how Wolfs will fare as a movie. However, Apple TV+ is doing the movie no favors with these desperate marketing maneuvers. More interesting than that, though, is what Wolfs pivoting to streaming suggests about the current theatrical movie landscape. From 2020 to 2022, countless theatrical movies went straight to streaming services so studios could make quick bucks. Titles like Turning Red or Rumble got their theatrical releases scrapped at the last minute and sent instead to some streamer. This didn’t just ensure there were fewer overall movies in the theatrical marketplace. Since studios kept all their action tentpoles in theaters (save for the occasional Infinite), 2021-2022 theatrical landscape lacked variety. Comedies, family movies, and other smaller genres were all sold to the small screen.

Back in 2022, suddenly losing a streaming movie could be fatal to a month’s box office haul. September 2022, for instance, had a paltry 10 new wide releases across five weekends. October 2022 had even fewer titles, with just eight new wide releases opening across four weekends. Some of those movies sent straight to streaming could've helped lift up the dismally empty marketplace. A dearth of movies also plagued the first five months of 2024 thanks to the studios refusing to give artists livable wages last year. However, the last two months have seen the domestic box office flourish. This is thanks to a wide array of hits ranging from Inside Out 2 to Longlegs to Deadpool & Wolverine to Twisters.

The incoming autumn 2024 moviegoing season doesn’t just have blockbusters like Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and a Joker sequel to lift it far above 2022's financial doldrums. There are also way more titles playing in the marketplace. September 2024, even without Wolfs, still has 15 new wide releases in play (not counting Fathom Events titles like Super-Man: The Christopher Reeve Story). Sending Wolfs to streaming in September 2022 would’ve decimated the marketplace. In September 2024, there are plenty of titles across a slew of genres to pick up the slack.

Interestingly, this Wolfs news arrived the same day Amazon publicly announced its intent to drop as many as 16 new movies into theaters annually by 2027. In 2022, Amazon was sending titles like Thirteen Lives and Anything’s Possible to streaming with no fanfare. Two years later, streaming exclusives do and will exist on the Prime Video streaming platform. However, Amazon clearly sees the value of putting major motion pictures to theaters. If Apple is back-pedaling on its theatrical cinema commitment after Argylle and Fly Me to the Moon bombed, Amazon MGM Studios could more than fill that void in theaters.

Amazon is committed to theatrical releases long-term...what are Apple's long-term plans for releasing its movies. is Wolfs a one-off? Is it an indication Apple has given up on the big screen? Deadline's initial announcement of this switch in release plan quoted "unnamed sources" at Apple suggesting this wasn't about Apple giving up on theaters. Reportedly, this is a one-off maneuver for Wolfs. Still, the streamer's big Oscar player for 2024, Blitz, is going straight to the streamer in November 2024. Other upcoming Apple TV+ movies like The Gorge and Mayday are, as of this writing, presumably going straight to streaming.

The only upcoming Apple TV+ features confirmed for normal theatrical releases are the costly Brad Pitt summer blockbuster F1 (which will hit theaters in June 2025 courtesy of Warner Bros.) and Spike Lee’s High and Low remake (which is a co-production with A24). The handful of other Apple TV+ original movies on the horizon like Guy Ritchie's Fountain of Youth seem like they'll be streaming-exclusive titles and...even that doesn't feel apocalyptic for theaters. Those seven-ish Apple TV+ features planned for release between now and the end of 2025 wouldn't have made or broken the theatrical landscape if they'd gone to theaters. Any extra dollars are welcome for movie theater owners. However, even those vulnerable souls weren’t placing all their bets on a globe-trotting John Krasinski/Natalie Portman adventure movie.

It's easy to be more sanguine about Apple TV+’s current cinematic trajectory given that audiences can go to a theater in the final four months and see a whole slew of different titles. Comedies are still frustratingly scarce on the big screen, granted. However, everything from a movie where Amy Adams turns into a dog to a new Robert Eggers feature to The Substance are all coming to theaters in 2024's home stretch. Barely anything opened in the last two fall moviegoing seasons. This year, September and October typically have four or five new wide releases opening each weekend.

With this exciting development, Wolfs going straight to streaming doesn’t feel like an apocalyptic referendum on theatrical exhibition’s viability like other instances of this phenomenon. This news is a reminder of many other facets of reality. That includes how we cannot rely on the “kindness” of corporations to “save” the theatrical film industry. An indicator of theatrical cinema’s demise, though? That’s not what Wolfs getting dumped to Apple TV+ looks like, at least from this vantage point.