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# If you want your movie to have any cultural significance, put it in theaters
- URL: https://birchtree.me/blog/if-you-want-your-movie-to-have-any-cultural-significance-put-it-in-theaters/
- Published: 2024-03-14T22:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2024-03-14T22:00:00.000Z
- Author: Matt Birchler
- Tags: Links, #Import 2025-03-29 19:29

Tatiana Siegel writing for Variety: [Apple’s Blockbuster Gamble](https://variety.com/2024/film/news/apple-box-office-misfires-napoleon-flower-moon-argylle-1235931957/?ref=birchtree.me)

> On March 10, the tech giant has 13 shots to take home an Oscar via two historical epics, “[Killers of the Flower Moon](https://variety.com/t/killers-of-the-flower-moon/?ref=birchtree.me)” and “[Napoleon](https://variety.com/t/napoleon/?ref=birchtree.me),” which nabbed 10 and three nominations, respectively. That’s given Apple the second-biggest haul among the major studios and streamers, just behind Netflix’s 18 nods and tied with Universal and Searchlight.

It was a pretty brutal night for the streamers and a great night for Universal and Searchlight. Apple was completely shut out and Netflix just won Best Live Action Short Film for Wes Anderson’s *The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar*. Meanwhile, Oppenheimer (Universal) and Poor Things (Searchlight) took almost everything each of them were nominated for.

> Yet neither “Killers” nor “Napoleon” moved the needle as much as many industry observers expected. “Argylle,” with its $200 million price tag, is an unmitigated disaster. No studio is better poised to absorb colossal budgets than Apple. But even Wall Street is wondering if the studio’s reported $1 billion annual spend on films would have been better served by pumping up the volume of product rather than taking a few nine-figure swings.

In Cord Jefferson’s acceptance speech (Best Adapted Screenplay for *American Fiction*), he gave studios the business for being hooked on $200+ million gambles and implored them to make more, cheaper movies. I fully endorse the idea, and I don’t mean they need to be $5 million indies, but I think audiences have shown that they are into creative movies, not just the biggest, most expensive thing they’ve ever seen on screen.

> “There’s clearly an acknowledgment of how important theatrical is — not just in terms of the box office but in terms of the cultural footprint,” says Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

A few years ago I called for movie studios to release everything on streaming day-and-date with their theatrical release, but I take that back – I was wrong. It turns out that even when you market a movie aggressively, if it goes straight to streaming, its cultural impact is basically zero. A streaming-first’s only hope is that it wins an Oscar, otherwise it’s just another piece of “content” on people’s smart TVs. It’s chum.

Even a short exclusive theatrical run builds awareness and excitement for movies in a way that just hasn’t been replaced yet.

Not for nothing, but did you know David Fincher put out a really good thriller about an assassin at the end of last year? No?! It’s called [The Killer](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-killer-2023/?ref=birchtree.me) and it’s only on Netflix. Michael Fassbender stars and Trent Reznor did the music. It rips, but I keep telling people about it and they had no idea one of their favorite directors had a new movie out.