I worked for a senior executive at Paramount Pictures from 2015 to 2023 and will confess that we spent a lot of time gaming out scenarios for Apple to buy the studio. It seemed to make a lot of sense. Apple has one foot in Hollywood, a great streaming platform but not much content, and buying a studio would have made them a player along with Disney and Netflix. Buying Paramount would’ve gotten them the Melrose lot, the Paramount+ platform, and the huge library of old movies and TV shows, the IP that is at the heart of the studio’s value. It didn’t seem sustainable for them to continue to have the underpopulated Apple+ and nothing more, they would either have to make a commitment to being in entertainment or shutter the platform and back out, anything else would mean a big hit to their bottom line. And now here it is - they flushed $1B - and yet it still seems very likely that they won’t do anything about it, just take the loss and stay where they are. Very strange.
I worked for a senior executive at Paramount Pictures from 2015 to 2023 and will confess that we spent a lot of time gaming out scenarios for Apple to buy the studio. It seemed to make a lot of sense. Apple has one foot in Hollywood, a great streaming platform but not much content, and buying a studio would have made them a player along with Disney and Netflix. Buying Paramount would’ve gotten them the Melrose lot, the Paramount+ platform, and the huge library of old movies and TV shows, the IP that is at the heart of the studio’s value. It didn’t seem sustainable for them to continue to have the underpopulated Apple+ and nothing more, they would either have to make a commitment to being in entertainment or shutter the platform and back out, anything else would mean a big hit to their bottom line. And now here it is - they flushed $1B - and yet it still seems very likely that they won’t do anything about it, just take the loss and stay where they are. Very strange.