Apple TV+ Paid Brad Pitt & George Clooney An Absurd Amount Of Money For Wolfs

Brad Pitt and George Clooney’s new movie, “Wolfs,” is set to premiere exclusively on Apple TV+ and stars the pair as two fixers who get put on the same job. However, it seems like Apple TV+ might need a fixer of its own if it doesn’t stop spending so much freaking money on streaming shows and movies that go relatively unseen. The movie was originally set to debut in theaters nationwide as part of a deal made with stars Pitt and Clooney to ensure that it didn’t merely disappear into the streaming mists, but that has since changed. Instead, it will get a limited U.S. theatrical release for a week before debuting on Apple TV+ on September 27, 2024. 

While it might seem like it’s cheaper in the long run to just release a movie on a streaming service, the streamer is shooting itself in the foot by losing out on potential box office revenue. In a new report from The New York Times, the cost of bringing Clooney and Pitt onboard for the action-comedy was revealed, and it’s just too darn much to pay stars of a movie that may wind up being quickly forgotten (especially if a salacious new true crime doc ends up grabbing everyone’s attention instead).

The New York Times piece revealed that they spoke with someone who was able to anonymously divulge just what Apple paid for “Wolfs,” including what each of its stars received. The source said that Clooney and Pitt were each paid more than $35 million apiece, while writer and director Jon Watts was paid more than $15 million. (Watts is best known for directing the Tom Holland-led “Spider-Man” trilogy.) That’s not an unheard of amount of money to spend on a pair of A-listers, but it’s still a bit out of the range of reasonable for a film that’s essentially going straight to streaming. For example, Robert Downey Jr. was paid $50 million for the first “Avengers” film (and subsequent films), but that’s the first freaking “Avengers.” It’s a massive blockbuster that was guaranteed to bring in big bucks. “Wolfs” looks like a potentially fun little action-comedy that allows real-life best buds Pitt and Clooney to bounce off of one another creatively, but it’s no “Avengers.” So, what the heck is Apple thinking? 

Well, for a while now, Apple has been spending wild amounts of money on excellent TV shows that just aren’t getting the viewership they deserve, so maybe its goal is to pivot to doing the exact same thing except with movies? It’s a truly baffling move that feels like doubling down on its previous tactics, just in a different arena.

Apple TV+ has struggled since its inception to find a balance in its content, developing great shows only to abandon them when they didn’t get the viewership needed. Sure, that’s a problem across all of streaming (just look at the number of Netflix one-and-done’s), but the bummer with Apple is that it is creating really great stuff that’s not getting enough promotion or the right marketing, and in the end we lose shows like the truly fantastic “Schmigadoon!”

I’m no financial expert, but wouldn’t it make more sense to spend some of the money thrown at creating new content into promoting the great content you already have that’s not getting seen? Maybe “Wolfs” will be the magic movie that springs Apple TV+ back into competition with Netflix and Max, but I have my doubts.

“Wolfs” will open in select theaters on September 20, 2024, before streaming on Apple TV+ a week later.