Apple TV+ market share plays a large part in the film’s success
It’s been labeled Will Smith’s most passionate project that he has ever worked on in years. But now many critics are calling it perhaps his worst box office flop in years.
Many are blaming the flop on Smith’s Oscar slap of Chris Rock that many from around the world had seen. Then there are some that are blaming the film’s storyline and not wanting to see “another slave film.” But we at the A.T.L. think that there is so much more to this flop than we know.
Apple, the prized Silicon Valley tech company reportedly purchased the rights to Emancipation for $120 million. With a limited theatrical release on December 2nd, the film followed up with a primary source of streaming through Apple’s new streaming platform Apple TV+, Apple released the film on December 9th to a small audience.
Though Apple is one of the most respected and richest companies in the world, it has a small market percentage in computer and smartphone operating systems. According to Wikipedia’s Usage share of operating systems, Apple’s macOS has 16% of the laptop/desktop market compared to Window’s 76%. And in the smartphone market, Apple’s iOS has 28% of the market compared to Android’s 71%.
Apple only leads with tablet devices, iPadOS leads with only 50.7 and Android with 49.18.
With those numbers, there will be very few people to access the film. That’s perhaps why Apple was providing a FREE ONE-WEEK TRIAL to new subscribers to encourage them to watch the film on their streaming platform and to also help Apple TV+ gain more subscribers.
Being that Apple TV+ is virtually a new streaming platform (2019), it has one of the lowest memberships among the available streaming platforms. In Screenrant’s 2021 article, 12 Most Popular Streaming TV Services, Ranked by Subscriber Numbers, Apple TV+ is ranked as #8 with 19 million subscribers.
- Netflix – 213.5 Million
- Amazon Prime Video – 175 Million
- Crunchyroll – 120 Million
- Disney+ – 118.1 Million
- Peacock – 54 Million
- HBO Max (& HBO) – 45.2 million
- Hulu – 42.8 Million
- Apple TV+ – Around 19 Million
- Discovery+ – 18 Million
- ESPN+ – 14.9 Million
- Shudder – 1 Million
- Paramount+ – Exact Figures Unknown
Apple TV+’s subscribers and market reach play a lot in Emancipation’s viewing numbers. So Emancipation didn’t flop per say, it’s more like Apple did while trying to take on a passion project as big as this of Will Smith.
