Details Revealed: Apple-Paramount Wild 'Flower Moon' Deal 💰

A $200 million budget was just the jaw-dropping beginning

MOON SHOT MONEY From left: Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro at the Killers of the Flower Moon screening at Cannes on May 20. (LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images)

Whether Apple’s big swing on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon will ultimately pay off remains an open question. For the first time in its history, Apple, which prioritizes streaming for obvious reasons, opted for a wide-theatrical release, this time for the film that reunited Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, on an Eric Roth-adapted script based on David Grann’s 2017 novel. Last weekend, the three-and-a-half-hour drama opened in 3,628 theaters doing $23 million in domestic box office, plus an additional $21 million from 63 international territories for a global total of $44 million.

Far from disastrous but not exactly the kind of figures that provide a clear path to profitability considering Apple has not yet announced plans to put Killers of the Flower Moon in any additional licensing windows (as was recently pointed out by The Ankler’s Sean McNulty).

There’s also another obstacle in Apple’s path to recoupment: the rich deal it made with Paramount, that went beyond just distribution of the film. The specific (and fairly staggering) details have been leaked to me by a source familiar with the financials.