The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2024
Fly Me to the Moon: Apple's $100M moonshot romance that took off nowhere
Apple Studios and Columbia spent $100M on the Apollo 11 romantic comedy Fly Me to the Moon; it grossed $42.2M worldwide, a fraction of its budget.
Apple Studios · Columbia Pictures (Sony) · 2024-07-12
What happened
Fly Me to the Moon is a romantic comedy-drama about faking the Apollo 11 moon landing, directed by Greg Berlanti and backed by Apple Studios with Columbia Pictures distributing. Its production budget was reported at around $100 million.
Released in the United States on July 12, 2024, it opened to roughly $12 million from about 3,356 theaters and never built momentum. The film finished with about $42.2 million worldwide — $20.5 million domestic and $21.7 million international.
A mid-budget theatrical comedy grossing under half its budget was a clear commercial miss, and the film stood out as one of the year's larger box-office losses for a wide release.
Why it happened
- A near-$100M budget on an original, adult-skewing romantic comedy was a mismatch for a genre that rarely earns that money back theatrically.
- The premise straddled drama and comedy, and mixed reviews left it selling to no clear audience.
- A crowded July release slate and the streaming-first habit of its Apple backer undercut the theatrical window.
The lesson
Spending blockbuster money on a mid-budget genre does not make it a blockbuster. The audience has to exist before the budget does.
Sources
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