Ridley Scott’s historical epic Napoleon has picked up a second wind on Apple TV+, where it keeps showing up in the platform’s global top 10 after a theatrical run that finished at about $222.4 million worldwide, against a reported $200 million production budget.
In theaters, that total was mostly treated as a letdown once marketing and distribution were added to the bill. On streaming, though, the movie’s done better with audiences, climbing to No. 1 in Laos and No. 2 in Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Chile, Denmark, and Greece.
For Apple, numbers like that help make the case for pricey prestige releases. A film that came up short in cinemas can still pull in subscriptions, hold attention, and give people a reason to hit play again on Apple TV+.
Apple also kept the movie in the conversation by rolling out Ridley Scott’s 205-minute director’s cut. It expands the 158-minute theatrical version and gives viewers a new excuse to go back to Napoleon.
The movie is still a divisive one, sitting at about 58% on Rotten Tomatoes with critics and landing at roughly the same mark with audiences. Historians and critics have kept taking shots at scenes like Marie Antoinette’s execution and the cannon-fire-at-the-Pyramids sequence.
Scott, for his part, brushed off the backlash and reportedly told one historian to “Get a life.” At this point, Napoleon feels like a pretty straightforward streaming-era example. You can stream Napoleon, including the director’s cut, on Apple TV+.
