empty movie theaterArgylle, the action-comedy spy film that “The King’s Man” director Matthew Vaughn’s first venture as co-producer and director, made record as the biggest box office major flop of 2024. Vaughn’s co-producer Universal Pictures was responsible for the movie’s distribution, marketing, promotion and release in theatres.

A Potential Franchise Film that Failed at the Box Office

While it was intended to be an initial instalment of a franchise offering, Argylle’s debut at the domestic box office was deemed a major disaster. Its opening-day gross return approximated only about $17.5 million, which was regarded as relatively low for a movie with a mammoth production cost of around S100 million more or less. The film’s worldwide box office collection, hit only $94,937,532

Yet Matthew Vaughn was able to push through with the sale of the movie to Apple’s Original Films and TV+ subsidiaries for $200 million as agreed beforehand. Apple’s projection in the acquisition of Argylle was mainly for its streaming service and potential as a film franchise.

mobie difitally streamed in handheld deviceHowever, since it became clear that there won’t be any Argylle sequel in the future, Apple’s only hope to recover the $200 million paid to Vaughn is for Argylle to become a popular digital offering. Otherwise, Apple will be forced to simply write off the $200 million as a bad debt.

About Argylle’s Cast and Plot

Although Argylle headlines several big stars like Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell and Dua Lipa, much of the story revolves around Bryce Dallas Howard as the reclusive author named Elly Conway. Her best selling spy novels feature a fictional spy figure named Aubrey Argylle.

Elly, the author is being targeted by different underworld organizations because her novels have made accurate predictions over the outcomes of their criminal operations. Henry Caville, is the real spy character who rescued her from an attempted kidnapping incident.