The American App Economy Is Now "Bigger Than Hollywood"

Lemeowski writes Technology business analyst Horace Deidu found an interesting nugget while closely examining an Apple press release from earlier this year: "The iOS App Store distributed $10 billion to developers in 2014, which, Deidu points out, is just about as much as Hollywood earned off U.S. box office revenues the same year." That means the American app industry is poised to eclipse the American film industry. Additionally, Apple says its App Store has created 627,000 jobs, which Deidu contrasts with the 374,000 jobs Hollywood creates

Comments

Bad comparaison

[MouseR]

They are comparing a global economy (Apps) to a local US market.

What's the profit of global Hollywood sales?

Re:Bad comparaison

[jofas]

Also, it's a bit of a 90s way to measure Hollywood revenue to look at "box office" sales.

Re:Bad comparaison

[telchine]

Call me a sceptic if you like; but I read the summary like this...

Apple says this in a press release. Hollywood can provably be seen to have done this but not as well.
Apple says that in a press release, Hollywood can provably be seen to have done that but not as well.

Since when did Slashdot become a place for Apple press releases to be hyped up more than they are already?

This is a Slashvertisment... Someone needs to create an ad blocker for these kinds of things!

Re:Bad comparaison

[Anonymous Coward]

The US app store may be locked to US residents, but there is an Apple App Store for damn near every country, and both TFA and TFPR are clear that the $10 billion App Store figure is global, while the $10 billion box office domestic. Global box office revenue is in the $30 billion dollar range, and if you want to make the claim that something is "bigger than Hollywood" you need to account for box office+blu ray/DVD+streaming+TV licensing+merchandising, so you can probably double that again.

Re:And if you count the 30% Apple kept

[tbuddy]

Though the 30% is a pretty big chunk, it's nothing compared to the $11 trillion Hollywood loses on piracy every year. They've done studies and it's pretty clear that piracy costs them all the money ever times infinity.

Uh oh, NOW you've done it...

[NotDrWho]

Soon, James Cameron will rip his shirt off, scream "NOT FOR LONG, MOTHERFUCKERS!" and return from a week-long free-dive of the Titanic to direct a new blockbuster that will dominate the world in a way that YOUR LITTLE MIND CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE!

627,000 jobs, are they real?

[k6mfw]

There are many that create apps and have them for sale at Apple, but do they make a living from these sales? There was an article saying App store is more like a casino. House always collects revenue, almost all participants lose money but a few make some money. Article went on about how everyone has to pay $100 to submit their app to Apple Store, and most apps have little sales. Occasionally some apps have huge sales (i.e. Angry Birds) and developers make lots of money. I wonder if same like Hollywood says it creates 374,000 jobs but does that include people working at theaters making marginal income, or starving actors who occasionally get a stand-in part for $50?

Liars figure and figures lie

[TrollstonButterbeans]

Subtract out the top 1% of pay to play games and quite a different story will reveal itself.

Case in point, Clash of Clans makes $500,000 per day and it is well known that Apple commands the overwhelming majority of mobile app $$$ volume. If you add in the revenue from the top 100 "freemium" pay-to-play games that $10 billion figure is going to shrink very, very quickly.

A handful of Freemium games are the top payouts, with almost the 99.999% of the rest making near 0.

Re:"loses ON piracy" - LOL. American idiot.

[tbuddy]

We helped the French during World War 2 so they wouldn't have to speak German. The French helped us during the American Revolution so we wouldn't have to speak English.