Ridley Scott's historical epic film Napoleon has a massive $200 million budget, justified by its thrilling battle scenes and grandiosity. The film technically needs to gross at least $400 million at the box office to be deemed a success and cover production and marketing costs. Similar to Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, however, Napoleon's box office performance may be less crucial as it could serve the purpose of establishing a platform, in this case, Apple TV+, for prestigious entertainment.

Ridley Scott’s Napoleon has a huge budget and therefore would seem to need to do very well at the box office in order to succeed, but the economics of the movie are not as straightforward as they appear. The epic historical film tells the story of the famous military leader-turned-emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, whose relationship with his consort, Empress Joséphine, is explored alongside his geographic and political conquests over the course of many years.