Apple's Services Slowdown Has a Weird Culprit: No F1 Movie This Year

Apple's Services Slowdown Has a Weird Culprit: No F1 Movie This Year Navdeep Yadav Sat, August 1, 2026 at 9:30 PM GMT+2 5 min read AAPL Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Apple Inc. said its red-hot Services division lost some momentum in the fiscal third quarter, with CFO Kevan Parekh pointing to an unusual culprit: there was no blockbuster " F1 " movie release this year to boost Apple TV+ revenue.

Apple's fiscal third quarter, ended June 27, Services revenue came in at $30. 7 billion, up 12% year-over-year and a June-quarter record. But that's a sharp deceleration from the 16% growth Apple posted just one quarter earlier — and CFO Parekh went out of his way to explain why on Wednesday's earnings call.

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Foreign exchange was the biggest driver of the slowdown, Parekh said. But he also flagged a much stranger factor: last year's quarter included the theatrical release of "F1," one of the highest-grossing sports films in history, which boosted Apple TV+ revenue. This year, there was no equivalent release — creating a tough comparison that dragged on growth.

"That had a favorable impact on both the June quarter and also the September quarter in the year ago," Parekh said, adding that Apple had no comparable theatrical release this year. Parekh also acknowledged "headwinds in mobile gaming" that weighed on App Store performance, though he noted the App Store still delivered a June-quarter revenue record. The executive added that Apple continues to operate under a U.

S. court ruling affecting App Store link-out transactions, but said the company is encouraged that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear its appeal. Trending: Avoid the #1 Investing Mistake: How Your 'Safe' Holdings Could Be Costing You Big Time Despite the slowdown, Parekh said Apple posted June-quarter records across advertising, AppleCare, Apple Music, video and the App Store, while Apple TV+ viewership reached an all-time high.

The company also surpassed 1. 5 billion paid subscriptions and set all-time records in cloud services and payment services. Apple Expecting Further Slowdown Parekh warned that Services growth is expected to slow further in the September quarter as foreign exchange remains a headwind.

He said currency effects alone are expected to reduce the year-over-year Services growth rate by another 2. 5 percentage points sequentially, while mobile gaming softness is likely to remain a drag even as Apple continues to see strength across most other Services categories. Story Continues See Also: Skip the Regrets: The Essential Retirement Tips Experts Wish Everyone Knew Earlier.

Tim Cook's Final Earnings Call as CEO Thursday's call marked Tim Cook 's final earnings call as Apple CEO. During the call, Cook confirmed that John Ternus will lead the company's quarterly calls going forward. Cook described the handover to Ternus as "going seamlessly" and said he's excited for Ternus to lead Apple into its next era, adding that he couldn't be more confident in Ternus's leadership or Apple's executive team.

The transition becomes official on Sept. 1, when Cook moves into the role of executive chairman and Ternus, currently senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, becomes CEO. Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect Read Next: Think you're saving enough for your kids?

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