The $200 Million Apple Action Movie Rated Rotten On Rotten Tomatoes

Despite its epic cast, ‘Fountain of Youth’ failed to impress critics and audiences.

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It sometimes seems like movie studios think they have found the magic formula for film making by pairing a heavyweight director with a cast of A Listers. However, this of course gives no guarantee of critical acclaim or audience appeal as Apple recently found out.

On paper, the 2025 Apple TV+ original movie Fountain of Youth seemed to have everything going for it. The action-adventure heist flick was directed by Guy Ritchie who has a knack for making scintillating cinema. To this day, his 2019 Aladdin movie still ranks as one of the most rip-roaring live action adaptations of a Disney cartoon while his take on Sherlock Holmes was more of a bare-knuckle bruiser than a debonair detective.

Joining Ritchie for Fountain of Youth was a cast which read like a roll call for the Oscars. John Krasinski stars as a jet-setting art thief who steals priceless paintings to help uncover clues as to the whereabouts of the fabled Fountain of Youth. His estranged sister, played by Natalie Portman, joins him on the quest which is financed by Domhnall Gleeson’s billionaire benefactor character Owen Carver. On the way they meet Stanley Tucci in the role of a sage who tells them to do whatever is necessary to keep the fountain from being unearthed, for humanity’s own protection.

If it sounds familiar that’s because it is. The movie follows films like Indiana Jones and National Treasure so closely that it failed to break new ground which is extremely unusual for Ritchie. Unashamed about its unoriginality, the movie debuted in May last year to a ‘rotten’ rating by critics and audiences alike on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The former awarded it 35% while the latter only scored it three percentage points higher.

Its critics consensus cuts straight to the chase by saying that “despite its glossy production and some impressive set pieces, Fountain of Youth can’t overcome a derivative and uninspired story that fails to capture the creativity of the countless action-adventure flicks it cribs from.” It didn’t come cheap.

The cost of movies made in the United States is a closely-guarded secret as studios combine their spending on all their productions in their overall expenses and don’t itemize them individually in their filings. It’s a different story for movies made in the United Kingdom and Fountain of Youth was one of them.

In true treasure hunting style, the movie is a globe-trotting adventure with stops in Bangkok, Vienna, Vatican City and Cairo as well as a brief visit to London. There is good reason for its latter location.

Studios filming in the U.K. benefit from the government’s Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit which gives them a cash reimbursement of up to 25.5% of the money they spend in the country. All they have to do is incur at least 10% of their core costs there and pass a points test proving their worth to the U.K.

The test is based on factors such as how many of the lead actors are from the U.K., how much filming was done in the U.K., the amount of U.K. content and how much it promotes the country’s heritage. The scenes set in London helped Fountain of Youth to pass the test with flying colors and the international filming locations also played a part.

That’s because the reimbursement is calculated on up to 80% of core expenditure which means that in order to get back the maximum 25.5% of the money they spend in the U.K., production companies need to ensure that 20% of their core costs are spent outside the country. If the spending in the U.K. is higher than 80% of the total, the studio doesn’t get a reimbursement on the amount above that level. Likewise, if the amount of spending is less than 80% of the total, the studio is missing out on a reimbursement on it, unless it films in countries abroad which offer a higher refund rate than the U.K.

Bearing this in mind, it’s perhaps no coincidence that Fountain of Youth was filmed on location in Bangkok, Vienna and Cairo as well as at the famed Warner Bros. Studios just outside London where the bulk of the production took place. It lifts the curtain on its spending.

In order to demonstrate to the government that at least 10% of their core costs were spent in the U.K., studios set up a separate Film Production Company (FPC) there for each picture they make in the country. The FPCs have to file legally binding financial statements which reveal everything from the headcount and social security payments of the staff to the amount of reimbursement banked by the studio and the total cost of the production.

It takes a bit of detective work to get to the bottom of it because the FPCs usually have code names to keep the name of the production a secret when it films on location and advertises for casting calls.

Once the code name has been tallied with the film, the financial statements of the relevant FPC can be consulted to reveal the movie’s total costs. There’s no doubt about that as the terms of the reimbursement state that each FPC must be “responsible for pre-production, principal photography/shooting and post-production of the film; and for delivery of the completed film.” In summary, the FPC’s financial statements have to show the production’s entire costs, not just those incurred in the U.K. Studios aren’t allowed to hide costs in other companies either as the terms also state “there can only be one FPC in relation to a film.”

Fountain of Youth was made by Rodney Productions UK and its latest set of financial statements were filed late last week. Dated June 30, 2025 – one month after the premiere of the movie – they reveal that by then a total of $192.8 million (£149.2 million) had been spent on the picture which was “in line with the production budget.”

The filings explain that “the company was established to produce a high-budget, action driven movie for world-wide distribution. The company employed many professionals in a safe and friendly environment that were well compensated and received all relevant benefits.” Testimony to this, one of the biggest single costs disclosed in the filings is the $13.3 million (£10.4 million) spent on the crew which hit a monthly average of 158 people without even including freelancers, contractors and temporary staff as they aren’t listed as employees on the books of British companies even though they often represent the majority of the workers on a film shoot.

That’s not the end of the story though as the company also banked a $29.3 million (£22.8 million) reimbursement along with $1 million (£0.8 million) of overseas incentives and a $3.3 million (£2.6 million) tax credit. All told it brought the net spending on the movie down to $159.2 million though this excludes marketing as that is typically handled by the studio.

Fountain of Youth was made by Skydance Media which can certainly afford it as the studio is controlled by billionaire Oracle scion David Ellison. Just a few months after the release of the movie, Skydance completed an $8 billion merger with Paramount and is now in the final stages of a $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. In comparison, its spending on Fountain of Youth seems like a drop in the ocean.