Appian Way Productions

Appian Way Productions

Company type	Private
Industry	Film and television production
Founded	2001 (2001)
Founder	Leonardo DiCaprio
Headquarters	West Hollywood, California , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Leonardo DiCaprio (Founder)
Products	Films, television series, documentaries

Appian Way Productions is a film and television production company based in the United States, established in 2001 by actor and producer Leonardo DiCaprio. The company’s portfolio includes a variety of films, among them Academy Award-winning projects such as The Aviator (2004) and The Revenant (2015), alongside critically acclaimed titles like The Ides of March (2011) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Its television ventures include series like The Right Stuff (2020) for Disney+.

Specializing in documentaries focused on environmental issues, Appian Way collaborated with National Geographic on Before the Flood (2016) and partnered with Netflix on several award-recognized documentaries including Virunga (2014) and Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014). Other Netflix projects produced by the company are How to Change the World (2015), Catching the Sun (2015), and The Ivory Game (2016). The company’s notable productions also encompass The 11th Hour (2007), Sundance Audience Award winner Sea of Shadows (2019), HBO’s Ice on Fire (2019), and And We Go Green (2019).

2001–2010

Founded by Leonardo DiCaprio in 2001 and named after the ancient Roman road, Appian Way Productions debuted with the film The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004). This was followed by the commercially successful biographical film The Aviator (2004), directed by Martin Scorsese, which chronicles Howard Hughes’s life. The movie earned $213.7 million globally against a $110 million budget and secured eleven Academy Award nominations, winning five.

In 2007, Kevin Connolly directed the comedy-drama Gardener of Eden, which received mixed critical responses. That same year, Appian Way released the environmental documentary The 11th Hour, which won the Earthwatch Environmental Film Award. DiCaprio also developed the television series Greensburg, which aired from 2008 to 2010.

Appian Way produced Public Enemies in 2009, a mob drama directed by Michael Mann starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. Despite some historical inaccuracies, the film achieved commercial success. Additionally, the psychological horror film Orphan (2009), co-produced with Dark Castle Entertainment, performed well at the box office despite mixed reviews and criticism from adoption advocacy groups.

Martin Scorsese’s psychological thriller Shutter Island (2010), featuring DiCaprio, was both commercially successful and generally well-received by critics.

2011 onward

In 2011, Appian Way released Catherine Hardwicke’s Red Riding Hood, which had moderate box office results but was met with negative critical reception. Other releases that year included Tony Kaye’s drama Detachment and George Clooney’s political thriller The Ides of March, both of which received favorable reviews.

During 2013, the company produced three films: the crime thriller Runner Runner, the commercially unsuccessful Out of the Furnace, and Martin Scorsese’s biographical film The Wolf of Wall Street, adapted from Jordan Belfort’s memoir. Although banned in several countries due to explicit content, it ranked as the 17th highest-grossing film of 2013 and earned multiple Academy Award nominations.

In 2015, DiCaprio produced and starred in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant, co-produced with Regency Enterprises among others. The film grossed $533 million worldwide on a $135 million budget and won three Academy Awards, including Best Actor for DiCaprio and Best Director.

Appian Way entered into a three-year first-look agreement with Paramount Pictures in May 2016. That year saw the release of Ben Affleck’s gangster drama Live by Night, which underperformed financially, alongside four documentaries including the acclaimed Before the Flood.

Subsequent productions included films such as the television thriller Under the Bed (2017) and supernatural horror Delirium (2017), created in collaboration with Blumhouse Productions.

In 2023, Appian Way produced Robert Kolodny’s directorial debut, The Featherweight, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, as well as Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, distributed through Apple TV+ and Paramount Pictures.

More recently, Appian Way secured first-look deals for documentaries and television projects with Apple, along with a feature film agreement with Sony Pictures. Furthermore, a television adaptation of James Rollins's Sigma Force book series is currently being developed in partnership with Amazon MGM Studios, Appian Way Productions, and other collaborators.

Films

Release Date	Title	Directors	Production Partners	Distributors
December 25, 2004	The Aviator	Martin Scorsese	Forward Pass Intermedia Films Initial Entertainment Group	Warner Bros. Pictures Buena Vista International
December 29, 2004	The Assassination of Richard Nixon	Niels Mueller	Anhelo Productions Esperanto Filmoj	ThinkFilm
April 26, 2007	Gardener of Eden	Kevin Connolly		Virtual Studios
July 24, 2009	Orphan	Jaume Collet-Serra	Dark Castle Entertainment Studio Babelsberg Motion Pictures StudioCanal	Warner Bros. Pictures Kinowelt Filmverleih
February 19, 2010	Shutter Island	Martin Scorsese	Phoenix Pictures Sikelia Productions	Paramount Pictures
March 11, 2011	Red Riding Hood	Catherine Hardwicke		Warner Bros. Pictures
March 16, 2011	Detachment	Tony Kaye		Tribeca Film
October 7, 2011	The Ides of March	George Clooney	Columbia Pictures Smokehouse Pictures Exclusive Media Cross Creek Pictures	Sony Pictures Releasing
October 4, 2013	Runner Runner	Brad Furman	Regency Enterprises New Regency Double Feature Films	20th Century Fox
December 6, 2013	Out of the Furnace	Scott Cooper	Red Granite Pictures Scott Free Productions	Relativity Media
December 25, 2013	The Wolf of Wall Street	Martin Scorsese	Red Granite Pictures Sikelia Productions EMJAG Productions	Paramount Pictures Universal Pictures (Europe)
December 25, 2015	The Revenant	Alejandro González Iñárritu	Regency Enterprises RatPac Entertainment New Regency Anonymous Content M Productions	20th Century Fox
December 25, 2016	Live by Night	Ben Affleck	RatPac-Dune Entertainment Pearl Street Films	Warner Bros. Pictures
May 22, 2018	Delirium	Dennis Iliadis	Blumhouse Productions GK Films	Universal Pictures
November 21, 2018	Robin Hood	Otto Bathurst	Summit Entertainment Safehouse Pictures Thunder Road Films	Lionsgate
December 13, 2019	Richard Jewell	Clint Eastwood	Malpaso Productions Misher Films 75 Year Plan Productions	Warner Bros. Pictures
October 20, 2023	Killers of the Flower Moon	Martin Scorsese	Imperative Entertainment Sikelia Productions Apple Studios	Paramount Pictures Apple TV+
February 2024	Queen of Bones	Robert Budreau	Lumanity Productions Productivity Media	Falling Forward Films
September 20, 2024	The Featherweight	Robert Kolodny	Golden Ratio Films	Tribeca Films
TBA	Billy Summers	TBA	Bad Robot	Warner Bros. Pictures

Television

• Greensburg (2008–2010)
• Under the Bed (2017) – a thriller based on real-life incidents
• Pete the Cat (2018–2022)
• Grant (2020)
• The Right Stuff (2020)
• Shining Girls (2022)