Apple Studios has made another big play to help it get a bigger footing in the movie business as it looks to compete against Netflix, Disney+, and others. The company has signed a multi-year deal with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment to make more movies that will be exclusive to Apple TV+, according to Deadline.

　　This is a "first-look" deal, meaning Apple gets first right of refusal before Grazer and Howard are allowed to shop their projects to different studios.

　　Imagine Entertainment is a juggernaut in the film industry, responsible for movies over multiple decades such as 8 Mile, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man, American Gangster, The Da Vinci Code, and many others. Most recently, Imagine closed a deal with Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, and Joel Edgerton for the new movie Thirteen Lives about the Thai cave rescue in 2018.

　　Over 36 years since its founding, Imagine's movies have collectively earned 43 Oscar nominations and 198 Emmy nominations. Howard and Grazer won Oscars for A Beautiful Mind in 2001.

　　This is just the latest big get for Apple Studios, as the company is also working with Martin Scorsese on a new movie called Killers of the Flower Moon starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. Apple also recently announced a new Brie Larson TV show, while it also paid many millions of dollars to acquire new movies from Will Smith and Joaquin Phoenix.

　　Outside of these, Apple TV+ is ramping up its animation studios by signing a deal with the former head of Pixar's new company.