Doug Liman still has a bone to pick with Amazon MGM Studios over the events surrounding “Road House,” but he and others could put that animosity to rest if Amazon is as serious about expansion as it suggests in town.
As Reuters first reported, Amazon and MGM plan to increase their number to 16 theatrical releases by 2027, which a source familiar with the film told IndieWire is accurate.
That’s more than double the companies’ current slate of just six theatrical titles for 2024. The 16 titles also don’t include films Amazon would release outside the U.S., films it might acquire from other studios (sometimes in the 5-6 film range), and even the films it plans to release directly to streaming on Prime Video.
This would be a significant increase in production, and 16 releases (it’s unclear and unlikely that these would all be wide releases) would put them close to traditional Hollywood studios like Universal Pictures, as well as help compete with Netflix’s overall film output.
The Reuters article quotes Amazon Prime Video chief Mike Hopkins as saying Amazon’s ambition to become a true media company, more than just a perk for Amazon Prime subscribers who want free next-day delivery. He said the vision came from Jeff Bezos himself.
“We don’t want to show this audience ‘Saltburn’ and then nothing else for six months,” Hopkins told Reuters.
Amazon’s expansion ambitions have been made abundantly clear recently with its aggressive push into live sports, including the “Thursday Night Football” deal with the NFL and the just-signed 11-year deal with the NBA. Amazon also recently switched all Prime Video users to its ad-based plan, securing an ever-larger share of the global ad spend pie.
But the company’s cinematic ambitions were less clear. As early as 2022, there were reports that the company was looking to invest $1 billion in cinemas after acquiring MGM for $8.5 billion and hiring film chief Courtenay Valenti from Warner Bros. Ben Affleck’s “Air,” which grossed $90 million at the box office worldwide before hitting Prime Video, proved to be the first test case for Amazon’s experiment: taking star-studded films and putting them in theaters to give them a marketing boost before they hit streaming. Apple has done the same thing, but partnered with other distributors, and Netflix has gone even further in the opposite direction.
But now Amazon has recently partnered with former Netflix boss Scott Stuber and his new production company to produce feature films under the old United Artists label, filling a need it was never really able to satisfy at Netflix. United Artists used to release the James Bond films, and you can bet those films will end up in theaters when the franchise restarts.
Amazon’s theatrical releases this year include the upcoming film “Blink Twice” starring Channing Tatum, the Christmas film “Red One” starring Dwayne Johnson, the Sundance-acquired film “My Old Ass” and the documentary “Frida.” Films such as “Project Hail Mary” starring Ryan Gosling and “Hedda” directed by Nia DaCosta are expected to hit theaters, while “The Accountant 2” starring Affleck is set to be released exclusively as a streaming film.
“We’re not just trying to build a single subscription service – I think we’ve proven we can play a much broader game,” Hopkins told Reuters. “We’re well on our way to becoming a standalone, quite profitable company.”
