By Jamie Barrie A mazon Studios is a television and film pro- duction distributor that is a subsidiary of Amazon which specializes on developing bold and innovative television series and films to customers all around the world is planning to cast a wider net with its film strategy after seeing several investments flop after moving into self-dis- tribution. Amazon Studios was active at the recent Sundance Film Festival where they secured distribution rights to a number of high-profile films featured at the festival, but it appears as though the company may be making a significant shift when it comes to their feature film release strategy. After failing to break even on several major invest- ments over the past year and a half, Amazon has decided to take a different approach to film lead by Amazon Studios head, Jennifer Salke.
At the 2017 Academy Awards, Amazon Studios became the first streaming service to win Oscars for Manchester by the Sea (Best Screenplay, Kenneth Lonergan and Best Actor, Casey Affleck) and The Salesman (Best Foreign Film). However, Amazon Studios says that they plan to refocus on a variety of movies, some of which will go straight to its streaming service, Prime Video, rather than limit itself to films it hopes they will receive critical acclaim by having them released exclusively to the theaters 90 days before moving them to their streaming platform. Amazon Studios will continue to seek exclusive theater runs for about 10 movies a year. However, it will consider offering the exclusivity to theaters for shorter periods as competition for streaming numbers are ramping up. It appears Amazon Studios aims to put its focus on increasing Amazon Prime membership by enticing viewers with exclu- sive content and bringing movies to its streaming platform more quickly.
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FEBRUARY 2019 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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