Amazon has already made itself a major player in Hollywood thanks to the original movies it has created, but now it looks like the company wants to take things a step further. It's being reported that Amazon has had talks with major studios about having them produce films that would be released directly on the Prime Video service.
While nobody is officially talking, it appears that Amazon has already had meetings with both Sony and Paramount and Deadline reports it's possible that meetings with other studios have also taken place. The goal of these talks appears to be striking a deal with a major studio in order to get some potentially big existing studio productions released directly to Amazon Prime, similar to what Paramount did earlier this year when it released The Cloverfield Paradox, a previously scheduled theatrical release, directly to Netflix.
While it's far too early to tell if anything is going to come of these meetings, nobody is even admitting they're happening, it's clear that the media landscape is changing in a big way and the major film studios are trying to figure out how they will fit into it. Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Video are now major players and with Disney getting ready to launch its own streaming service, everybody else is going to need to find a way to compete. Putting together a strong partnership with a company like Amazon might make more sense than trying to compete against them.
It also may be a good opportunity for studios to have another option for film releases. It was reported that part of the reason that The Cloverfield Paradox ended up on Netflix is that the studio wasn't confident in its theatrical chances. However, the film certainly found an audience on Netflix so it likely worked out for both parties.
Amazon has had no problem making successful movies on its own. Films like Manchester by the Sea and The Big Sick, which were Amazon Studios productions, received Academy Award nominations and the former film took home awards. However, Amazon probably isn't in a position to make movies on the scale of Sony and Paramount, so having something to compete with the likes of Paradox, or the upcoming Mowgli, will be a benefit for them.
While streaming services started as a place to find your favorite shows and movies, the focus now is on original content. The service that has the new stuff people want to watch is the one that people are going to subscribe to and if it also has movies that look like the sort of thing you'd have to go to the theater to see, so much the better.
