After making a dent in the television industry with their Amazon original series, specifically with the Golden Globe-winning Transparent, the world’s leading distributor is further expanding their content creation. Now they’re taking on full-length movies with Amazon Original Movies, planning to release them both in the theaters and through their Prime streaming service.
But unlike the longer time that it gets regular movies from their theatrical release to digital video or streaming services, Amazon plans to shorten it to four to eight weeks when it comes to their original content. This will probably be the shortest turnaround time for the industry and might be a precedent for the big studios to hurry up in bringing the movies to viewers homes on-demand. While having the movie stay in the theaters would earn big bucks for some movies, particularly the big blockbuster ones, having them digitally available as soon as possible would in the long run be more financially viable for movie studios and distributors.
Amazon Original Movies will aim to produce “close to twelve movies a year”, which means releasing one movie per month. They also plan to tap filmmakers that normally wouldn’t be able to get a chance with the big studios but have the ability to create movies that will “amaze, excite, and move our fans,” says their head of production, Ted Hope. And having these films available “wherever customers watch” would be a distinct advantage for Amazon’s original content.
Video on demand services have already affected the television industry with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc starting not just to distribute content but to produce original series as well. Let’s see if Amazon Original Movies, slated to start production later this year, will be able to do so for movies as well.
VIA: SlashGear
