Here s something to watch: Amazon says it is going into the business of producing feature films that will be shown at movie theaters, then the company s Prime Instant Video streaming service a month or two afterward.
The news comes on the heels of the company s Transparent original series winning a couple of Golden Globes, announcing that film director Woody Allen will create an original TV series for streaming, plus talk about the company making big bets. Oh, and it s more fodder for investors who are worried that the gigantic company is doing too many things and not making money.
Our goal is to create close to 12 movies a year with production starting later this year, said Roy Price, Amazon Studios vice president, in a press release. Price also indicated that the company hoped to help filmmakers who too often struggle to mount fresh and daring stories that deserve an audience.
Amazon s initiative is the latest, and perhaps biggest, example of subscription services taking streaming entertainment to the silver-screen level. Netflix, which is also spending big on creating original content for its streaming service, announced last year that it is helping to bring the sequel of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to theaters and its own subscribers simultaneously this year.
Whether Amazon s new model works will also depend on the cooperation of movie theaters, which will likely be concerned about movies making their way into people s living rooms so soon after their theatrical release.
