A daily chronicle of creativity in film, TV, music, arts, and entertainment, produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from November 2014 – March 2020. Host John Horn leads the conversation, accompanied by the nation's most plugged-in cultural journalists.
Amazon Studios is rapidly becoming a force in the entertainment industry. The company has already made an impact in television, with award-winning shows including “Transparent” and “Mozart in the Jungle.”
Now, the streaming service is making and acquiring films for theatrical release. Amazon Original Movies released its first movie last year: Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq.” And at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the company acquired six titles, including Kenneth Lonergan's "Manchester by the Sea" and Woody Allen’s new film, “Café Society,” which stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart.
Amazon Original Movies just presented its film slate for this year at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. The Frame’s John Horn spoke with Jason Ropell, the head of global movies at Amazon Studios, and Bob Berney, the studio’s head of marketing and distribution, about how the company plans to make an impact in the film industry.
Having watched a lot of the presentations at CinemaCon, it's easy to identify what studios are doing in terms of their programming philosophy. Disney, for example, has Walt Disney Animation Studios, Marvel, and Lucas Films. For Amazon Original Movies, what are the kinds of films you want to make and distribute?
ROPELL: It's visionary films by visionary filmmakers. I mean, we're just getting started and I'm sure that will develop over time, but for the time being, the thing that's really motivating the decisions that we're making is bringing quality films to our customers primarily in the prestige and independent space.
What was the inspiration for Amazon to get in this business and where do you think you can succeed where other smaller, independent companies have failed?
ROPELL: We're humbled about the things we know and the things that we don't know. I think we're an innovative company, we can experiment in multiple windows or release strategies. We have a built-in pay platform in significant portions of the world, and those are all things that will feed into making this a successful business. We're also a very data-centric company. Data plays a role in all of the decisions that we make and that will likely help us in this business as well.
Meaning that because you know what people watch and buy on Amazon, you know what your audience's taste are. What does that data give you?
ROPELL: It simply tells us what our customers like and that's where we focus.
Every studio has a direct-to-video business. It might be for an animation sequel or genre film, but even the major studios will bypass a theatrical window and just release a film directly into a streaming service or home video. Do you see that being a component of Amazon's product mix?
BERNEY: Not through Amazon Studios Original Movies' program. The movies will all have theatrical releases and mostly traditional. There may be some smaller ones that have some variance, but they'll all be theatrical releases.
One of the things that a lot of people have been talking about in presentations and on the convention floor is the disruption in theatrical business. A lot of that is tied to what is happening with Sean Parker's new business, Screening Room, and what is happening with Netflix. As you guys are trying to get your brand established in the theatrical community, are you having to swim upstream because exhibitors are so weary right now about new media and new platforms? Does that make your job a little bit harder in terms of telling people your story and making sure they understand what sets you guys apart?
BERNEY: I think it makes it a little difficult in the beginning, but I think from the fact that [National Association of Theatre Owners boss] John Fithian and the NATO group invited us here shows that they understand that our message is getting through, that we have a theatrical plan. So I think just the fact that we're here is a lot. There's been some confusion, but I think in showing the movies we've done and taking the actions distributing the films, and showing what we're up to is gonna quickly turn that around.