Amazon has been the black sheep in the streaming game.
Before 2014, everything that came out of Amazon's streaming services was considered subpar when compared to Netflix's cable-level program or Hulu's day-after-release-day streaming schedule. However, the release of "Transparent" in 2014 won Amazon the hearts of the LGBT community, as well as two Golden Globes.
It's unsurprising then that, a week after such a monumental success, Amazon would announce its attempt at entering film distribution.
Amazon announced on Monday that it would begin to produce and acquire original films, give them a theatrical release and offer earlier distribution on Amazon Prime Instant Video.
By creating the films themselves, Amazon hopes to profit from the box office as well as shorten the theater-to-streaming-service timeline down. Most films take almost a year to go from the theater to a streaming service, according to the press release. Amazon is shortening that by hosting each new film it creates on Amazon Prime Instant Video within 1-2 months of the film's premiere.
"We look forward to expanding our production efforts into feature films. Our goal is to create close to twelve movies a year with production starting later this year.....Not only will we bring Prime Instant Video customers exciting, unique, and exclusive films soon after a movie's theatrical run, but we hope this program will also benefit filmmakers, who too often struggle to mount fresh and daring stories that deserve an audience," said Roy Price, Amazon Studios' vice president.
Amazon has not announced which projects it is pursuing, or if the projects will receive a wide or select release.
While Amazon makes no mention of it, one must wonder if this project is a response to Netflix's upcoming original content release schedule. Netflix hopes to release Season 3 of "House of Cards" and "Orange is the New Black" in 2015, as well as a Netflix-exclusive release for the sequel to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
A recent survey showed that Netflix is the preferred streaming service, with Netflix being used for 7.7 hours a week over 4.1 hours of Hulu Plus.
