Online retailer Amazon announced in 2010 that it would start providing original television shows and movies. Thus, Amazon Studios was born, with their content distributed through Prime Video.
Amazon Studios existed in its earliest form as Amazon Unbox, which later became Prime Video. Like competitor Netflix, they began producing their own original content in 2013, with Prime serving as the distribution service for works created by Amazon Studios.
Though their focus was originally on episodic television, Amazon began producing and co-distributing films in 2015, with Spike Lee's Chi-Raq —co-distributed by Roadside Attractions— serving as their inaugural release. But unlike Netflix, which (with some exceptions) exclusively screens their own original movies on the service itself, films produced by Amazon Studios were typically first distributed in theaters, and later made available on Prime Video. This makes them eligible for contention by major awards organizations, which Netflix has since (partly) adopted to make their own productions award contenders.
The biggest beneficiary of this model to date is perhaps 2016's Manchester by the Sea, which won star Casey Affleck over 40 acting accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Actor, as well Best Original Screenplay for Kenneth Lonergan. As well, The Salesman, with Cohen Media Group, went on to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2017.
In 2017, Amazon began distributing many of its productions on its own, beginning with Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel* . However, this resulted in a string of box office failures that led the company to begin adopting Netflix's streaming-first model more frequently. With the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Amazon Studios has shifted almost entirely to a digital strategy, even picking up intended-for-theatrical films from other studios such as Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and Coming 2 America - the former of which became their first film (and the first streaming original film) to win a Best Picture Golden Globe Award.
Following the announcement of Amazon's then-impending acquisition of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the label's future is in flux as it remains to be seen whether the two entities will merge. In 2023, Amazon Studios was renamed to Amazon MGM Studios after consolidating MGM's parent with Amazon Studios.
Film series produced by Amazon Studios
- Paddington (2014) (with StudioCanal)
- Paddington 2 (2017)
- Shin Japan Heroes Universe (with Studio Khara, Toho, Toei Company, and Tsuburaya Productions)
- Rebuild of Evangelion (with Studio Khara, Toho, and Toei Company; 2021 streaming release)
- Evangelion:1.11 You Are (Not) Alone. (2007)
- Evangelion:2.22 You Can (Not) Advance. (2009)
- Evangelion:3.33 You Can (Not) Redo. (2012)
- Evangelion:3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time (2021)
- Shin Ultraman (with Toho, Tsuburaya Productions, and Studio Khara; 2022)note
- Daicon Film's Return of Ultraman (with Daicon Film, Studio Khara, and Tsuburaya Productions; 1983)note
- Shin Kamen Rider (with Studio Khara and Toei Company; 2023) note
- Rebuild of Evangelion (with Studio Khara, Toho, and Toei Company; 2021 streaming release)
- Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015) (with Aardman Animations and StudioCanal)
- Farmageddon: A Shaun the Sheep Movie (2019)
- Welcome To The Blumhouse (with Blumhouse Productions; 2020-)
Individual films produced by Amazon Studios
- Air (with Skydance Sports; 2023)
- Annette (2021)
- Beautiful Boy (2018)
- The Big Sick (with Lionsgate; 2017)
- Black Box (with Blumhouse Productions; 2020)
- Being the Ricardos (2021)
- Bliss (2021)
- Blow The Man Down (2020)
- Bones & All (with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros.; 2022)note
- Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe To American Regime For Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2020)
- Boxing Day (in the US; 2021)
- Café Society (with Lionsgate; 2016)
- Candy Cane Lane (2023)
- Cinderella (with Sony Pictures; 2021)
- Coming 2 America (with Paramount Pictures; 2021)
- Cold War (2018)
- Daisuke Jigen (with TMS Entertainment; 2023)
- Deep Water (with Regency Enterprises; 2022)note
- Die Hart: The Movie (re-edit of the Quibi series, 2023)
- The Dressmaker (with Broad Green Pictures; 2016)
- The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)
- Emergency (2022)
- Everybody's Talking About Jamie (with Regency Enterprises; 2021)
- Everything Everywhere All at Once (with A24, 2022)note
- Catherine Called Birdy (2022) (2022)
- Get Duked (2020)
- Gringo (with STX Entertainment; 2018)
- The Handmaiden (with Magnolia Pictures; 2016)
- Honey Boy (with Automatik, Stay Gold Features and Delirio Films; 2019)
- Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (with Sony Pictures; 2022)
- I Care a Lot (2021)note
- I Know What You Did Last Summer (2021 Series)
- I'm Your Woman (2020)
- I Am Not Your Negro (with Magnolia Pictures; 2017)
- Last Flag Flying (with Lionsgate; 2017)
- Late Night (with Sony Pictures International; 2019)
- The Lie (with Blumhouse Productions; 2020)
- The Lost City of Z (with Bleecker Street; 2017)
- Manchester by the Sea (with Roadside Attractions; 2016)
- The Map Of Tiny Perfect Things
- Master (with Animal Kingdom and Big Indie Pictures; 2022)
- Merry Little Batman (with Warner Bros. Animation, 2023)
- My Policeman (2022)
- My Spy (with STX Entertainment; 2020)
- The Neon Demon (with Broad Green Pictures; 2016)
- One Night in Miami... (2020)
- Paterson (with Bleecker Street; 2016)
- Red, White & Royal Blue (2023)
- The Report (with VICE Studios; 2019)
- Run Sweetheart Run (with Blumhouse Productions; 2022)
- The Salesman (with Cohen Media Group; 2017)
- Samaritan (with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; 2022)
- Shotgun Wedding (with Lionsgate; 2023)
- Somebody I Used to Know (2023)
- Sound of Metal (2019)
- Suspiria (2018)
- Sylvie's Love (2020)
- Ten Little Mistresses (2023)
- The Tomorrow War (with Paramount Pictures, 2021)
- Thirteen Lives (with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 2022)
- Troop Zero (2019)
- Uncle Frank (2020)
- Val (2021)
- The Vast of Night (2020)
- The Voyeurs (2021)
- The Wall (with Roadside Attractions; 2017)
- Watcher (with IFC Films; 2022)
- Wiener-Dog (with IFC Films; 2016)
- Without Remorse (with Paramount Pictures; 2021)
- Wonder Wheel (2017)
- You Were Never Really Here (2018)
