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Last weekend Amazon got 3 Oscars, which is a first in Amazon Studios history. While everybody is talking about the Academy Awards messed-up Best movie, at LuxuryActivist we were impressed to see how digital is now becoming the new Hollywood. Amazon Studios had 2 movies in the Oscars competition:
- Manchester by the Sea
- The Salesman
With these 2 movies, Amazon Studios won 3 Oscars. With Manchester by the Sea, they won Best Male Actor with Casey Affleck and Best Screenplay. With The Salesman, Amazon Studios won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. It is the first time a Digital player wins an Oscar. It shows that the world is shifting and that digital audio-visual world is taking over.
Amazon Studios is a division of Amazon.com, that focuses on developing television shows, distributing and producing films, and comics from online submissions and crowd-sourced feedback. It was started in late 2010. Content is distributed through Amazon Video, Amazon’s digital video streaming service, and is a competitor to services like Netflix and Hulu. Already in 2015, Transparent was the first show produced by Amazon Studios to win a major award and the first show produced by a streaming media service to win a Golden Globe for Best Series. Amazon’s founder and CEO is Jeff Bezos. He is the 5th richest man on earth and he definitely enjoyed his night at the Oscars.
Another remarquable fact is the Netflix trailer for one of the most expected incoming movies of this year: BRIGHT. The new movie features an amazing casting:
- Will Smith
- Joel Edgerton
- Noomi Rapace
The chosen Director is David Ayer, same director as Suicide Squad and the screenplay is signed by Max Landis. Netflix invested USD$ 90 million to produce this movie. Netflix evolution is very interesting. After distributing other’s content, they started producing their own original content. First with TV series like House of Cards or Orange is the new Black. Both series were a tremendous success, which allowed Netflix to pursuit its path as independent producer. The step into the movies business was then an easy one. We assume that with all the incoming productions about original content, at one point Netflix might get its Oscar one day.
Netflix became a worldwide giant in terms of content distribution and production. Here are some key numbers about Netflix:
- Netflix was founded in 1997
- 1999: year of distribution launch
- 2002: year of Netflix IPO
- Number of total subscribers : 93.8 Million (February 2017)
- Number of Netflix users outside the US: 47%
- Number of hours Netflix users watched in 2016: 45 billion streaming hours
- 57% of new users cite the main reason is “Original programming”
- Netflix users avoid about 160 hours of ads per year
- Amount Netflix will invest in 2017 in original content: USD$ 6 Billion
- Netflix is worth USD$ 60 Billion
Giants from digital are taking over the off-line world. After being a strong distribution channel, companies like Amazon and Netflix realized that Content is all! Who owns the content owns the power. With a distribution market place that has the size of the world, nothing can block Amazon or Netflix to start their own Hollywood. Probably the next challenge would be the “eight-o-clock-news”, meaning the development of news thanks to the powerful platforms. Let’s see next year to whom the Oscar will go to.
José Amorim
Info sourced at the Oscars night, companies respective websites, wikipedia, Forbes, L2 Think Tank, GeekWire, Journal du Geek and Business Advisor. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only.
