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Behind Apple and Amazon’s Billion-Dollar Bet on Movie Theaters
Two of the world’s largest technology companies are counting on a 100-year-old idea to help their streaming services.
By Lucas Shaw 27 maart 2023
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Why Apple and Amazon are now embracing theaters
The simplest answer for Apple and Amazon is that they had to promise a theatrical release in order to win certain projects. Like Netflix before them, Apple and Amazon are still proving themselves as movie distributors.
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But talent relations isn’t the only reason for these tech giants to use theaters. There is a compelling business rationale as well: marketing.

Apple TV+ has about one-eighth as many users as Netflix. Amazon’s video service accounts for less than half of the viewership of Netflix in the US. If you are going to spend nine figures on a single movie and you don’t have a large and engaged streaming audience, you need to find a way to make sure more people see the film.
When studios release movies in theaters, they tend to spend millions of dollars to promote the title and drive people to leave their homes opening weekend. That generates awareness for the title, which often benefits the film when it appears on streaming service a month or two later.

Marketing is a big reason most people in Hollywood still believe movies need a theatrical release to be an “event.”
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-03-26/why-apple-amazon-are-making-1-billion-bets-on-movie-theaters