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.[2] It was started in late 2010.[2] Content is distributed through Amazon Video, Amazon’s digital video streaming service, and is a competitor to services like Netflix and Hulu.[3]
Scripts for television and film are submitted through the web.[4] They are reviewed and rated by other readers in a crowd-source fashion, and/or by Amazon staff.[4] Scripts may be submitted with the option to allow other people to modify them.[5] In addition there is a separate submission method for professional writers (Writers Guild of America members) with separate rules.[5]
Amazon has 45 days to choose a submitted script. If a project is chosen for development, the writer receives $10,000.[4] If a developed script is selected for distribution as a full-budget movie, the creator gets $200,000; if it is selected for distribution as a full-budget series, the creator gets $55,000 as well as "up to 5 percent of Amazon’s net receipts from toy and t-shirt licensing, and other royalties and bonuses." [6]
In 2008, Amazon expanded into film production, producing the film The Stolen Child with 20th Century Fox.[7] In July 2015, Amazon announced it had acquired Spike Lee's new film, Chi-Raq, as its first Amazon Original Movie.[8]
Amazon Studios had received more than 10,000 feature screenplay submissions as of September 2012,[2] and 2,700 television pilots as of March 2013.[9] 23 films and 26 television series were in active development as of March 2013.[2][4] In late 2016, it reorganised it film division into Prime Movies[10]
Amazon Studio's first and only comic book series was Blackburn Burrow released in 2012 as a free download.[2] It contained a survey allowing Amazon to collect feedback to determine if it was worthwhile to make the comic into a film.[2] The survey was incentivized with an Amazon gift certificate.[2]
