Amazon MGM Studios is doubling down on its original film business.
The studio arrives at MIPCOM Cannes with nearly all its eggs in Earth Abide‘s basket, an original series starring Alexander Ludwig (Vikings) and Jessica Frances Dukes (Ozark). The show is a post-apocalyptic tale, based on George R. Stewart’s 1949 novel, about the fall of civilization from deadly disease — which Chris Ottinger, president of worldwide distribution and acquisitions at MGM, says represents “a lot of the feeling of now, when it’s a very strange time to be on this earth.”
The executive sat down with The Hollywood Reporter in Cannes to discuss the studio’s slate of shows and films getting their distribution launch at MIPCOM including the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Accountant 2 and the sequel to A Simple Favor.
What the team at Amazon has really discovered in recent years is their original titles are enjoying success with the broadcasters comparable to theatrically released projects. Ottinger cites 2021 apocalyptic film The Tomorrow War, starring Chris Pratt, which surprised the studio with an impressive run three years after it first premiered. On France’s TF1, The Tomorrow War outperformed Aquaman, Wonder Woman: 1984, and Black Widow. In Spain, it beat Terminator: Dark Fate, The King’s Man and Fast & Furious 9.
“These movies were older, they weren’t theatrically released, and yet they performed the same way that big theatrical titles perform,” Ottinger tells THR. “So it was our learnings from this that made us think we should really double down on our film business.”
He continued: “We have an incredible film slate. Courtenay Valenti leads our film division and she’s an amazing executive. We have an interesting hybrid model, where we’re releasing theatrically but then quickly going to streaming.”
The momentum is firmly with Amazon’s original films, with the studio already bringing their 2025 slate to the MIPCOM market this year. “That’s a huge push,” Ottinger added. “The data is super clear. We know they work really well for our broadcasters. It works well for us on the service, so we prioritize that. And we went super hard. That was a really big initiative, and we’re a big company, so it’s a robust decision making process with a lot of discussion.”
Probed on the kind of demographic Amazon wants to hone in on and cultivate off the back of their service data analysis, Ottinger said: “Younger and female audiences.” He names The Idea of You, which released in March with Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine, as a huge indicator of the ripe soil in female audiences and female-led stories. “The Idea of You worked incredibly well for us, so we are developing that space quite a bit,” he said. “The Summer I Turned Pretty, too, is a good example.”
“The younger audience is the hardest one to catch,” he continued. “We know that they’re spending a lot on TikTok and YouTube. How do we catch them in our service? So we’re making a real effort to make programming that’s really relevant for younger audiences as well, so that product can find a home somewhere overseas.”
The company is also pushing hard on its local originals, producing around 120 local series and movies a year across all territories. “These shows, they’re performing very well on our service, and they’re highly targeted for those home countries,” Ottinger said. “One of the things that’s been critical for us in this process of broadening our distribution strategy is really listening to our clients, and we we absolutely say to them: ‘Tell us what you want, and then we’ll see if we can clear it, if it makes sense to clear it.’ So we’ve done a lot of that, and what we hear a lot is: ‘Local originals.’”
“And so that’s a big push for us right now, bringing our local original content to market. We’re doing a ton of work internally on that right now.”
