Amazon MGM Studios Distribution To Launch At LA Screenings

Jesse Whittock
·5 min read

Amazon Studios is launching Amazon MGM Studios Distribution.

The worldwide distribution division will see Amazon originals and MGM library titles, which number 4,000 film titles and 17,000 TV episodes.

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At launch the division will offer Amazon Originals including 7500, All the Old Knives, Bliss, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Coming 2 America, I Want You Back, The Tender Bar, The Tomorrow War, The Voyeurs, and Without Remorse. Television titles include Goliath, Hunters and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel — notably this is the first time the latter could be syndicated domestically or shopped internationally.

It will also handle sales of the James Bond, Rocky and Creed franchises and series The Handmaid’s Tale, Vikings, Fargo and the upcoming Hotel Cocaine from MGM+.

Chris Ottinger, who’s led the distribution team at MGM for several years, will lead the unit, reporting to Brad Beale, VP Worldwide Licensing & Distribution, Amazon and MGM Studios, who in turn reports to Jen Salke, Head of Amazon and MGM Studios.

Ottinger told Deadline the unit would focus primarily on “flexible bundles,” which will allow his team to offer buyers handpicked content and not tie them to shows and films they might not want as part of rigid packages.

“Pioneering the distribution of Amazon Originals for Amazon Studios is an exciting opportunity to bring fresh, never-before available quality content to audiences around the globe.  In doing so, we will break through the current sales mold by creating custom packages that will fulfill our client’s individual content needs,” said Ottinger.

Amazon Studios says licensing these properties “generates significant third-party licensing and transactional revenue for the studio.”

Sales of the new content will launch out of LA Screenings, with Amazon MGM Studios Distribution holding presentations on Friday, May 19 and Monday, May 22 at Amazon Studios’ home in Culver City.

In many cases, this marks the first time the titles have hit the open market — though Amazon has distributed some shows before on a smaller scale. Amazon Originals have tended to stay exclusive on the SVOD platform but can now be sold to streamers and broadcasters around the world. Many of the major U.S. studios have been turning to mixed models of streaming and licensing over the past year, as they look to make content economics work.

Ottinger has led various iterations of MGM sales units. He said that his execs had sometimes “struggled to get fresh content” for the market but Amazon MGM Studios Distribution would offer a more “contemporary operation” of streaming originals and library shows and films. Besides the U.S. product, has plans to add Hindi-language Amazon originals to the catalog, and will be selling films such as the Spanish-language Argentina, 1985.

Amazon acquired MGM last year for $8.5B.

“If you look back at what we did at MGM, the distribution business was focused on driving a really high EBITDA as we pushed for a sale,” he said. “We were really active in areas where we could find good margins such as film sales and it grew a lot over that time period. That strategy was great for MGM in the late 20-teens — the shareholders got the value they wanted with the sale — and we now have had to look at the business and think about what a distribution business looks like as a more contemporary operation with capital deployed into original products.”

Asked about distributing Amazon Originals to other streamers and broadcasters, Ottinger said: “Amazon has a global retail customers bases and we can reach those customers, who consume media 100 different ways. If we can reach them through third parties, that’s a virtuous circle. Once we thought the logic through it was a no brainer.

“I’m not sure if Amazon ever had the viewpoint that content should be warehoused,” he added. “It’s certainly a concept for some of the key players, but Amazon did distribution of some originals and tested the water at different times. The challenge for my team is getting the amazing Amazon content into the ecosystem.”

Differentiating themselves in the marketplace, the Amazon MGM Studios Distribution team will offer clients the flexibility to create bundles that will work in their territory.

“We heard through the grapevine some are offering structured products without flexibility,” said Ottinger. “That’s not our model. We want to be great partners and we can be flexible. The output concept is against the core Amazon value of being customer obsessed. We want to be the best partner and I’m looking forwards to the Screenings.

“What we’re trying to do is get a sense of where the demand is. It’s the first time we’ve brought this content to market. Our sales team and colleagues in the studio have developed this list and where we think the demand will be but do we really know? We have some guesses and have thought about it and forecasted but buyers haven’t had the product before. We’re only going to know how it works when it gets on air, so we have to be flexible.”

“The launch of Amazon MGM Studios Distribution reinforces our commitment to bringing the very best content to audiences everywhere worldwide,” said Salke. “With the integration of MGM, we wanted to take advantage of the existing team to expand our business in ways that will greatly benefit our customers around the world.”

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