Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios Is the First New MPA Member Since Netflix in 2019
Last month, Amazon vowed it would put 16 films in theaters, annually, by 2027. Today, the company’s Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios put their money where their mouths are as (collectively) the seventh member of the MPA (Motion Picture Association).
The Amazon companies will formally join the MPA on October 1, when together they will make up the first addition to the group since Netflix came aboard five years ago. The other current MPA members are Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros. Discovery.
In recent years, the two richest companies in the streaming-video space (and pretty much any space), Amazon and Apple, have faced faced scrutiny over their respective commitments to theatrical — including from their own filmmakers, like Amazon/MGM’s “Road House 2” director Doug Liman. Netflix has become a known quantity in terms of its own commitment to theatrical movie releases, which is to say basically zero commitment.
While the MPA is a big supporter of theatrical, it’s not exactly NATO — the actual National Association of Theater Owners — though they once served pretty much the same purpose. The MPA only started to concern itself with TV and streaming in 2019, the same year Netflix joined the team. That’s no coincidence.
Today’s MPA calls itself “the voice of the film and television industry,” and Prime Video is very, very much entrenched in at least the TV part. Though Amazon MGM Studios releases films both theatrically and straight-to-streaming, some recent distribution changes in favor of Prime Video have raised an eyebrow within the industry. But to add some more context: Amazon MGM has put nine films into theaters thus far in 2024, Paramount has released six.
The MPA’s primary mission in recent years has been leading the charge against content piracy. More broadly, the MPA works to “advance the industry, protect members’ content, defend the creative and artistic freedoms of storytellers, and support innovative distribution models that expand viewing choices for audiences everywhere,” according to its mission statement.
Amazon has had some involvement with the MPA before: it was been a governing board member of the membership group’s Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the anti-piracy coalition, since 2017. And MGM is certainly no stranger: the studio was a member of the MPA from 1928 until 2005.
Amazon purchased MGM in 2022 for $8.5 billion.
“The MPA is the global voice for a growing and evolving industry, and welcoming Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios to our ranks will broaden our collective policymaking and content protection efforts on behalf of our most innovative and creative companies,” Charles Rivkin, chairman and CEO of the MPA, said in a statement to press. “MPA studios fuel local economies, drive job creation, enrich cultures, and bolster communities everywhere they work. With Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios among our roster of extraordinary members, the MPA will have an even larger voice for the world’s greatest storytellers.”
Rivkin, who has led the MPA for seven years now, holds a regular keynote at CinemaCon — the annual convention for theater owners in which the major (and sometimes even independent) studios show off their coming slates of feature films.
“Amazon’s mission is to entertain customers around the world with compelling film and television. In order to do that, we must support storytellers, while also helping to sustain a robust entertainment industry that works for both studios and our creative partners,” Mike Hopkins, the head of Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios, added. “We are proud to join the MPA and its member studios in their collective efforts to protect creators, content, and consumers worldwide.”
