He said Amazon would like to begin streaming its own original movies on Amazon Prime Instant Video later this year. But the release strategy will really ramp up next year, in 2016, with a once-a-month goal.
Related: Sundance goes digital: Why it’s a great time to be a filmmaker
The movies are intended to be released in movie theaters first, then streamed on Amazon Prime four to eight weeks later. Price depicted this as a compromise of sorts, a “middle ground” in the tense debate about the future of movie distribution.
“There’s gotta be a balance,” Price said. “There’s a real role for theatrical … but the people who are making the argument that films should come into digital soon are totally right! Of course it should. Certainly it should come to digital sooner. So this is our attempt to try to find the middle ground.”
It remains to be seen if movie theaters — particularly the big chains that control most of the country’s movie screens — will support the plan.
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