Amazon Studios is the original content production and distribution arm of 📝Amazon, founded in November 2010 and headquartered in Culver City, California. A wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), the studio develops, produces, and distributes original films and television series for global audiences through 📝Amazon Prime Video — available in more than 240 countries and territories — as well as for theatrical release and Freevee, Amazon's free streaming service. It was formally rebranded as Amazon MGM Studios in October 2023.
Amazon Studios launched with a crowdsourcing model that invited open screenplay submissions, which 📝Jeff Bezos described as a "scientific studio" approach. After finding that model inadequate for producing competitive content, the studio shifted to a traditional Hollywood approach — signing first-look deals with established creators and acquiring high-profile projects. Transparent (2014) became the first streaming series to win an Emmy for lead actor, and in 2017 Manchester by the Sea made Amazon the first streaming service to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. The defining strategic move came in 2022 with the $8.45 billion acquisition of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which delivered a library of over 4,000 films and 17,000 TV episodes — including the James Bond and Rocky franchises — and prompted the October 2023 rebrand to Amazon MGM Studios. Notable original series include The Boys, Reacher, 📝The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Fleabag, and Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan.