Amazon Vs. Netflix: The Battle For Hollywood’s Biggest Hits
Hindsight may be 20/20, but foresight is tough to measure. How does anyone in the ever-fluid entertainment media industry properly assess and predict a future that is defined by constant change? To some degree, it’s impossible. But in other ways, an understanding of what is happening and what will happen can provide enough runway to prepare, adapt and evolve. Right now, Amazon Prime Video is a great example of that.
For years, Amazon has enjoyed a mutually beneficial Pay One live-action film output deal with Universal Studios. This deal saw successful movies such as Oppenheimer and Five Nights at Freddy’s arrive on the platform after four months on Peacock and garner notable viewership. However, starting in 2027, these films will join Universal’s animated output on Netflix. But Amazon, recognizing it was losing a key asset to a chief rival, has worked to get out ahead of this change and mitigate its fallout.
When looking at total on platform catalog demand, which measures both original and licensed films and TV series, Amazon managed to leapfrog Max and Hulu for second place in the U.S. last year, according to Parrot Analytics. One of the main engines behind this growth was the jump in demand share for Prime Video’s movie catalog (6.8% to 10.7%), which overtook Netflix to become the most in-demand movie library in the U.S. Already the largest SVOD movie catalog domestically, Amazon grew its film library by a whopping 71.7% throughout 2024. For comparison, Peacock enjoyed the second-largest increase in movie library volume last year at 17.8%.
Prime Video’s growth is a mixture of original SVOD and theatrical investment via in-demand films like Challengers, The Idea of You, Road House and Red One. Strategic licensing also plays a role as Terrifier, Terrifier 2 and Gladiator all punched above their weight on Amazon driven by new theatrical sequels in 2024. The company has also moved to secure new theatrical licensing deals with studios such as Lionsgate to help replace some of the lost Universal product.
Overall, movies are integral to Amazon Prime Video's strategy. Over the first three quarters of 2024, films generated 36.3% of the platform's measured streaming subscriber revenue in that span, according to Parrot Analytics Streaming Economics. This U.S. market share is second only to Peacock’s during that interval.
Though excluded from these measurements, Amazon’s position as a go-to third-party re-seller of movies in video on demand window further accentuates the medium’s importance to the platform. There’s no telling what impact the loss of Universal’s live-action movies may have. But what we can say for sure is that Amazon has worked hard to get out in front of the problem by bolstering its film coffers.
