Markets & Business
Amazon says Prime Video revenue run rate hits tens of billions
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Prime Video's revenue run rate has reached the tens of billions of dollars and that the streaming service is now profitable on its own.
Prime Video “has emerged as a significant business with a revenue run rate in the tens of billions of dollars and is now profitable in its own right,” Jassy said on Amazon’s quarterly earnings call Thursday. Jassy first told investors in May that the service had turned profitable; the tens-of-billions run rate is new this quarter.
Four years after Amazon bought MGM for $8.5 billion, the studio is paying off. Amazon MGM Studios has pulled in over $1.2 billion in global box-office revenue this year, led by Project Hail Mary — fronted by Ryan Gosling in an adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel, it became the studio’s highest-grossing release, with The Numbers estimating its worldwide gross at an estimated $684 million — and by Verity. The year wasn’t without a miss: Melania was a notable flop.
On the TV side, Jassy pointed to Reacher, Fallout, The Boys, Carrie, Off Campus and The Summer I Turned Pretty as the service’s hits; Reacher’s fourth season pulled in 66 million global viewers over its first 28 days, with a fifth season now filming. Prime Video also carries NASCAR, the Masters golf tournament, and UEFA Champions League soccer matches, but Thursday Night Football has been the biggest hit this year, with its first six games averaging 17.7 million viewers, up 16% year over year, per Nielsen. Its second season of NBA coverage drew more than 2 million viewers, per Nielsen.
Why it matters
A newly disclosed run rate in the tens of billions reframes Prime Video from a subscriber perk into a standalone profit center for Amazon, adding weight to streaming and live sports as drivers of the company’s next growth phase.