Amazon Studios to cut back on indie films in programming shift: report

San Francisco/New York: Amazon.com Inc, which has made waves in recent years buying art-house movies at the Sundance Film Festival, is heading to the prestigious event this week with a long-term change in the works: It plans to shift resources from independent films to more commercial projects, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Amazon expects to go after films with budgets in the $50 million range at the expense of indie projects costing around $5 million, one person familiar with the plans said on the condition of anonymity. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, recently told at least one industry executive that it is business as usual at the movie studio, a person familiar with the matter said. Still, several filmmakers were surprised recently when the studio turned away a handful of projects with budgets up to $6 million, which they believed fit the mould of Amazon’s 2017 hit The Big Sick, another person familiar with the matter said.