Amazon.com Inc won several Golden Globe Awards last week for their television series Transparent, and now the online retailer is hoping that an Oscar will also be in their near future. The company announced on Monday that they plan to start producing nearly 12 films a year for theatrical release before releasing them on their Prime video service a mere two months later, a move which may threaten traditional big-screen movie theaters.

Amazon proved throughout last year that they want to start creating digital entertainment content, rather than just distributing it. The company spent an estimated $2 billion on content in 2014, with about $200 million of that used to develop original shows such as Mozart in the Jungle and Transparent. Amazon spokeswoman Sally Fouts revealed Monday that they hope to focus on “indie” movies with budgets of between $5 million and $25 million. Like most of Amazon’s ventures, this development seeks to bolster the company’s underlying retail business, as they plan on released the independent films on their $99 a year Prime video service two months after their theatrical release. Prime makes users wait for roughly one year before they can stream Hollywood releases.

Sony Pictures’ The Interview proved upon its Christmas Day video-on-demand release that films can be successful without a theatrical release, and should Amazon’s film release strategy prove successful, movie theaters may lose out on a significant amount of money. Theater owners are already voicing their concern over the short amount of time audiences would have to wait between an Amazon film’s theatrical release and its release on Prime, since big-screen movie theaters have already been struggling with dwindling audiences and viewers will be less likely to pay for the price of a ticket when they can watch a film online just a few weeks later. National Association of Theater Owners Vice President Patrick Corcoran said the time between theatrical and home video release will likely play a large role on a theater’s decision regarding whether to take a particular film.

Phil Contrino, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com, explained that Amazon’s decision to release their films in theaters rather than just putting them straight onto Prime may be because theatrical releases receive substantially more hype and publicity than other releases.

“At the end of the day a theatrical release still generates a lot of publicity, it gets a movie reviewed – every person that goes to watch that movie is paying for it,” said Contrino.

Jeff Bock, box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations, said that the decision may be because Amazon wants to follow up their first Golden Globes with an Oscar, and only theatrically released films are eligible for an Academy Award.

“The Golden Globes, they got that, now the next step is Oscar nominations,” said Bock.

 

Amazon has hired Ted Hope, a producer of independent movies including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the Academy Award-nominated Eat Drink Man Woman, to spearhead the effort to start making 12 movies a year.