Amazon Says Prime Video Is Profitable at Tens-of-Billions Scale

By Olivia Hart

Amazon paid $8.5 billion for MGM four years ago, and CEO Andy Jassy said Thursday that Prime Video now has a revenue run rate in the tens of billions of dollars.

How large is Prime Video’s business?

On the quarterly earnings call, Jassy said 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.”

The disclosure extends what Jassy told investors in May, when he said Prime Video was profitable. The new element is the scale: a revenue run rate measured in tens of billions, rather than a simple declaration of profitability.

Amazon did not disclose an exact revenue figure, profit amount, subscriber count or content cost. The source also did not define the period or accounting behind the run rate. Investors therefore have management’s conclusion without the inputs needed to test its durability.

Amazon has put a large-scale profitability claim on the record, but has not disclosed enough data to test it.

What is driving Amazon MGM Studios?

Amazon said Amazon MGM Studios has booked more than $1.2 billion in global box-office sales so far this year. The figure covers theatrical releases and does not represent Prime Video streaming revenue, so the two billion-dollar metrics should not be added or compared as like-for-like measures.

Hits including Project Hail Mary and Verity helped Amazon MGM Studios reach that total. Project Hail Mary grossed an estimated $684 million worldwide, according to The Numbers. Starring Ryan Gosling and based on Andy Weir’s novel, the film opened in theaters in March and became Amazon MGM Studios’ highest-grossing release, according to entertainment reports.

The account also identified Melania as at least one notable flop, although the source supplied no box-office figure for it. That caveat matters because a few breakout releases can lift a studio’s annual total without establishing consistent returns across its entire slate.

Project Hail Mary supplied the clearest proof of theatrical scale, while weaker releases keep the studio’s record uneven.

Which television hits support the service?

Jassy identified the following television shows as hits:

• Carrie
• The Summer I Turned Pretty
• The Boys
• Off Campus
• Fallout
• Reacher

Amazon said Season 4 of Reacher drew 66 million viewers globally in its first 28 days, with more to come. A simple daily average would be about 2.4 million viewers, but Amazon provided no weekly distribution or definition of unique viewers. That distinction limits how precisely the company can support its audience narrative.

Amazon is filming Season 5 now and has picked up the show for a sixth season. The production and extension keep Reacher in Prime Video’s pipeline, although neither guarantees the same audience for later seasons.

The account also highlighted Reacher star Alan Ritchson’s friendly, witty replies on Threads, although it offered no evidence that that attention produced measurable revenue.

Reacher supplies the strongest disclosed audience base, while the other cited shows have no comparable figures in the source.

What do sports add to Prime Video?

The earnings-call account identifies sports as another significant driver. Prime Video’s live portfolio includes:

• NASCAR
• The Masters
• UEFA Champions League soccer

Thursday Night Football appears to be Prime Video’s biggest sports success this year. The first six games of the season averaged 17.7 million viewers, up 16% from last year, according to Nielsen figures Amazon shared.

The reported gain implies roughly 2.4 million more viewers per game than last year’s average. That is a meaningful increase, but the figures do not show how much of the audience came from existing Amazon customers or whether viewing produced higher subscription and advertising revenue.

Nielsen also said the second season of the NBA on Prime attracted more than 2 million viewers. The basketball figure carries less context: the source does not specify whether it represents a cumulative total, a weekly audience or unique viewers, making it less comparable with the disclosed Thursday Night Football average.

Sports give Prime Video large live audiences, but only Thursday Night Football has a disclosed average and year-over-year trend.

What has the $8.5 billion MGM deal proved?

Amazon’s earnings-call account portrayed Hollywood as a lucrative business for the e-commerce giant. Yet the disclosed measures mix box-office gross, streaming revenue and audience counts, so they cannot be stacked into a single profitability case.

Project Hail Mary produced an estimated $684 million in theatrical gross, Reacher drew 66 million global viewers, and Thursday Night Football averaged 17.7 million. Those figures show reach. They do not reveal Prime Video’s profit margin, subscriber economics, content spending or return on the $8.5 billion MGM acquisition.

Jassy’s consequential assertion is that Prime Video has moved from hit-driven growth to profitable scale. If Amazon does not publish enough segment data, investors will still have evidence of audience strength without a clear test of earnings power.

Amazon has shown it can win audiences; it has not yet given investors enough data to prove how profitable that scale is.