Amazon plans to invest more than $1 billion a year in cinema movies

CTOnews.com, Nov. 24 (Xinhua)-- US e-commerce giant Amazon will spend more than $1 billion (7.15 billion yuan) a year on movies released in theaters, according to people familiar with the matter.

Amazon aims to produce 12-15 films a year and release them in theaters, according to people familiar with the matter. This will be one of the most ambitious plans for Internet companies to invest in cinema movies.

Amazon is currently competing with streaming rivals such as Walt Disney, Apple and Netflix. Amazon didn't respond to a request for comment.

CTOnews.com learned that Amazon reported third-quarter net sales of $127.101 billion (about 910.043 billion yuan), up 15% from a year earlier, and net profit of $2.872 billion (about 20.564 billion yuan), down 9% from a year earlier.

Despite a decline in net profit and cost-cutting, Amazon is still investing more in films. In March, Amazon also announced the completion of its $8.5 billion (60.775 billion yuan) acquisition of MGM Studios.