Amazon also has a distinct advantage over its competitors in that streaming is not its only source of revenue, or even the main focus of its subscription offering. Prime Video remains a nice bonus when you pay for a year of two-day shipping. Amazon doesn’t need to have the best library of prestige movies and television; it just needs to give customers one more reason to not cancel Prime. The back catalog of James Bond films could be just that. Unlike Netflix, which has to keep providing new programming to avoid churn, it’s already got a built-in customer base. “They can mess up a lot and still be OK,” says Henschel. “They have the revenue and cash power to fail or work on content investments and develop a more longer-term strategy while newer services need to show profitability as fast as possible.”

The MGM purchase also isn’t the only big check Amazon is writing; the company paid $250 million for TV rights to the Lord of the Rings universe, and will reportedly spend hundreds of millions of dollars per season bringing that world to Prime Video. Like 007, it’s a known quantity with passionate fans that will follow their heroes to Amazon—and maybe, the company hopes, set up a few Subscribe & Save items while they’re at it.

Netflix has made a handful of acquisitions itself; it picked up comics icon Mark Millar’s Millarworld in 2017, and struck an overall deal with the creators of kid-focused Storybots two years later. It continues to find breakout hits through its own algorithmic savvy and deep investments in original content. But iconic characters like Bond don’t happen overnight; they can take decades to cement their place in popular imagination. And as audiences become increasingly fragmented, they’re going to be easier bought than made. 

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