Amazon's Potential 'Landmark' Deal May Be All About Prime
*By Conor White*
Amazon is looking to grab even more brick-and-mortar real estate and disrupt yet another industry.
The e-commerce/streaming giant is [reportedly](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-16/amazon-is-said-to-be-in-running-to-acquire-landmark-movie-chain) interested in acquiring Landmark Theaters, a move that Cinemablend's managing director Sean O'Connell said could be a good fit.
"Landmark right now basically specializes in indie-type films, mid-level budgets," O'Connell said Friday in an interview with Cheddar. "They're not necessarily going after all the blockbusters, and so, maybe this serves the niche that Amazon is trying to corner."
In true Amazon style, buying a chain of movie theaters wouldn't solely be about showing films.
"I think this is almost about business model and real estate as much as it is about the movies," said Larry Dignan, editor-in-chief of ZDNet. "The big question here is whether doing something like Landmark makes more sense than just waiting for something like Sears to bankrupt and take some of that real estate."
Dignan also suggested other factors were at play.
"The other end game here is they could add things into Prime subscriptions, because remember ー whatever Amazon does has everything to do with Prime subscriptions," he said.
A 70-year-old Supreme Court case may dictate whether Amazon is allowed to move forward with the purchase. The 1948 decision in *United States v. Paramount* prohibited studios from owning theaters and screening their own films ー paving the way for the present-day movie theater system. The Justice Department recently [opened a review](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-opens-review-paramount-consent-decrees) of the case, noting it may now be irrelevant. What the Justice Department decides could determine Amazon's future in this matter, and O'Connell said Amazon will be watching closely.
"There's only X amount of screens you can get on, and when you're competing against, let's say, Disney, that might have 'Christopher Robin', the latest Marvel film, a potential 'Star Wars' film on all those different screens, and Amazon is trying to get 'Beautiful Boy' or something in front of theaters, they're competing with that ー and so, now if they have their own chain, they can get those films in there."
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
