The TV streaming wars have entered a new era where services, once primarily concerned with scale, are now seeking actual profits. Earlier this year, Amazon added advertisements to Amazon Prime Video for all subscribers—including those who pay for the service independently or get it through their existing Prime membership.

This may come as a surprise, but one of the top films of summer 2024 has come to Amazon Prime Video this week. IF didn’t get a lot of press compared to the other movies last summer, but it legged out $111 million domestically in the most competitive cinema landscape of the year.

At stop number 2 on the roadmap to online platform death, there's a bright red dot labeled "Amazon Prime Video is here." It's one stop beyond a platform treating users well, and one leg short of it brutally extracting value from business partners,

Subscribers tolerated the current ad load, so Amazon is adding more commercials. Subscribers to Prime Video's ad tier will start seeing more commercials next year, further testing how much advertising streamers will tolerate.

There are three underrated movies on Amazon Prime Video you need to watch in October starring Chris Evans, Reese Witherspoon, and Peter Dinklage.