It wasn’t that long ago when we wrote excitedly about how just about every James Bond film was available for streaming and download free with a Prime membership. It was just last October, in fact, when Amazon was promoting the Home Of Bond destination page with access to the film archive (in 4k UHD), new bonus documentaries, and other franchise products.
But now, it appears Spectre is the only James Bond film currently available to stream free with a membership. All other titles from the 25-film franchise including the latest Daniel Craig titles all the way back to the “OG 007” Sean Connery cost $3.99 to rent or $9.99 to buy. Do a search for “James Bond” on Amazon Prime and you’ll see what we mean.
Well, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Amazon would rather make money off their ownership of MGM Studios rather than give it away to Prime members. The biggest shopping website in the world purchased the studio and rights to its library of titles in 2023 for almost $8.5 billion. And, since a new James Bond film (and actor) seem to be light years away due to disagreements between Amazon and Bond stewards Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, renting and selling the franchise titles in the meantime only makes financial sense.
The temporary state of movies and shows on streaming services makes a perfect case for physical media, which can be purchased once and viewed whenever the owner wants, and however many times, regardless of licensing deals between studios and streamers. We saw a similar thing happen with the classic Star Trek films that temporarily left Paramount+ for an exclusive stay at Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max, only to return to Paramount+ six months later.
By the way, the only title that wasn’t available for the last few months while Prime promoted the “Home of Bond” was Casino Royale (2006) which may have been exclusive to Paramount+ at the time, but coincidentally is no longer on the platform.
