Amazon MGM Studios is challenging conventional Hollywood wisdom by proving that high-stakes action, dystopian thrillers, and young adult romance produced in Spanish and Portuguese can capture massive global audiences on Prime Video. Speaking at the sixth edition of Iberseries & Platino Industria in Madrid on Tuesday, top international executives detailed how local-language storytelling is successfully scaling worldwide.
Expanding the Blueprint for International Originals in Madrid
A crowded audience in the Spanish capital listened as Nicole Morganti, head of international originals for Southern Europe, and Javiera Balmaceda, head of international originals for Latin America, Canada and Australia, took the stage. The executives offered an exclusive preview of upcoming Amazon MGM Studios releases, including Zeta and Vengeance, while highlighting the studio's strategic push into non-English content.
By investing heavily in regional hubs and local talent, Amazon MGM is finding that stories rooted in specific cultural landscapes frequently resonate on a global scale. This approach challenges the historic dominance of English-language productions in high-budget genres like action and science fiction.
Riding the Wave of Mercedes Ron and Young Adult Adaptations
A central pillar of this international strategy has been the adaptation of bestselling novels by author Mercedes Ron. Following the massive success of the Fault (Culpables) film series, the romantic thriller Drawn Together (Marfil) has quickly emerged as another major win for the platform.
Drawn Together stars Ester Expósito, known for Elite and The Wailing, alongside Hugo Diego Garcia from Death and Other Details and The Substance. Balmaceda praised the author's unmatched appeal during the Madrid conference, telling the audience: "[Mercedes Ron] is the queen of young adult because Marfil is working extremely well as well." The executive noted that these projects consistently attract fresh demographics to the streaming service.
Democratizing Horror with Apocalypse Z and Breaking Hollywood Molds
Addressing skepticism regarding why a major studio would produce action and dystopian projects outside the United States, Balmaceda defended the creative expansion directly. "The United States produces a lot of action, such as Jack Ryan and other titles that work very well worldwide, so that’s why they ask us why we want to produce an action movie in Mexico or Spain," Balmaceda shared. "I say more is more. We can do it as well. We can produce a successful film, a compelling narrative and expand our viewership, and the growth in our new demographic reach is readily apparent."
This philosophy drove the creation of Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End, which became one of the platform's top-performing non-English titles. Morganti explained the rationale behind backing a distinctly Spanish zombie narrative: "There was a fantastic idea for an apocalyptic story in Spain, a very Spanish story with zombies. And they questioned the choice of setting a zombie project in Spain, prompting us to emphasize that horror is deeply rooted in our cinematic tradition, requiring us to break those barriers and prove to leadership that such ventures are viable. Also, zombies don’t have a nationality. They don’t speak English either. So now we are going to launch Apocalypse Z part 2 on Halloween."
Iberseries & Platino Industria continues through Friday, highlighting ongoing industry discussions around cross-border content investment.
