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[–] 224 points 8 months ago (32 children)

That's because it's a bribe, and not a documentary that's supposed to make money, lol.

"I’d be amazed if box office gets reported on this title," one industry insider told The Mirror, adding that the film’s distributors might be paying a fee to cinemas to screen the movie, an established practice known as “four-walling.”

Documentary filmmaker Stefano Da Frè, who was not involved in the film, told CNN that "data-driven" Amazon would not have invested that much expecting to lose money.

“With all their tools, all their AI, Amazon Web Services — they didn’t just come up with that number randomly,” Da Frè said. “They believe, through their metrics, that it’s worth that amount.”

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  • [–] 110 points 8 months ago* (15 children)

    40M is nothing to Bezos, and it's a good investment if it wins him a few favors from Trump.

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  • [–] 37 points 8 months ago (14 children)

    Really depends whether Trump can handle the humiliation.

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  • [–] 85 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (6 children)

    Personally, I was eager to see it and super pumped to finally learn more about this fascinating and enigmatically beautiful woman. But while I was waiting in line with hundreds of other culture lovers, George Soros came strolling along and paid each of us a thousand quid to go and watch something better instead. So I went and saw The Smurfs and got pie and chips. I hear he's going to all the cinemas with these bundles of cash. Him and Obama, who was doing the cinema on the next street.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Without an /s tag I wasn’t sure if you were serious or not. /s

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    I like to think that Donnie knew it would bomb.

    Melania has been treating him like garbage for years.

    This way he could get a little money and have petty vengeance

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Melania has been treating him like garbage for years.

    Not sure if serious.

    If true, then she’s right because he is absolute garbage

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  • [–] 12 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Back in 2017 she refused to leave New York and join him in the White House.

    It's widely reported that her bedroom is on a different floor.

    On January 6 she was as far away from him as she could get.

    There are plenty of photos of her refusing to hold his hand in public.

    Rumors abound that she was sleeping with her security staff

    I don't consider her a 'victim,' because she'd met him before they got married. Two terrible people who hate each other

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  • [–] 36 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    With narcissism, I think their goal is always both. They deserve the bribe and the adoration, in their minds

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  • [–] 19 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    It shows a really quite astounding lack of self awareness to even think that it's worth having a premier in the UK.

    Had she been even remotely aware of how we (I'm from the UK) feel about her husband over here, she would know that this was inevitable.

    Her husband is universally despised in this country. Even by the Right.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    What about the far right though?

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    Some on the far right praise him, yeah. That's true. "Universally" was my use of hyperbole.

    The vast majority of UK residents despise him though, to the point that any political leader coming out in support of him would effectively be killing their career. Hence why Nigel Farage is dancing around the topic like maypole.

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  • [–] 13 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    “With all their tools, all their AI, Amazon Web Services — they didn’t just come up with that number randomly,” Da Frè said. “They believe, through their metrics, that it’s worth that amount.”

    Having worked at Amazon for a couple years this is the most hilarious thing I've read.

    If someone L10+ wants something to happen its gonna happen metrics be damned. Lemmings will fudge numbers and just make it work. For all the bluster about LPs and such it's a very top down culture and what VPs and above want they fucking get it.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago

    TL;DR it’s a way of indicating VP level positions at Amazon. It’s someone really high up the chain. To put in perspective Andy Jassy is an L12.

    Longer answer. At Amazon every position has a level. I was a software engineer so that’s what I’ll speak to here but these apply to non engineering positions as well.

    L1-3 are non engineering positions.

    L4 is junior engineer

    L5 is mid-senior IC (individual contributor) and the lowest rung for Engineering management.

    L6 is Senior IC and middle rung for managers.

    L7 is Principal engineer and Senior Manager. For context only about 1-2% of the company ever get this high.

    L8 is Senior principal and Director level management.

    L9 you skip because that was Bezos’ level and everyone just doesn’t use it.

    L10 are VP level management. You occasionally get an IC this high when Amazon wants to poach talent from another company but generally this is reserved for management.

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago

    They believe they’ll get something back out of this via corruption for sure. 

    I think ultimately Trump will blame Amazon for messing up the movie defeating the whole point of the exercise though. 

    Amazon should have let Ellison’s companies make it because the backlash won’t have been worth it. 

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  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 child)

    As you said, it's only worth that amount as a bribe. Paying Trump directly would definitely be a problem if we had a functioning Supreme Court and Congress (or if he were a Democrat), but why not make sure that bribe has a thin veil of deniability by wrapping it up in a pretty package that's labeled "Movie."

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