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Eddie Murphy Signs Three-Picture & First-Look Film Deal With Amazon Studios

Amazon Studios has closed a three-picture first-look film deal with Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Eddie Murphy.

Under the deal, Murphy will star in three films for Amazon Studios and develop original film projects for Prime Video and Studios with the potential to star. This news comes in the wake of Murphy’s Coming 2 America being the most-watched movie on Amazon Prime in its opening weekend over March 5-7, which the streamer has anecdotally announced, though never provided any viewership figures. Amazon picked up Coming 2 America from Paramount during the pandemic in October 2020 for $125M, as Deadline first told you.

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Coming 2 America was the No. 1 streamed movie of the weekend, with the No. 1 opening weekend of any other streaming movie in 2021 to date and No. 1 opening weekend of any streaming movie in the past 12 months (post-Covid theater closures), per third-party Screen Engine/ASI’s weekly PostVODTM ranking. The film also topped Nielsen’s weekly streaming rankings among all streamed SVOD content.

“Eddie is a legend both in front of and behind the camera,” Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, said in a statement. “With undeniable comedic and dramatic genius, he consistently delivers entertaining, original stories and characters to audiences around the world. We could not be more excited to help carry on the tradition and to officially welcome Eddie into the Amazon family.”

‘Beverly Hills Cop,’ 1984 - Credit: Paramount
‘Beverly Hills Cop,’ 1984 - Credit: Paramount

Paramount

Murphy’s has racked up several $100 million-grossing pictures during the past four decades, from Beverly Hills Cop to Daddy Day Care. His recent turn as underground comic personality Rudy Ray Moore in Netflix’s Dolemite Is My Name landed two Golden Globes for Best Picture Comedy/Musical and Murphy in the Lead Actor Motion Picture Musical or Comedy categories. He also notched a Critics Choice Association nomination for Best Actor. Last year, received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his return to Saturday Night Live.

Up next, Murphy is producing and starring in Netflix’s Beverly Hills Cop 4 and will star opposite Jonah Hill in a Kenya Barris-directed comedy for Netflix.

He received a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Dreamgirls which also garnered him Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actor.

Murphy is represented by WME, ML Management, Rogers & Cowan/PMK, and Ziffren Brittenham.

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