Massachusetts

Residents of Massachusetts Town Manchester-by-the-Sea Get Free Amazon Prime Service

All residents of Manchester-by-the-Sea in Massachusetts are getting a free year of Amazon Prime and a bag of popcorn.

The move to give freebies to everyone in town comes as Amazon promotes its film starring Casey Affleck, "Manchester by the Sea," which begins streaming on the service on May 5.

The film won Best Original Screenplay and Affleck took Best Actor for his role at the Academy Awards.

While many of the scenes were shot in Manchester-by-the-Sea, some were actually filmed in Gloucester. 

For example, Claudia Marie, the boat featured in the film is owned by Manchester-by-the-Sea residents but is docked in Gloucester. 

When the film needed a dive bar for the brawl scene they went to Pratty's. 

“Manchester by the Sea is a masterpiece representing the best of cinematic storytelling," Greg Hart, vice president of Amazon Video, said in a release. "In other words, it is wicked awesome.”

There are about 2,000 households in town, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Amazon Prime usually costs $99 a year and includes free two-day shipping and streaming of movies and TV shows with Prime Video. 

Amazon has recently beefed up its hiring in Massachusetts with brick-and-mortar stores and at a office in Cambridge focused on developing its voice assistant Alexa, according to the Boston Business Journal.

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