Amazon Pays $8.45 Billion To Aquire MGM
Hopefully this doesn’t mean your packages arrive shaken *or* stirred, but Amazon has agreed a deal to buy historic studio MGM, home of James Bond, for the sum of $8.45 billion it has been announced.
With nearly a century of filmmaking under its belt, MGM says this acquisition will help preserve the studio’s heritage and catalogue of films, and provide customers with greater access to these existing works.
“MGM has a vast catalogue with more than 4,000 films – 12 Angry Men, Basic Instinct, Creed, James Bond, Legally Blonde, Moonstruck, Poltergeist, Raging Bull, Robocop, Rocky, Silence of the Lambs, Stargate, Thelma & Louise, Tomb Raider, The Magnificent Seven, The Pink Panther, The Thomas Crown Affair, and many other icons – as well as 17,000 TV shows – including Fargo, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Vikings – that have collectively won more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmys,” commented Mike Hopkins, Senior Vice President of Prime Video and Amazon Studios. “The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalogue that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team. It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling.”
For us sci-fi geeks, there is one thing that sticks out of that list that has been sat on a shelf at MGM for a number of years… Stargate. Could this deal potentially breathe some new life into the franchise? Also mentioned in there are Fargo and The Handmaid’s Tale, both of which currently air on Channel 4 in the UK, and FX & Hulu in the USA. Whether this will make any difference to those existing deals moving forward remains to be seen.
The big-name attached to MGM is, of course, James Bond, but that isn’t quite so clean-cut… Bond is actually shared with Eon Productions, the company run by the Broccoli family, who have control over everything from casting to distribution. So whilst we may find the Bond movie catalogue end up on the streaming service, Amazon won’t gain any direct control over the fabled British secret agent.
“It has been an honour to have been a part of the incredible transformation of Metro Goldwyn Mayer. To get here took immensely talented people with a true belief in one vision. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank the MGM team who have helped us arrive at this historic day,” adds Kevin Ulrich, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MGM. “I am very proud that MGM’s Lion, which has long evoked the Golden Age of Hollywood, will continue its storied history, and the idea born from the creation of United Artists lives on in a way the founders originally intended, driven by the talent and their vision. The opportunity to align MGM’s storied history with Amazon is an inspiring combination.”
Whilst the deal has been approved by the MGM board and Amazon, it is not totally signed yet, as the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, so we’ll have to wait and see if it completes without any additional hiccups.
