After weeks of speculation, it's been announced today that Amazon has acquired MGM for $8.45 billion. MGM has nearly a century of filmmaking history and should nicely complement the work of Amazon Studios, which has primarily focused on producing TV show programming.
Amazon plans to help preserve MGM’s heritage and catalogue of films, while providing customers with greater access to these existing works. Through this acquisition, Amazon says it plans to empower MGM to continue to do what they do best: great storytelling. With a myriad of classic franchises now at Amazon's disposal, it's likely we can expect new movies and TV shows to spin out of those soon.
"MGM has a vast catalog 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," says 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 catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team," he added in a lengthy statement shared today. "It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling."
Amazon Prime has become a destination for a lot of great movies and TV shows, and it's easy to imagine this leading to new small screen stories revolving around characters like James Bond, Robocop, Tomb Raider, and more. James Bond, in particular, is a franchise that could easily continue to release movies in theaters, with various characters - or even a young 007 - getting their own series.
What are your thoughts on Amazon and MGM's $8.45 billion merger?