Enlarge / A man walks past a promotion for the James Bond fIlm No Time To Die at the closed Omega store in London on March 27, 2020. (credit: Jonathan Perugia/In Pictures via Getty Images)
Amazon is reportedly interested in acquiring MGM Studios at a price tag of roughly $9 billion, according to multiple stories in industry publications, from Variety to Deadline. The Information first broke the news late yesterday, but both Amazon and MGM have declined to comment so far.
In a media landscape where a new mega-merger or acquisition seems to occur every few months, this deal would be notable for a few reasons. First and foremost, MGM has been one of the few classic Hollywood studios to avoid joining a larger corporation so far. Disney acquired Fox in 2018. Comcast purchased NBCUniversal in 2013. ViacomCBS has had Paramount since the mid-1990s. And until yesterday, AT&T had control of Warner Bros. as part of an overall deal with WarnerMedia.
But beyond the pure business spectacle, MGM is also one of the oldest film studios around. It dates back to the 1920s. The studio produced iconic Hollywood projects like Ben-Hur, Gone With The Wind, and The Wizard of Oz. Later, it made the likes of Annie Hall and The Silence of the Lambs. And though the film industry has been struggling for much of this century—MGM filed for bankruptcy (and later emerged from it) long before COVID-19, in 2010—this studio has continued to produce critically adored and commercially successful entertainment. MGM boasts rejuvenated franchises like James Bond and Rocky Balboa (in the excellent Michael B. Jordan vehicle Creed), TV projects like The Handmaid’s Tale and Survivor, and highly anticipated films like No Time To Die and House of Gucci (starring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jared Leto, and… just take our money, OK?).
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