It was quite the hefty “Buy Now” click: Amazon has purchased MGM Studios — the home of the James Bond franchise — for a whopping $8.45 billion bucks.
The major acquisition not only gives Amazon access to upcoming films like the latest 007 adventure No Time to Die, and House of Gucci, starring Lady Gaga and Adam Driver, but also some 4,000 titles in the 97-year-old studio’s library.
“MGM has a vast catalog… — 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,” says Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, in its announcement.
The library also includes some 17,000 TV shows, including Vikings, The Handmaid’s Tale and many others.
All told, the MGM films and TV shows have collectively won more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmys, the executive explained.
Hopkins also declares that the “real financial value behind the deal” is to mine the “treasure trove” of intellectual property in order to “reimagine” and reboot classic material. The “very exciting” situation, “provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling,” Hopkins says.
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