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On the same day AT&T and Discovery officially announced they would merger Discovery and WarnerMedia, news broke that Amazon is positioning to acquire the famed MGM. The marketplace-turned-movie studio is expected to make a $9 billion offer in the coming days to acquire the studio.
MGM is behind a myriad of classic films such as The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind, while boasting recent successes with Creed, A Star Is Born, and many more. The studio will also be releasing the 25th James Bond film No Time To Die, starring Daniel Craig in his last outting as 007, Ana de Armas, Lashana Lynch, and Rami Malek.
Rumors had previously made the rounds claiming that both Amazon and Apple were interested in purchasing the legacy studio a short while ago. Now, it appears that Apple has bowed out of the competition as they continue to churn out hits on their own streaming service Apple TV+. MGM had secretly made it known to prospective buyers that they were looking to sell out with a price tag of $9 billion. If this deal closes, it would be one of the smaller acquisitions in recent years, as Disney purchased 21st Century Fox for $72 billion in 2019, while AT&T purchased Time Warner for $85 billion in 2018. The latter is set to sell a portion of the remnants of Time Warner to Discovery for $43 billion, if approved by shareholders and federal regulators.
Amazon hasn’t really released any movies in the traditional format, that is, release them for theatrical runs. One of their chief competitors, Netflix, has slowly begun to release their tentpole films such as Roma and The King in theaters, while HBO Max and WarnerMedia have taken to releasing their entire 2021 slate both in theaters and on HBO Max in a “Same Day” release format. This move would bring Amazon Studios to a whole new ballgame, especially post-COVID-19 pandemic as theaters begin to reopen globally.
Amazon launched its own streaming service, Amazon Prime Video, in 2006, and has recently been pouring money into the purchase of films for release and into originals such as the upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel series. The LotR series was recently revealed to boast a massive $400+ million budget for season 1 alone! The studio also recently acquired the Chris Pratt-led The Tomorrow War, slated for release later this year.
Source: The Information
Hi! I'm Zach, the Editor-in-Chief here at The Cinema Spot. The TCS team and I are always hard at work to put out the best content we can, and we're even developing a few new features! Be sure to keep an eye out for the latest contests, daily news articles, comprehensive reviews, and more!
