I don’t know if anybody’s suggesting MGM would sell Bond - we’re talking about MGM selling itself. Bond would be a part of that.
Yes, MGM selling itself, as it were, may be the only way for Bond to be bought by Disney or someone.
MGM will be giving a “business update” March 28th…
MGM are certainly a constant stumbling block for Bond. The Annapurna deal still has no clarity regarding Bond (it still says domestic distribution in general, which we were last told excluded Bond - this has not changed - people are likely assuming, though if theres insider knowledge of Warner being involved for international then potentially true).
MGM is doing fine because of their TV division (Handmaid’s Tale etc…), I dare say that the film portion could be sold off
“MGM is doing fine…” - well, that’s actually difficult to really judge since they are playing cinema and tv market. And the cinema section currently ranks on 13th place in MOJO’s box office ranking for 2018 (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/studio/); hardly surprising when they don’t have that many films in theatres to begin with.
The tv section on the other hand can show a couple of prestigious top shelf series, impressive awards, critics in love with the product and viewers happy to watch. But as we know, even with the best of results there must needs be comparison to the competition. If we look at the business model of the streaming services MGM’s performance quickly looks like a relative affair.
Streamers generate a fantastic turnover, they provide actual original content on a monthly schedule, content their customers really like to watch. Every other week you stumble over a different gem; meanwhile it doesn’t even matter which of them do not convince in the long run. They can even produce for niche audiences over several seasons and still make a profit. Critics are often just as impressed with the output as the subscribers. In spite - maybe because? - of the pressure cooker environment and the immense creative variety.
For a company like MGM - not a big studio any more, nor a tv producer able to meet the output of the streaming services - it looks as if they are always just a tad late to the party, just turning up when the entire tv market is going through a revolution.
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well yeah - they’re doing fine, they’re not doing well by any measure - for however well they are doing, its the TV that is bringing the money in… and Bond… the film division is the dying weight they can sell to focus on TV and produce more of that where the content need is high and they stand to make the most and most regular income
Can’t say there’s ever a dull moment for us Bond fans. Yeesh.
More on Barber’s firing.
“And even though Barber had hits with Bond outings Spectre and Skyfall, insiders say a rift had also developed between him and 007 producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson. “There was a revolt,” says an insider who claims the Broccoli camp ultimately refused to work with Barber. A new entry in the spy franchise, Bond 25, starring Daniel Craig, has been set up by MGM and Eon Productions for a Nov. 8, 2019 release.”
Very interesting. I hope this means things can get in line quickly now and start gaining some real momentum.
Wow! Was that the problem causing the delays?
Apparently, subscription streaming will be the name of the game…
Perhaps One of… The lack of creativity wouldn’t necessarily have hindered a distribution deal being made.
Great. Another one… (My take: there are too much already, with diminishing returns in quality but expanding quantity of mediocre and awful content.)
Maybe they will do the same as Disney plans to do with Star Wars: their own franchises only on their own streaming service.
The apparent lack of creativity apparently was more a case of hiding the creativity in order to keep it from being mangled by Barber´s ideas - or lack of.
With Barber remaining one of MGM’s largest shareholders - this definitely has the makings of a mess…
The crucial thing is, recently there’s been an article - don’t ask me where, NYT, Guardian, I forget - that apparently also mirrored real-life polls: an enormous number of Netflix subscribers would be willing to pay more for the service. Quality aside, people supposedly feel very happy with the product. Of course there’s lots of stuff they don’t watch. But that doesn’t matter to them; somebody else does and is willing to pay. And we can safely assume it’s much the same with Hulu, Amazon and whatnot.
Will the massive expansion with tons of series and feature films keep up? Probably not. But by then they will have garnered such a part of the international market that they’ve become their own entity. Then the big ones will feed on the smaller fry…
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da bells of da ball.
Nice to hear of EON being proactive regarding their property - wasn’t something I doubted, but a surprising number on this thread were.
It did not look too good for quite some time.
I also did not suspect that EON had so much power to wield within MGM.