James Bond Studio MGM Is Now Owned By Amazon

One of the oldest movie studios in America, MGM, is now owned by Amazon. The retail and entertainment giant announced plans to buy MGM--the home of James Bond and other properties--in May 2021, and the deal has now cleared regulatory hurdles and is officially approved, Amazon announced in a press release. Amazon is paying $8.45 billion to acquire MGM.

In buying MGM, Amazon gains access to a library of more than 4,000 films and 17,000 TV episodes. Outside of James Bond, MGM holds the video game movie rights for Tomb Raider. Some of MGM's other film franchises include Robocop, Rocky, Silence of the Lambs, The Pink Panther, Thelma & Louise, Legally Blonde, and Poltergeist. In terms of TV properties, MGM's catalog includes The Handmaid's Tale, Fargo, and Vikings.

Amazon also touted that MGM's various properties have won more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmy Awards over the years. With MGM now under Amazon's wing, the company said it is now even better positioned to distribute a "diverse offering of entertainment choices" to subscribers.

"We welcome MGM employees, creators, and talent to Prime Video and Amazon Studios, and we look forward to working together to create even more opportunities to deliver quality storytelling to our customers," Amazon Studios senior vice president Mike Hopkins said.

MGM's chief operating officer Chris Brearton said, "We look forward to continuing that tradition as we head into this next chapter, coming together with the great team at Prime Video and Amazon Studios to provide audiences with the very best in entertainment for years to come."

When this deal was originally announced in 2021, Hopkins said Amazon sees "real financial value" in this deal due to MGM's catalog of franchise that Amazon plans to "reimagine" in new ways.

MGM is Amazon's second-largest buyout ever, following its $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods in 2017.

Amazon's Prime video service was already growing in a big way before this deal was announced, and now it's getting even bigger. Whether or not MGM movies that were previously released theatrically now shifted to Prime remains to be seen.

Amazon has a history of supporting both the theatrical and streaming models simultaneously. For example, 2016's Oscar-winning Manchester by the Sea was released in theaters and on Prime.

In other Prime news, Amazon is developing a Fallout TV series with the creators of Westworld, as well as series based on Life is Strange and Disco Elysium.

Amazon makes video games, too, with its latest big hits being the MMOs New World and Lost Ark.