Amazon is looking into buying MGM for $9 billion, says Variety. The talks are still ongoing, which is why there’s a question mark in the title – there’s always a chance the negotiations might fall apart. However, the bosses at MGM have been interested in selling the studio since at least December 2020. The deal is being spearheaded by Mike Hopkins, senior VP of Amazon Studios and Prime Video, and Kevin Ulrich, chairman of the MGM board.
If the deal comes through, the corporate giant could get its hands on an impressive catalog of titles. According to Variety, we’re talking about approximately 4,000 movies and over 17,000 hours of TV shows going back decades. Among other properties and franchises, MGM holds rights to The Hobbit, James Bond, RoboCop, Pink Panther, and The Silence of the Lambs. Then there are TV shows like Fargo, Stargate SG-1 (and its spinoffs), Vikings, The Handmaid’s Tale, and many, many others. That’s a lot of content for Amazon’s growing media empire. Currently, Amazon has more than 200 million subscribers from all over the world. Last year, the company spent $11 billion on TV shows, movies, and music – a 40 percent increase from 2019. With an ambitious slate of projects like The Lord of the Rings series that will be the most expensive TV show in history, people at Amazon have big things planned.
