Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: Difference between revisions

'''Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc.''', also known as '''Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures''' and abbreviated as '''MGM''', is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924, and based in Beverly Hills, California.

MGM was formed by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. It hired a number of well known actors as contract players—its slogan was "more stars than there are in heaven"—and soon became Hollywood's most prestigious film studio, producing popular musical films and winning many Academy Awards. MGM also owned film studios, movie lots, movie theaters and technical production facilities. Its most prosperous era, from 1926 to 1959, was bracketed by two productions of ''Ben Hur''. After that, it divested itself of the Loews movie theater chain, and, in the 1960s, diversified into television production.

 

In 1969, businessman and investor Kirk Kerkorian bought 40% of MGM and dramatically changed the operation and direction of the studio. He hired new management, reduced the studio's output to about five films per year, and diversified its products, creating MGM Resorts International and a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company (which it later divested in the 1980s). In 1980, the studio acquired United Artists. Kerkorian sold MGM to Ted Turner in 1986, who retained the rights to the MGM film library, sold the studio lot in Culver City to Lorimar, and sold the remnants of MGM back to Kerkorian a few months later. After Kerkorian sold and reacquired the company again in the 1990s, he expanded MGM by purchasing Orion Pictures and the Samuel Goldwyn Company, including both of their film libraries. Finally, in 2004, Kerkorian sold MGM to a consortium that included Sony Pictures.

 

In 2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and reorganization. After reorganization, it emerged from bankruptcy later that year under its creditors' ownership. Two former executives at Spyglass Entertainment, Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, became co-chairmen and co-CEOs of MGM's new holding company. After Barber's departure in 2020, the studio sought to be acquired by another company to pay its creditors.

 

 

As of 2022, MGM is still producing and distributing feature films and television series. Its major film productions include the ''Rocky'' and ''James Bond'' franchises, and among its recent television productions is the series ''The Handmaid's Tale''.

 

Additionally cartoon characters from the company have made cameo appearances in [[Who Framed Roger Rabbit (film)|Who Framed Roger Rabbit.]]