Amazon Takes on Bond

It wasn’t just idle talk or wild speculation after all: Amazon has announced its acquisition—for $8.45 billion—of Hollywood’s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, a deal that will give Amazon a new wealth of familiar entertainment products for its Prime Video streaming service, plus control over the popular James Bond film franchise.

“The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of [intellectual property] in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team,” Mike Hopkins, senior VP of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, is quoted in Variety as saying. “It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling.” In addition to the character of British spy James Bond, MGM owns the Pink Panther and the Rocky franchises.

So will this lead to a spread of new Bond-related dramas, for screens both large and small? Probably not. “There’s a catch,” explains Esquire magazine: “Amazon can’t just churn out countless Bond movies. Amazon will own only 50% of the spy franchise, while the other half will remain held by siblings Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, who inherited the rights from their father, longtime Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli. Through Eon, their UK production company, Broccoli and Wilson exert exacting control over the Bond franchise, deciding when to make a new Bond film, who should play the title role, and whether television spinoffs get greenlit (they’ve blocked such efforts in the past). According to The New York Times, ‘Broccoli and Wilson have final say over every line of dialogue, every casting decision, every stunt sequence, every marketing tie-in, every TV ad, poster and billboard.’” The upside for Eon, though, is that Amazon is likely to stabilize MGM’s often-shaky financial standing, and prevent production problems such as those faced by Skyfall in 2010.

And how might this acquisition affect the latest Bond flick, which has seen its premiere delayed several times due to the worldwide COVID-19 crisis? The Spy Command notes, “Amazon didn’t estimate how long regulatory approval [of its MGM deal] will take. It’s possible such review won’t be completed by Sept. 30, when No Time to Die, the 25th James Bond film, is scheduled to be released in the U.K. and Oct. 8 in the U.S. As things stand now, No Time to Die will be released by United Artists Releasing, a joint venture between MGM and Annapurna Pictures, in the U.S. and by Universal internationally.”

READ MORE: “Bond 25 Questions: The Amazon Edition, Part III,”
by Bill Koenig (The Spy Command).