« The Morning In Tetro | Main | BYOB Weekend - Angles & Demonstration »
May 14, 2009
The MGM Scam
Why do people keep pretending that MGM is a studio with a library instead of a library using the appearance of being a studio to increase the value of its library?
Kirk Kerkorian and Chris McGurk brilliantly danced in and out of the studio, spending just enough on production (the lipstick) to sell the studio/library (the pig). They got out just in time.
The Sony deal was absurd, not working terribly well for Sony or for the MGM Dentists. But it got Kerkorian out.
This left Harry Sloan with a library of diminishing value and an ego the size of the great outdoors. The first scam was becoming a distribution arm for indies, using the Showtime deal as bait. And that worked for as long as the Showtime deal lasted... well, it worked for MGM, since every single company they worked with as a distributor suffered under the deal... and all but one or two have basically gone out of business.
In the post-Showtime era, out came the old McGurk strategy (and mixing a Disney and an old MGM metaphor)... click your heels together 3 times and say,"We are a real studio... We are a real studio." And they might have gotten the company sold by now were it not for the burst bubble of the economy.
Mary Parent is great. So are a lot of the other people the studio hired to look legit. But it's been a facade on a burning building since Kerkorian was bought out... and even before then, it was a slow burning ember for decades.
MGM/UA is not a studio. It is an asset. And right now, like Lionsgate, it is an asset that no one can afford to buy. No matter how many times however many people spin it... it is what it is.
Posted by dpoland at May 14, 2009 03:42 PM
Comments
The corollary is the Weinstein Company: some titles self-distributed, others ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona") coming out through MGM, video released through a no-name company Harvey bought into. Of course because it's Harvey the main emphasis is on buying awards.
Had Weinstein gone through MGM for all distribution -- theatrical and video -- both companies might have had a better rep.
Posted by: Chucky in Jersey ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 14, 2009 05:49 PM
Chucky, how can you be mad at Weinstein when he didn't Oscar whore the trailer for Nine? Shouldn't he be your hero right now?
Posted by: KamikazeCamelV2.0 at May 15, 2009 12:06 AM
Seriously, what library? When Ted Turner bought the company in 1985, he got all of the MGM library to that date, going all the way back to the pre-merger days, as well as the pre-1950 Warner Brothers catalog, the entire RKO library, and a good share of UA's own backlist.
So what's left?
1) Nearly all of its own post-1986 library. Big effin' deal.
2) Most of the post-1952 United Artists catalog and a tiny fraction of pre-1952 UA material. A couple Best Picture winners and the Bond movies. Easily the most valuable part of the library.
3) The post-1981 Orion Pictures film and television library, which also includes most of the American International Pictures titles and the Filmways library except for The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction.
4) The pre-1997 Samuel Goldwyn Company library. Quick, can anyone name five Goldwyn titles from this era off the top of their head, without using the IMDb?
5) The pre-1996 Motion Picture Corporation of America library, but not co-productions with other studios like Dumb and Dumber or Jungle 2 Jungle
6) The theatrical rights to most of the ITV Global Entertainment catalog, including their inherited Granada International and ITC Entertainment libraries, which gives them The Return of the Pink Panther, Capricorn One and On Golden Pond
7) The home video rights to the ABC Motion Pictures library, under license from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
8) Most of the Cannon Films library
9) Most of the pre-1996 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment library, which includes selected Nelson Entertainment properties (including the pre-Turner-merger Castle Rock Entertainment library with the exception of co-productions with Columbia Pictures) and Embassy Pictures properties, under license from StudioCanal
10) The Epic Productions library, which includes titles from smaller defunct distributors like Atlantic Releasing Corporation, Scotti Bros. Pictures and Hemdale Film Corporation
MGM isn't going to settle their debt with Eddie and the Cruisers 2, Teen Wolf, Salvador and American Ninja. Hell, even Troma has a library of more than a thousand films gleaned off bankruptcy sales. There's even a good film or two in that library, and one I believe was nominated for an Oscar. But buying a hundred crappy titles to get to one gem is not the way to remain solvent.
Posted by: Edward Havens at May 15, 2009 03:29 AM
can anyone name five Goldwyn titles from this era off the top of their head, without using the IMDb?
All I can think of is Once Bitten and the Care Bear movie. Trip to Bountiful was someone else right?
Posted by: hcat at May 15, 2009 06:02 AM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)