MGM Midnite Movies "dead again" remark

A 50GB Blu-Ray Disc can hold over 9 hours of HD video.  It would be a welcome choice if a studio actually utilized the capabilities of the software.

I just want to see The Black Sleep finally released to disc!

You might have seen this released if Fox would stop sitting on their film libraries and pick up the damn phone.

The MGM news today as bleak.  With MGM on the edge of their seats for the release of the remake of FAME today, MGM made a phone plea to their bondholders to stay alive;and the bondholders told the studio to go bankrupt,  MGM says that would be the worst possible outcome and would place both 'Hobbit' and James Bond in peril.  The studio says that it could not survive without Bond.  The equity partners have already written their losses off and will not put anymore money into the company.  The bondholders are first in line to be paid if the company goes bankrupt.  The whole thing started when MGM asked for interest payments be delayed until 2010 so they can use the money for production.  Bondholders said no. 

This is going to be interesting and sad on the outcome.  Let alone what will happen to the library.

Well, frankly can any other library owner do much worse?  Maybe some new ownership would be a good thing because we're sure not seeing much of squat from the current regime.

I agree with you and hope the library will go someone else (other than Paramount or Lionsgate), but it will take years for this to sort out and I always hoped that if MGM could get there finances straight, then they would have time to re-look at their inventory.  By the way, the powers that be in the industry think MGM is worth only about 1.8 billion which would give the bondholders only about $0.50 on a dollar which is not what they want either.

I've noticed that Shout Factory is releasing a number of MGM owned television series. Fingers crossed that they license some their movies to them, or that they might pick up the Midnite Movies line.

In a follow up, the MGM bondholders did allow for the interest payment to be delayed to 2010.  This will give the studio some breathing room, but there is rumor (speculation) that Warners is already looking at the studio for purchase. 

I hate to beat a dead horse, but with the advent of the Archives, I no longer see this as good news.  For me the selling point of the Midnite Movies was quality versions of B movies at an affordable price.   I'm no longer convinced that Warner will be willing to maintain that standard.

MGM has a lot of new and some HD transfers (check out the MGM HD Channel's Halloween schedule, though you might want to cry for what's being shown that's not out on DVD) of older cult films ready to go. If Warner was to take over, let's hope that they'd still let MGM function as it's own unit. Just a hopeful theory.

There is also speculation of another private investment company might step up.  Since MGM bonds are worth about half of the face value, the company is ripe just on the library its self. 

I noticed too that MGM HD, which I don't have, is showing a few of the old American International released Italian "sword & sandal" epics. I would love to see a box set of those if MGM ever gets back on its feet. Something's gotta give for this vast library to once again be available to consumers like us.

Code Red approached MGM to try to licence a couple of titles and were flat out rejected, something which I will never understand. If you have a bunch of movies sitting around in a vault but have no interest or desire to release them, why wouldn't you want someone else to? You're not giving them away. Funny thing is, I've seen the MGM logo on a couple of movies released by independent labels recently so maybe there is some hope. Shout Factory is emerging as a serious player in the cult movie market after starting out as a TV-on-DVD outfit and their recent Stepfather disc has made me optimistic for what the future may have in store for us cult flick aficionados. We have 1977's Kingdom of the Spiders to look forward to from Shout early next year and I'm hoping they're the ones jockeying for Dark Night of the Scarecrow after Image (?) decided they weren't interested in it.

I don't think MGM is going to consider licensing out many if any titles they own.  If they want to get top dollar for the company and show it's greatest worth, then they do not want any rights tied up for any time with another company.  That would devalue the assets.

Obviously they believe the Midnite Movies type titles to be worthless since they haven't done anything with them for two years, and it's Fox making the decisions anyhow. If they license shows like MR. ED and MR. BELVEDERE, I'm sure they wouldn't blink an eye to license QUEEN OF BLOOD or BLOOD BATH.

MGM has not done anything with any of their film titles for the past two years, except re-issue them.  They have been making excellent HD transfers on many of their films for HD cable channels such as MGM HD and the new one coming up with Lionsgate and Paramount, Epix.  MGM does know what their film Library is worth and it is worth much more than the TV shows.  Licensing out MR. ED and MR. BELVEDERE was easy for them.  They see no value in MR. ED since their experiment with the show did not sell five years ago and MR. BELVEDERE is a dead show.  Not saying that it is not good and enjoyable, but it has never been a success in syndication.  Those shows did not enter into MGM's long term goals.

Those license deals would not devalue their library as would licensing off several movies for another Midnite Movies collection.  They want to control what is released.  Fox is only a distributor for MGM and does not make the decisions.  Also the main reason they can not license movies out, it is prohibited due to the Fox agreement.

MGM will not do anything with their film library until the Fox agreement concludes,  The Fox agreement started in the summer of 2005 and should last until August 2010, less than a year.  With any other company, I would expect them to ramp up their own video division, but with the financial problems MGM has, who knows what they will do.  Since they last controlled their own destiny in the home video area thinks have changes.  Brick & Mortar stores are basically no more.  Warners is having a huge success with the Archive collection.  And the last one is the catalog titles are hard to sell.  I speculate that MGM may go the Warner Archive route or even just put the titles up for download.

We all have favorite genres we want.  I want more AIP, and can not get enough, I also want more of the UA westerns and the UA 60's sex comedies like HOTEL PARADISIO & BUONA SERA, MRS. CAMPBELL.  When we get them, that is an answer that I don't think anyone knows and it gets tougher with MGM's economic conditions.