Does the MGM (Lion) Sleep Tonight (1 Viewer)

[AlanBrom]

MGM started off pretty good this year releasing some long awaited for titles but now it seems like they're offering very little for the rest of the year and seem to have given up on older titles altogether. No Midnite movies for Halloween either. Is the company in some kind of trouble again?

 

[ahollis]

Yes, they are having trouble. Below is an part from a news article dated 9 June 08:

But MGM is choking on $3.7 billion in debt, requiring more than $300 million in annual interest payments while it delays paying down the principal, its financial statements show. Bargain hunters are circling the company as it continues to bleed cash. For the fiscal year that ended in March, MGM reported a loss of about $400 million; it posted about the same amount a year earlier.

The mounting losses have caused financial headaches for an investor group led by Sony, which brought together Comcast and four private equity funds to buy MGM from Kirk Kerkorian for $5 billion in 2004.

A bright spot for MGM has been its prized library of old film titles. That unit threw off $558 million in cash in the latest fiscal year. But amid an industrywide downturn in DVD catalog sales, by the end of August MGM will have received the last in a series of guaranteed video-distribution fees totaling $625 million from 20th Century Fox. Though that deal has three more years to run, the guarantees are expiring, which means that a source of steady income will be far less predictable.

And Parent's production effort - after unsuccessful moves putting the MGM logo on other companies' poor-to-middling films and turning over United Artists, an MGM unit, to Tom Cruise - could sharply increase MGM's costs next year.

Sloan, undeterred, said Parent's push could also bolster the studio's value in a sale. Comcast, which owns 20 percent of MGM, has already passed on buying the rest; 20th Century Fox, which releases MGM's movies overseas in addition to managing its library, is seen as MGM's ideal buyer. Neither company would comment.

Being of someone who will look at a glass half full, I would hope this would give MGM the idea to start digging deeper in the vault and release some great films they have locked up. Especially since Fox's guaranteed payment ends this year.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Hmmmmm with their track record of late, I'd rather not see Fox in charge of the MGM library.

Doug

 

[Jeff_HR]

I'll second that motion!

 

[fernby]

And I'll THIRD it.

 

[Adam_Duncan]

They should let Warner have it. They already own MGM's pre-1986 library of films and the two companies have a long history of working together. They're the perfect suitor.

 

[JPCinema]

But Warner's classic catalog releases have been slowing way down...so they don't need more titles they will not release.

 

[DanMel]

It is sad news but am thankful that between May 07 and May 08 they did manage to release all of their Gary Cooper titles except for two in Return to Paradise and The Naked Edge. These included a very nice print of Man of the West and a completely restored The Westerner. I am very thankful for MGM as I don't think any other company would have released some of Gary's lesser titles like The Adventures of Marco Polo, Casanova Brown, The Cowboy and the Lady, The Real Glory, and the Wedding Night. They were the only none public domain company to release anything on Gary Cooper since May 07 except for Garden of Evil by Fox and a re-release of High Noon by Lions gate.

So thanks MGM as I know there must be a Gary Cooper fan or two working on the release of movies there to have released this lineup in a one year period on dvd:

1. The Cowboy and the lady
2. The Real Glory
3. Vera Cruz re-release
4. The Winning of Barbara Worth
5. The Wedding Night
6. The Adventures of Marco Polo
7. The Westerner restored re-release
8. Ball of fire re-release of long out of print HBO title
9. Pride of the Yankees re-release
10. Casanova Brown
11. Man of the West
12. Along came Jones released several years ago and only one that did not get a re-release in the last year.

For the record I have bought two of every single title listed including the re-releases in support of your efforts to release Gary Cooper movies.

 

[AlanBrom]

So MGM kills of the Midnite Movies again, but are they even releasing anything on DVD in the coming months besides new stuff? If their catalog is so precious yet they're not going to do anything with it, why don't they just pawn it off?

 

[Corey3rd]

they can't license away titles since that would limit the exploitation options for any possible suitors.