MGM/Sony Merger Completed Where does that leave MGM's Preorders? (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movi...eut/index.html

(didn't see a thread on this for the past few weeks, but will merge is another earlier thread presents itself.)

 

[Patrick McCart]

Columbia:

Get "The Alamo" and "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" on the restoration schedule immediately.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Did the Sony consortium; including Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group and DLJ Banking Partners, buy the pre-'86 (which I thought WB owned) 0r the post-'86? Or both?

 

[Damin J Toell]

They bought the corporation that is MGM. This purchase can only include things that the MGM corporation owns. Since the MGM corporation does not own their pre-1986 library, it cannot have been sold to Sony, et al. in this transacation.

DJ

 

[Bryan Tuck]

Damin is correct. Warners owns the pre-1986 MGM library outright.

 

[MatthewA]

There are some inaccuracies in the article; UA was sold to Transamerica in 1967, not 1979.

But is it time to say last rites for Leo yet?

 

[Ed St. Clair]

That's what I thought!!!
Poorly written, as it mostly mentions the pre-'86 stuff!

 

[Dick]

This does not bode well for me.



I can't imagine Sony/Columbia will give a rat's ass about UA and MGM films when it can't even get much of its own library out in proper form. It will probaby do a bang-up job on the Bond films, which I understand was its primary reason for wanting to buy MGM out, and ignore most of the rest. I hope I am wrong. Time will tell.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm more optimistic because I've seen a turnaround from Sony/Columbia during the last six months or so. There's no question that they need to revisit some of their previously released dvds that didn't maintain the correct OAR. I could imagine that Grover Crisp is waiting patiently for an opportunity to get his hands on "The Alamo" or that other film with a bunch of "mad" in its title.






Crawdaddy

 

[Damin J Toell]

The pre-1986 material mentioned in the article (Bond, Rocky, Pink Panther) is still owned by MGM. Turner bought and sold the pre-1986 MGM studio library, but other libraries, particularly the United Artists library, remained intact. So pre-1986 material from studios such as UA and Orion are still owned by MGM (and are now part of the Sony deal).

DJ

 

[Roger Rollins]

I'm seeing all these little articles about the sale of MGM to Sony with references to WIZARD OF OZ, GWTW, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, 2001,, etc. with no reality attached to them. MGM
(as it has been known since mid 1986) is really the corporate successor-in-interest to United Artists Corp, whereas the REAL MGM, was purchased by Turner Broadcasting, and is now, since the Time Warner purchase of Turner in 1996, part of Warner Bros.

The "real" MGM has been dead for nearly two decades. It lives on through the excptional care taken of its legancy by its current owner, Warner Bros.

Turner sold the MGM name back to Kerkorian in late 1986, and Kerkorian then sold the company to a bunch of crooks who were foreclosed upon by Credit Lyonnais. Kerkorian then bought the remanants back in 1997. added the Orion & Polygram libraries to it, only to sell the ungodly mess to Sony.

But NONE OF THIS is the true MGM. It's a shame that MGM, as a true studio, with its own lot and library, came to a demise, but that was NEARLY 20 YEARS AGO!

What we can celebrate is the fact that the assets of the precious MGM legacy is in the knowing hands of Warner Bros.
who has taken exceptional care and pains to give us mind-boggling restorations from that library such as GWTW, MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, and coming soon...OZ.

Let us be grateful that those masterworks are not in the care of a company like SONY whose idea of a special edition
(ANNIE) is PAN & SCAN!

 

[walter o]

this is bad, for MGM was putting out 9.99 priced barebone DVD of AIP, Orion, UA titles, but with Sony, expect a 19.99 to 24,99 SRP, and dont forget, once they hit the 5.99 bargain bin, sony will only make the FS edition available, and OOPing the widescreen version on DVD. So forget about those great double bill midnight movies.

 

[Douglas R]

Roger, you have summarised the position regarding MGM perfectly. I too get tired of reading articles by journalists and others who have no clue as to the status of the current MGM/UA.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm not so sure about that, from what I read on that subject, it might be vice versa with MGM's Home Video having more of an influence on Sony/Columbia Home Video. If the name of the game is to make more profits by selling more units then it's clearly a situation in which Sony can learn a lesson from MGM.

I think it's a bit premature to accept a doom and gloom scenario about this situation.







Crawdaddy

 

[John Hodson]

Some recent discs and announcements - I'm thinking in particular The Professionals SE and Major Dundee (the latter a particularly breathtaking project for fans of classic film) - suggest that Sony are already learning lessons in both price and quality. Now if only they'll grab that ball and run with it, think what they could do with MGM's UA catalogue...

 

[Felix Martinez]

So why were Excalibur, Little Romance, Time After Time (and others...?) released on DVD by Warner, not MGM? Are these titles now in the hands of Sony?

 

[Michael Elliott]

This is good news for the "A" list pictures like Bond. If you're a fan of anything else I don't see how this could be good news. Rumors have it that several "B" products were already pulled from release due to this deal. We know a few titles that's supposed to be released later this year so I'm curious to see if they'll still be released or not.

As someone else said, Columbia can't do anything in reguards to their own property and MGM owns even smaller stuff so it doesn't look good to me. Add to the fact that the studio seems to think it's 1997 still.

 

[Damin J Toell]

The films you note were only distributed theatrically by Orion, and so it's unlikely that they were ever a part of its permanent library. Excalibur was produced by Warner. One of the production companies for A Little Romance was Pan Arts (which was George Roy Hill and Jerry Hellman), and Warner seems to control their productions now. Time After Time (1979) was produced by Warner.

DJ

 

[Ed St. Clair]

I'll stand by my poorly written statement.

 

[Damin J Toell]

What's so poorly written about it? They list those older films as a preface regarding MGM's history and then, later in the article, explain the Turner bought the library. What else should they do? Make no reference whatsoever to pre-1986 MGM studio productions? They never describe those films as being part of the new Sony deal.

DJ