The Decline of MGM...What Happened?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ย. 2024
- MGM is a classic film studio that has repeatedly fallen tough times. This video attempts to explain the reasons behind the struggle.
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MGM was known as having “More Stars Than There Are in Heaven.” Louis B. Mayer was an absolute tyrant, and not above holding petty grudges. Had Irving Thalberg lived, Mayer may not have had the chance to get so drunk with power.
I agree that the weird buyouts had a lot to do with MGM’s decline, but it was also the changing taste of movie-goers. MGM was well known for splashy, pretty musicals, which were well received by those trying to forget the Depression and WWII. Postwar America began to prefer edgier films like The Best Years of Our Lives. Mayer was stubborn about musicals. His refusal to change led to his being nudged out of a job.
If you’ve never read a biography of Mayer, do so. It’s interesting reading.
Trivia: the story goes that young Elizabeth Taylor got mad at Mayer for speaking harshly to her mother and told him he and his studio could go to hell. Whether or not it was true, I don’t know, but the story appears in more than one of Taylor’s biographies.
PS: I think the disastrous fire at the MGM Grand should have merited a mention.
I know that refusing to keep up with the shifting tastes of audiences can sink any studio, but I’m not sure how much of that came into play with MGM. The post-war drama *The Best Years of Our Lives* came out in 1946. Mayer left in 1951. One of the best musicals MGM ever made was ‘Singing In The Rain’, which came out 2 years after Mayer had left. Musicals such as *Seven Brides For Seven Brothers* (1954), *Kismet* (1955), *Gigi* (1958), *The Unsinkable Molly Brown* (1964) and others kept flowing from MGM with very little let-up. All the ones I’ve mentioned here are today highly regarded as being artistically and culturally important. The studio kept making musicals all the way up to 1994.
Then probably the movie industry would be looking very different.
Fortunately for all of us, Ted Turner purchased the entire MGM catalog and there was nothing left for MGM. MGM was then sold back as you said but Ted kept the films and the rights to show them. Then he turned around and created an insanely popular network for people who love classic films, Turner Classic Movies, or TCM for short. If you love classic films TCM is the absolute only place where you can really see them. Ted also bought Warner Brothers entire classic library of films and got the rights to those. TCM also has an exclusive contract with Sony pictures, who had purchased Columbia, to show all of Columbia's catalog. Along the way he also made a deal to show all of Paramount's catalog and that's what makes TCM so special. Thank you Ted Turner and his lovely wife Jane Fonda who encouraged Ted along the way.
Not gonna lie, that lion really used to scare the heck out of me as a kid.
The fact that the founders of MGM brought a real lion in front of the camera and risked their lives for the MGM logo shows that they have balls.
The lion was probably mildly sedated. Or drunk. (See the opening to Strange Brew)
@@seatspud Pretty sure a drunk lion would still be catastrophically dangerous.
@@seatspud there were IIRC 4 or 5 lions over the years, in varying degrees of sedation or just kept at a distance with the camera zoomed in.
Same here! 😆
Me , Same here
Why would you change your name to the name of a company you’re no longer a part of? This Goldfish dude was the first clout chaser 😂😅
I mean, if my name was GOLDFISH I'd probably change it too.
Unless I could turn it into a pickup line. "The name's Goldfish cause I'm a snacc"
Goldwyn may have given up on MGM, but he absolutely did NOT fall out of the movie industry - he immediately started a second studio, also named after himself, which would produce films of varying success until 1959. His name still adorns modern studios from time to time.
@@bonecanoe86 I lol'd at this!
what u doin here bro
@@bonecanoe86 LMFAOOOOOO!!!! 🤣🤣🤣
We went to the MGM Grand the first year, the whole hotel was Wizard of Oz themed. Had a yellow brick road throughout the lobby which ended at an emerald city mockup. That's about the extent to which I remember MGM since by the 80s they hadn't really been substantial in the movie scene outside of Bond
@@sohotimhot752 do u lik cal of doty balck opz
Being a retro movie watcher, I enjoy some of their old catalogue, but the most recent productions I remember vividly out of them is the Stargate franchise. That, and the spin-off series of Poltergeist I continue to be an unconditional fan of, even though most people long forgot about it.
@@sohotimhot752 imagine spamming comments like this, there are MINORS on youtube, the fact you are advertising this to little children is disgusting. GET OFF OF TH-cam NOW.
@@nozoto
Wait, Spin Off SERIES?! 💀🤣
@@EyeonthePrize247
Yes, Poltergeist: the Legacy, which aired from 1996 to 1999. I also forgot to mention Outer Limits as part of the body of productions of MGM Television, both P:TL and OL were produced by Richard Barton Lewis.
I think there should be a Paramount Pictures "Bigger than you know" video. They own a lot more things than people know.
I think that's more of a video with CBS and/or Viacom.
@@Toonrick12 I guess so
Or their previous owner Gulf+Western since they owned Paramount before Viacom bought the studio.(though it was renamed Paramount Communications in between the two eras)
@@Toonrick12 I would love to see a two-parter of "Bigger Than You Know" from CBS and Viacom respectively, because I feel like CBS has been on a larger scope over the years, not just with radio broadcasting and tv only
@@Merdicano and CBS doesn't own it's radio network anymore. The medium that started it all. CBS is also credited with being the grandfather of broadcast journalism. Now Viacom/CBS also owns a lot more overseas than we know. Great idea!
Cinema was THE art form of the 20th century. And MGM was one of the most important contributors to that art form. They have tremendous cultural relevance that's worth more than money. The name will live forever. They can be bought, sold, go bankrupt, but MGM cannot die.
True I bet they could be bought out or merged by a Japanese studio and let MGM themselves release a bunch of Godzilla movies.
I agree.
@@EmbargomanWell, too late for that now. They're owned by Amazon.
If it's one thing I've learned, when the owners take out huge loans on the company to pay themselves, that's the end of that company.
I don’t even get how this is legal? Putting the company in massive debt to give a stockholder dividend? Seems so shady.
Fr
It is such a shame that MGM lost the ownership of almost all of their classics. 🙁
it's ok, it's in the safe hands of Warner Bros now /s
@@fallout560 *Warner Bros. Discovery
@@SubXero1000WarnerMedia until the Discovery merger gets approved so far it hasn't.
Not really. MGM didn't really take care of them properly, but Warner Bros. has. They've tried to do restorations that are as close to the original film as possible in many cases, even to the point of keeping the MGM titles instead of plastering over it with the WB logo. They're in much better hands today than they would ever have been if they'd stayed with MGM.
@@stephenholloway6893 nah bro, it’s already priced in
I'm not sure "declining" is the correct term for MGM. It's strange they still exist at all. After Kerkorian purchased them, they really ceased being a studio. I know you had to condense this story for a video, but you could literally do ten hours on all the shady deals made with MGM properties since the 80s and still not fully cover it. I loved the tidbit about the guy changing his name from Goldfish to Goldwyn.
Not to mention what is Hollywood Studios in WDW started out as Disney/MGM Studios
@@donaldpaluga I think that was an attraction at the Disney World theme park. MGM the company has no other association with Disney with actual movie production.
I think it was MGM that one of my media class textbooks said was "a studio that failed to change with the times. It's really now just a logo used by United Artists."
When the media giants get trust busted and the studios are given back to the families of those great movie moguls like Louis B. Mayer, the Studio System will rise again and every trace of Crazy Kirk will be undone.
Metro-Goldfish-Mayer would not sound very attractive. I'm surprised Goldwyn allowed them to continue using his name after he left. Must have been some legal technicality.
Fun fact: the Lion roar is actually a Tiger. Lions don’t sound nearly as intimidating as the latter which is why they pair the two.
Yes lions do sound intimidating! A lions roar will shake your bones with fear.
Lions roar can be heard miles away, never heard of a tiger doing that. Also heard this rumor and knew it was bullshit.
I have no idea but guessing they used multiple lions maybe a tiger to but mgm combined the voices together for a louder roar
Lions just roar at a lower pitch than tigers. MGM probably thought the higher pitch played better on speakers at the time. Lions don't sound less intimidating at all and can be heard further away than tigers.
They can be heard farther away though. Case in point: th-cam.com/video/uFcZhH_wFbs/w-d-xo.html
Stop breading bullshit
I guess TLDR is every upswing ended with them selling their valuable assets, until nothing was left.
From theaters, hotels, film archive, United pictures, etc.
It’s honestly rare for a company to be strip mined so frequently, yet still exist. Honestly, that is impressive.
Right? Most only survive one or two asset-strip sell-offs.
Saying they still exist is a stretch really. They’ve been bulldozed and fully absorbed now to the point of being MGM in brand only. Kinda like how LJN was still a publishing label of Acclaim until 1999 even though the actual LJN studio already been shut down in 1993.
Great video. Honestly, I think the Turner purchase of the MGM library was a very important one in the history of Turner Broadcasting. Not only did Ted gain the most valuable library of films, but he utilized the library to build up his networks, including creating TNT, Cartoon Network, and TCM as showcases for those properties.
The AAP library that was a part of MGM/UA had tons of films from various studios, most notably the pre-1949 Warner Bros library, including films like Casablanca and the Looney Tunes shorts that defined the franchise. When Turner merged with Time Warner, the combined company regained a large chunk of their film history and had complete ownership in every Looney Tunes short for the first time in nearly 50 years.
WarnerMedia, to this day, has the largest film and television library on the planet (only Sony rivals them in library content). But that's a story told in another video.
Waiting for your Video 😇
How does Sony rival WarnerMedia's content library?
@@Merdicano Sony owns Funimation and they dub a ton of anime.
@@Merdicano Sony led a consortium that bought out MGM in 2006 and gained exlusive rights to a lot of MGM properties including James Bond's production and distribution rights (until 2016). They own Columbia Pictures, TriStar, Screen Gems, Stage 6 (biggest indie label in Hollywood behind Focus Features). On the TV side, they own Shark Tank, Jeopardy, Millionaire, Pyramid, a ton of gameshows, they've been buying up and investing heavily in a ton TV studios lately. Just last month they bought the studio behind Dr. Who and themselves have a deal to supply Warner's HBO Max with TV shows like Last of Us (highest budget show in Canadian history). Sony is untouched (by a long shot) in the anime industry with Crunchyroll (streaming), Funimation (dubbing) and Aniplex (largest anime producer). I think in terms of library content, I agree especially on the TV side where WarnerBros tends to heavily rely on partners like Sony for production. Warner's role in TV I think is more distributive in comparison. That's why they're merging with Discovery this year. It is because they realise that they cannot keep up the slate of TV content on HBO Max when compared to rivals like Netflix (whom Sony has an exlusivity deal on films and are producing a ton of TV shows for like Dr Who, Cobra Kai, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul). I think the purchase of Discovery might flip this position especially since they'll have access to the largest producer of TV content by output (Discovery).
@@TheSakpra Thanks for the response! I feel a little silly having asked because I knew about some of these beforehand 🤦🏻, but thank you for your response.
And yes, Sony is GIGANTIC in many of those fronts, not just with videogames and electronics, but the several media atmospheres that you mention. They now control about 85% of the anime industry, along with the music industry through labels like Columbia Records, Epic Records, RCA Records, & Sony Classical though Sony Music Entertainment. Though TV, they also own Norman Lear tv library and the Live in Front of Studio Audience tv specials, and have elevated their net worth through licensing of shows like Seinfeld, The Nanny, Bewitched and I Dream Of Jeannie. Along with the Netflix output distribution deal, they did a second deal with Disney+ which will effectuate after their time on Netflix. Also, several of Amazon Prime shows are made by Sony like Alex Rider and The Boys. It's safe to say that Sony is a major entity that holds on their own
One of the costumes that didn't get sold at that auction was the Cowardly Lion costume. It was eventually found by an employee, either in a garbage bag or actually in a dumpster.
Ah MGM, the company with the world record for physically and mentally breaking their breakout stars in the early cinema of the 30s.
They valued money over the conditions of its peoplel
How exactly?
@@staringcorgi6475 like most companies after a few years
No one really cares
@@i8balls Then why did you comment?
There's gonna be a lot of people in these comments who don't realize that MGM Resorts in Las Vegas (formerly MGM Grand and also known as MGM-Mirage from 2004-2010) is a different corporate organization than MGM the studio. They split in 1979, and before the split casinos were ~70% of MGM's income. That was likely to sell the movies off, given in 1975 Time-Life had just announced plans to uplink HBO to satellites and expand it from a regional service on the east coast, and reached all 50 states by 1978.
There are probably also a lot of people in the comments that don't realize that the MGM Grand that exists today on the Las Vegas Strip isn't the original MGM Grand that was built in the '70s. Even Company Man seemed to conflate them in the video.
He kinda does explain the first bit about them splitting off the resorts part of MGM
Damn well this comment and the replies literally answered my questions. I absolutely didn’t know any of this. I read the video title and all I could think about is he’s going to explain why my stay at MGM grand hotel wasn’t what I expected it to be. Now I know that’s not the case I don’t even care about this video.
The original MGM Hotel & Casino is now Bally's ( owned by Caesars) and the current one was built in the early 1990's with a theme park as part of the property.
This information is interesting
I lived in Reno when I was little and I frequently saw that lion! It was kept in the MGM basement near a restaurant I would go to with my mother.
Leo the lion 🦁
Sucks that he was just kept in a basement, the lion was probably bored af
True. The modern day MGM is a shadow of it's former self. & the thought of Amazon buying them creeps me out.
Hmm yeah, its unfortunate how largely they fallen over the years. Although, I have a feeling that Amazon might do good things for them, and considering that they've came out of their bankruptcy period and the success of No Time To Die, we will definitely see a slow resurgence of MGM as a solo company. Maybe not as the titan it once was, but reigniting in some form
@@Merdicano No Time to Die was ok maybe average but it was by no means a massive blockbuster. COVID played a huge roll in taking away profits. But if it goes all girl power WOKE it will hurt any future Bond entries. I liked the Daniel Craig era. I thought it was a step up from Brosnan who is a good actor but not a great Bond. Kind of wanted Dalton to get 1 or 2 more films before it went to Brosnan.
@@bartsullivan4866 I doubt that they will, hopefully the Broccoli-Wilson brothers will stick to their guns and not please them in any form. Also, you call 700 million in revenue an average number? That's still a success in one way or another
CM: "What happened to MGM?"
Me: The same thing that always happens-- greed, incompetence, and shady business deals that make the Mafia seem like a legitimate operation. 😒
I would trust the mafia before a corporation
MGM has fallen so far since the Golden Age that I didn't even know they still existed in anything but name. You can really tell after the court order to sell Loews that the budgets and quality of their films declined, especially if you compare it to their output from the 1930s and 40s. So yeah, I'd agree on that being the beginning of their downhill spiral.
True that, although they're starting to come together and reigniting again these last two years since 2019 and 2021, they're about to release a variety of movies on their own domestically only. Also counting the success of No Time To Die
It's surprising in a way that they got back in the animation business by distribution after they closed the animation studio for the Gene Deitch and Chuck Jones era of shorts. Plus buying Chuck's studio a short time after they began releasing the Jones Tom and Jerry era of shorts.
@@stephenholloway6893 And unfortunately, not within the best results in quality on their return to animation, have you seen the recent Addams Family animated movies? Yikes 😬
@@Merdicano Yeah though that was years after they closed Chuck's studio. Plus they were mostly the distributor of those films. They made 1 more attempt in the animation studio in 1993 but it closed in 2000.
@@stephenholloway6893 Was that attempt the one when All Dogs Go To Heaven got released?
Yeah, it's unfortunate how that studio closed, because what Chuck Jones did for animation at MGM as well as Friz Freleng with The Pink Panther it's iconic
I actually own shares of MGM. I bought them not too long after the crash in 2020 for $19 a share. Today, even with our current market correction, is still up 100%. Once this pandemic is over, if it'll ever be over, the stock should increase even more.
It's a good breakdown. The company stopped prioritizing movies in the 50s. After that business ghouls bought the company to break it apart. In the end even Amazon just wanted pieces
That they have managed to hang on this long in any form is a miracle in and of itself. There but for the grace of God and Roy E. Disney went Walt Disney Productions.
Some damn good research here, CM. I worked in the theater biz for 25 years, and I'd never heard that Sam Goldwyn had changed his name to that.
Also, I have to agree about "Heaven's Gate" being somewhat scapegoated over UA's collapse. The thing is, in the pre release promotions for the movie, in the trades and elsewhere, Cimino bragged about the ridiculous expense they went to for "verisimilitude" and when the movie somewhat tank the bean-counters lay all the blame on that one picture, when in reality every major studio generally had comparable failures--that's showbiz, as they say. Those at the top, who totally looked at the picture business as a BUSINESS, really resented an "artist" messing up their bottom line.
Completely agree.
Before ''Heaven's Gate,'' Cimino had a huge success with ''The Deer Hunter'' and he vowed to get carte blanche from the next studio to give him the Golden Egg.
I remember an Entertainment Weekly article in the late nineties about how well each movie studio was doing, and the consensus was that MGM was barely a studio at all. They put out James Bond movies and occasionally lucked into a non-007 hit (Legally Blonde was an MGM movie) but most of their films came across like projects other studios had turned down.
Actually, the James Bond films originated out of United Artits when UA was at the height of it's power in the 1960s. I liked films like ''Doctor Zhivago,'' ''Victor/ Victoria'' and ''Legally Blonde,'' but hits like that we're few and far between for MGM.
Don't forget Ice Cube's Barbershop. That was the other major modern hit that MGM had that wasn't 007. They finally had a "black" franchise.
One part I thought you were about to mention, and maybe you did, my mind wanders these days, was the soul-destruction part of destroying the lots. Universal saw the potential and made a theme park. It was akin in my mind to destroying opulent Penn Station in NYC in the 60s, to replace it with a cheap claustrophobic hole. If you ever watch That’s Entertainment! - which celebrates MGM with some of its greatest stars still alive but graying - you can sense the mourning of this move that crushes at the very soul of the company. Great stuff as always, sir
Disney was first with a theme park, plus Disney formed Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Studios.
@@Embargoman interesting you mention Disneyland. Initially it was going to be built either within or adjacent to their Burbank studios but as Walt's plans grew they realized the available space in Burbank wouldn't be enough to meet his needs...hence the Anaheim orange grove purchase.
@@ArtamStudio Well, Disney started Touchstone Pictures they made Roger Rabbit and Splash and yet their are other Touchstone property that is what it is another company that make live action movies under Touchstone and they also formed Hollywood Pictures.
Yet not to mention Disney World’s involvement with MGM Studios, but then Disney broke the deal with MGM and it became Disney Hollywood Studios.
@@Embargoman ......and yet THERE are other .........good comment ruined by your illiteracy........
Everything gets filmed in Canada now. Were they even using the lots?
That lion is iconic, the roar in the theatre felt deafening at first. Akin to the THX tune, maybe a video about them soon
I remember when Disney's 'Hollywood studio's' was 'M.G.M. studio's' but all these 'back and forth' sales were one giant cluster, I can't think of anything to say on all the hands and.....'liabilities' like the missing archives, it's like the saying, 'to the victor goes the spoils' had taken on a physical form, that was the passing of hands for M.G.M.
MGM shows and movies where my childhood. TBS and TNT both aired them during the 80's after Turner bought the broadcast rights. They aired so many marathon weekend it makes me wish I had recorded them on VHS at the time.
My childhood too, very much so! I remember the lion before every Tom and Jerry cartoon, before all those Tex Avery shorts, and I watched the heck out of all those cartoons.
I’m surprised that any of those studios are doing well. What was once considered a glamorous industry to be admired has been revealed as sleazy and often criminal.
“Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, there’s a land that I heard of once in lullaby”
1939 is considered to be THE best year for Hollywood movies from all major studios!
Except by WatchMojo, which says it's 1994. That was one of the best years to be sure, but still not as good as 1939.
“Cries in WW2”-Europe
Of course, it took 60 bucks to make a movie. You'd have to really suck to fail.
1999 was also one of the best years for Hollywood too!
@@hotwax9376 both are great years to pick one over the other is like flipping a coin for preference
United Artists primarily existed to release non-studio financed films, and were not film producers like Samuel Goldwyn and M-G-M. They did have a rentable studio lot, which was later acquired by Samuel Goldwyn.
All the movie studios did have to separate from their theater chains, but Loew's theaters still showed MGM movies almost exclusively.
UA was created in 1919 as a chance for independent producers, directors and stars to make films without interference. Sam Goldwyn released his films through UA until he left in 1941 to hook up with RKO.
I always have a soft spot for MGM as the creators (and owners) of Stargate, even though their bankruptcy killed the final films and shows. It sounds like we're going to get a reboot on Amazon so that's good.
I'm surprised stock purchases by debt that benefit majority shareholders are legal.
Right!!!! I was like, wait isn't that fraud!? 😅
Yeah, not sharing profit, just taking a huge loan for the sole purpose of enriching shareholders.. I guess that’s because the shareholders voted on it though. Bleh.
I guess that would be on the creditors issuing the loan? As the lender there's a good chance you won't see your money back as the money isn't going towards business expansion.
Dude, you glossed over the sale of the fabled MGM Backlot for real estate. Also, a large portyion of their woes was the strategy starting in the late 1950's to try and make it through the year with one annual big budget spectacular. It worked with Ben-Hur but starting failing year after year following that.
The original MGM studio was the golden age of Hollywood is when the film industry cared about their audiences! The original MGM went defunct in the 1980s, the MGM shell company went bankrupt by Sony and Ted Turner. And Amazon is just buying the MGM shell company for the James Bond 007 franchise!
Anything to keep *Chitty Chitty Bang Bang* out of the clutches of The Mouse.
@@Attmay I’m so glad that Disney doesn’t own MGM, but I wish Amazon wasn’t buying the studio, because I want them to be independent.
Don't you mean went bankrupt and was bought up by....?
@@Glittersword they were bankrupt long after Ted Turner sold them off and Sony helped reorganize MGM to help them fund Daniel Craig-era 007 movies, MGM later turned a profit with Sony’s distribution.
MGM only cared about their audiences to the point where they could make money. Just like any other business.
Today, MGM is known more for its hotel & casinos than it is for making films.
#SadButTrue
Cause they're actually two separate entities now.
If it weren’t for James Bond and the Addams Family no one in Hollywood would know who they are
The irony is that 20th Century Fox is going through a similar situation with Disney buying the studio
I hate Disney, from top to bottom.
Actually, it already went through the situation and its now closed in a coffin, say hello to 20th Century Studios
@@AnotherPointOfView944 all companies have shady history cool it with the Disney hate only no studio is clean
@@captainjakemerica4579 Disney is the major company buying and destroying many cherished and beloved franchises, It's very hard not to hate them.
@@josh1200 they aren't destroying shit Star Wars is debatable and Marvel has only risen
Very well done research and storytelling! I grew up watching turner classic movies, so helped explained seeing MGM a lot there!
i never knew they had so many movies in their catalog! ive seen quite a few of them, but never knew it was so vast. i remember, as a kid, going to disney world and visiting MGM studios seeing all the memorabilia....a simpler, happier time. great video as always, mike! 😀
In the Golden Age of Hollywood, all the studios were churning out 50, sometimes 60 movies a year.
Fun fact William Hanna and Joseph Barbara worked in MGM to create tom and jerry
I thought that was well known
Yeah in their animation department. Also great works that came out of MGM’s animation department include the works of Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Tex Avery
And with Ted Turner's acquisition of the pre-1986 MGM library, Hanna-Barbera (which was also bought by Turner) were able to get the Tom & Jerry IP back, and now it's the second most important franchise of the studio, next to Scooby-Doo.
As you mentioned, you focused on the business aspect, but after Irving Thalberg died MGM was never the same. The creative drive became one of greed and its demise was predictable and inevitable. Also, television had more of an impact than just an impasse. This year (2022) is the anniversary of Judy Garland's birth.
Technically, every year is an anniversary of someone's birth...
@@TimmyTickle They mean the 100 year anniversary, which is counted as a milestone.
Company Man: ‘In a leveraged buyout…’
Me after watch CM for a while: “Uh-oh”
MGM was slow to transition to TV production. The antitrust dissolution of their successful business model and the advent of television ended the Golden Era of Hollywood for MGM and all the major studios, but opened the gates to independent production companies.
I would also imagine that Amazon would do something with the Stargate Series. Its about the most recent thing that made MGM money and still has a large following that Amazon would have control over. James Bond was something they distributed, but never got ownership rights over. The writers don't want to do a TV show, but MGM does for Bond at least.
PBS was one of the few stations that would come in for my family on our old B&W back when I was growing up in the late 80s and early 90s and they played a ton of MGM movies, to this day when I think of classic cinema I think of MGM and I think it is sad they have spent my whole life being bought and sold the way they have.
Most of my physical media collection is MGM films.
Great video about my favorite film studio.
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The MGM film library ended up in Warner's hands when Time-Warner bought out Turner Broadcasting System in July 1996.
The deal was worth $7.5b They wanted CNN more than anything else . . .
but also got the three channels TNT, TCM, TBS (since renamed Peachtree TV) and took the MGM movie library in the transaction.
MGM, thru Credit Lyonnais, assembled the 2nd biggest library of modern movies. They own the libraries to the Cannon Group,Orion Pictures, Island Pictures, Moviestore Entertainment, Empire Pictures,Trans World Entertainment, AIP, Filmways, Hemdale, MCEG, Manson International, 21th Century Film Corp, Atlantic Entertainment Group, Motion Picture Corp of America, United Artists, and several small production companies. Amazon just wants the library and the name to exploit .
Problem is, most of what's in that library are B-movies and genre films that not a lot of people watched.
My dad worked for the company back in 86 when it was bought (temporarily by Ted Turner). He bought it and then after a few months he sold it back to them, however, he did keep a good amount of content MGM had at the time. Boss was pretty insane to buy a company of that caliber, and I wasn’t surprised he had to sell it back to them.
MGM in tough times? I thought I would never see the day…
I heard a joke about a Japanese businessman who sent his son to attend college in the USA. However, the boy wasn't interested in learning, and ditched school entirely, using his father's money to watch movies. One day, his father wanted to see what he's learned, so he asked him to say four words in English. The young man responded with the only three words he'd learned: "Metro. Goldwyn. Mayer."
"So," the father asked, "what's the fourth word?"
The son responded, "Roooooar!"
🤦♀️
😑😑😑
The lamest joke I've ever heard
Classic!
This was so trash 🗑 😂
One business move that arguably disassembled the MGM empire might be the sale of their distribution arm to United Artists in the early 70s. So in a sense, their movie business basically relied on studio facilities and everything else was just money flow (Production went to outside studios and independent units as well).
honestly turner deserves a video of its own if you havent done it before, its a really interesting story
How long are we going to wait til the fan requested video comes out??
"TH-cam - Why They're Hated"
I have no plans to make that specific video but there are plenty of other highly requested videos on the way.
@@companyman114 why not?
MGM was at it's zenith in the early to mid 40s, and went downhill from there. By the late 50s, everyone in that industry already knew MGM's golden age was finished. Kirk Kerkorian was basically a corporate raider, and picked at the bones of what was left of this once mighty studio. However keep in mind, that many other studios from that time are still with us today and quite powerful in their own right. Fox and Disney (both the same company now) Warner's, Universal, Paramount, and Columbia, which is now Sony. Obviously MGM did something, many things, wrong.
Thank you for making this video, I've always wanted to know why MGM's classic library is owned by Warner Bros. and its a shame to see such what was once grand motion picture empire fall from grace, I do hope things get better for company and regain their old archives from Warner.
Even though I’m in my 30’s, I have an attachment to MGM because of my love of classic movies. The companies mismanagement post-60’s epic era was just awful.
This was good, and I learned stuff I didn't know.
One I'd like to see a video on is "Bally". They've now got the cable sports channels, but they've delved into video games, fitness centers, and God knows what else. I'd like to see a breakdown of where they've been, and how they got where they are.
I guess Selfish wasn’t an option for combining the names😆 Some of my favorite movies are MGM. I love musicals and I think they made the best
Yeah, it's pretty much universally agreed that they had the best musicals of the Golden Age, and I'd say Warner Bros. was second after that.
@@hotwax9376 I mean, WB had Bubsy Berkeley. Hard to top if you ask me.
@@LorraineMcFly Well, he did some musicals for MGM as well. The one that comes to my mind is Small Town Girl with Ann Miller.
@@hotwax9376 Yeah. But the majority of his most memorable work was done at WB.
@@LorraineMcFly Which is one reason why I say they were always the bridesmaid but never the bride when it came to musicals in the Golden Age. Warners also distributed 42nd Street and the Gold Diggers series.
You should do “Decline of” videos on RKO (another Hollywood studio) and Dunlop (which also got broken up like MGM did)
You always come through with these great videos, thank you!
Your commentary is legendary! All jokes and sarcasm aside! Keep working hard! And if anything or anyone tries to get in your way let us know!!!
You wanted feedback and here it is. These are perfect videos. Here’s why. You give us a 30,000 foot view of the companies without getting off track an in the weeds. Do some like the weeds? Yes. However, most don’t. Personally, I like the 11 minute here are the major highlights and facts. You are, in essence, the cliff notes of the history of a company. No BS, no personal feelings, just facts and interesting notes. That’s why you have so many subscribers now. Thank you for staying consistent since the beginning.
What a fustercluck of business deals. Not being "business minded" it's hard to wrap my head around all that.
Well done for this labyrinth of a story. I think there were a couple significant things underemphasized. First, United Artists was nearly bankrupted from “Heaven’s Gate,” probably the last great debacle of 70s excess. Second, the MGM casino fire disaster was huge in the early 80s, a one two punch that set them away from a strong movie brand.
I actually like that you stick to business stuff! I typically don't care much about business (art history person) but I find this channel fascinating because I do wonder why certain companies seem to struggle or disappear. Keep up the good content!
Everyone knows MGM was a nightmare to work with but true art has a lot behind it, and perhaps everything is worth it... Just for the art out put by MGM
Yes! It’s still is a scary logo along with the Viacom “V of Doom”, Screen Gems “S From Hell” and the Paramount Television “Closet Killer” and “Blue Mountain” among the top 5 lists of scary logos. MGM is my #1 pick of the most scary logo ever made, because the lion is nightmare fuel.
@@Musicradio77Network go away
@@Musicradio77Network Really? Leo the Lion never scared me when I was a kid.
Wow, normally it's leveraged buyouts that are the kiss of death, but MGM was a zombie company even before that! Really interesting video!
I loved collecting those MGM Midnite Movie double features on DVD.
I actually did an internship at one of the companies Samuel Goldwyn started after. Samuel Goldwyn Films still puts out a lot of good stuff and is actually run by Goldwyn's grandson I believe.
Tony Goldwyn?
Samuel Goldwyn Films I know released Mimimata, starring Johnny Depp.
That movie was supposed to be released by a MGM division but due to them woke people, the studio sold it to SGF instead.
This was an interesting production. Thank you. I was wondering why you didn't go further with the public side of MGM / casino operations, as they own most of vegas strip now. I believe it's a separate company, but MGM Resorts International
I remember as a kid going to the mall in the basement of the MGM hotel and casino in Reno. There is where they kept a male lion that you could pay to get your picture taken with. The old cat was completely harmless, doped up on sedatives. I was just a little kid, but I knew it was not right.
From the business side, it seems like loading up the company with debt was the new owners' main aim. Not sure I'll ever understand that.
On the artistic side, they did release Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey nearly a decade before 20th Century Fox's Star Wars. If a lot of today's film fans haven't seen MGM's trademark musicals, the many sci-fi/fantasy fans have at least been indirectly affected by that one film.
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MGM also is behind my favorite and longest running movie series the James bond films
Sort of, United Artists started the James Bond films but after MGM bought UA they took over the Bond films. Similar with the Pink Panther films.
I would like to suggest a video on Tristar. That is a fascinating collapse.
They were on a roll until 1998, when the failure of Roland Emmerich's Godzilla really held them back.
Tristar was never the same after that.
Fun Fact: the lion roar isn't actually a lion's roar, that's a tiger's roar.
Delete this
Same thing with the roars in The Lion King
@@DocSpengler What's wrong with you
Aww... Sure sounds like a lion. Can you back up your claim?
Hazardous knowledge
When I was a little kid (early 90s), I was glad to have fun at their MGM park when living in Vegas. The water rapids, and pirate show were the best.
Mgms lion is the most iconic studio opening ever
IRYO, the lions of MGM are still giving me nightmares and it frightens people.
For a long time, I was confused by how Warenr Bros got the rights to Wizard of Oz. I wonder how MGM got the rights to the early 90s Addams Family movies.
When I was a little kid back in the 1960s-1970s, I was scared of Leo The Lion roaring before the films.
MGM is known as the "Queen of the Studios" "Where there are more Stars than in the Heavens" will remain in the minds of those who remember her best. Thanks for Louis B. Mayer for giving us the greatest studio during the Golden Age of Hollywood. A studio that will remain with such a status, regardless of the trials and tribulations that have resulted since the end of the Contract and the end of Censorship in the movies. In many ways, the old system created the greatest movies that have been known in the Heavens. Such will never happen again. No more Garbo's, Pickford's, Gilbert's or Valentino's on the horizon. Only the "Hollywood trash" we know today, especially with what has recently happened at the Oscar Awards Ceremony. No more Passing Parades as they have all passed.
The greatest thing Ted Turner ever did in his career was buy the MGM film archives. He sold off a lot of what he bought but he kept the important stuff. The stuff that really mattered.If it weren’t for him, you may not ever be able to see these movies now. He basically preserved movie history.
Watching your videos is like taking an amazing college course. I have learned so much.
Thank you for pointing out that Gone With the Wind is STILL the highest grossing film of all time, 83 years after its release.
No one working today comes even remotely close to the level of fame or power Clark Gable had at his peak fame during the "Wind" days.
GWTW is a film about the South. Gable's character was Southern yet he refused to use a Southern accent in the film. He didn't like the way he sounded using one so he just decided he wasn't doing it.
He was so famous and had so much power the studio said "Oh, okay! You can be from the South but not use an accent!"
Can you imagine?!
Also, he was allowed to use the word "damn" in the film which was a direct violation of the Hayes Code, the organization which was in charge film censorship during that era.
MGM paid a fine of ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS in 1939 for the right to use the word "damn" in the film.
One hundred thousand dollars in 1939.....
The only reason the Hayes Code board allowed it, and I do mean the ONLY reason, was because Gable is the one who would be saying it.
Yes, Gable was THE King of Hollywood in the 1930s, and yet, in that decade, Gable won his only Best Actor Oscar on loanout to Columbia Pictures, a studio L.B. Mayer looked down upon.
Mike, I’ve been here with you for so long because you make videos right. I don’t need every quarterly report or small setback throughout the company’s life. I’ve seen 1 mil people agree with me since I found this channel.
Quarterly reports? What are you referring to Steve?
I wasn't expecting that a co-founder of one of the most famous film companies was named "Goldfish."
Warned Bros made smaller films than MGM at the time, Universal was a B-movie studio. Interesting how things turn out
2:00 I’d change my name too if my last name was Goldfish 😅
I'd keep it and say my great grandfather invented gold fish crackers
All this craziness, but as a kid growing up in the 90s, I most associated MGM with the name of a theme park at Disney World (since then renamed Hollywood Studios).
Loews Theaters we’re sold to AMC and the unsuccessful theaters were turned into hotels, which are still today known and publicly traded as Loews Hotels. (Subsidiary of Loews Corporation)
That roaring lion is right up there with the THX sound theme for the most iconic parts of the movie going experience.
MGM did have a role in producing Stargate SG1 though in the 90s - definitely counts as a major thing in my book!
Don't forget the reboot of The Outer Limits as well!
Part of the reason MGM declined is that they didn't have as much success producing TV shows as its peers like 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers. Paramount's two biggest franchises, Star Trek and Mission: Impossible, were originally made for television by Lucille Ball's Desilu company, which it bought in the late sixties.
Great stuff. I worked for the company late 80s to mid 90s and honestly didn't know what was going on and who owned what? Also the deal made with fox video as well as Warner home video at the same time caused more confusion of release dates theatrically to who would release it on video.
Awesome!! I love your videos.
Me too
Thanks so much!
I feel that I get so much nostalgia from your videos that your voice now immediately gives me a nostalgia no matter what.
When you said "I would attribute a lot of their early success to taking advantage of...' I thought you were gonna say 'young girls and working them to an early grave'. RIP Judy.
MGM,like 20th Century Fox,was now focused on shareholders than movies,things had changed some of their movies had done poorly at the box office and had been taken over by people who cared little about the film business-all they cared about was what they saw in investment (,real estate,hotels,etc,)
I will always remember the lion
I worked at a United Artist movie theater as a teenager! That was my first job actually. The theater claimed it was the largest screen in Texas when it opened!