92 Facts About MGM Studios

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc is an American media company, founded in 1924, that produces and distributes feature films and television programs.

In 2010, MGM Studios filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and reorganization.

MGM Studios was the last studio to convert to sound pictures—nonetheless, from the end of the silent film era through the late 1950s, it was the dominant motion picture studio in Hollywood.

Three years later, an increasingly unprofitable MGM Studios was bought by Kirk Kerkorian, who slashed staff and production costs, forced the studio to produce low-quality, low-budget fare, and then ceased theatrical distribution in 1973.

MGM Studios ramped up internal production, as well as keeping production going at UA, which included the lucrative James Bond film franchise.

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MGM Studios was bought by Pathe Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathe and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio.

MGM Studios produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years.

In 1925, MGM Studios released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.

MGM Studios released The Viking, the first complete Technicolor feature with a synchronized score and sound effects, but no spoken dialogue.

MGM Studios included a sequence made in Technicolor's superior new three-color process, a musical number in the otherwise black-and-white The Cat and the Fiddle, starring Jeanette MacDonald and Ramon Novarro.

The studio's distribution deal with Roach lasted from 1927 to 1938, and MGM Studios benefited in particular from the success of the popular Laurel and Hardy films.

In 1938, MGM purchased the rights to the Our Gang series and moved production to MGM studios, continuing production of the successful series of children's comedies until 1944.

From 1929 to 1931, MGM Studios produced a series of comedy shorts called All Barkie Dogville Comedies, in which trained dogs were dressed up to parody contemporary films and were voiced by actors.

MGM Studios entered the music industry by purchasing the "Big Three" starting with Miller Music Publishing Co.

In 1935, MGM Studios acquired a controlling interest in the capital stock of Leo Feist, Inc, the last of the "Big Three".

MGM Studios produced approximately 50 pictures a year, though it never met its goal of releasing a new motion picture each and every week .

Still, as the Great Depression deepened, MGM Studios began to economize by "recycling" existing sets, costumes, and furnishings from yesteryear projects.

Until the mid-1950s, MGM Studios could make a claim its rivals could not: the studio never lost money, although it did produce an occasional disaster such as Parnell, Clark Gable's biggest flop.

MGM Studios was the only Hollywood studio that continued to pay dividends during the 1930s.

MGM Studios stars dominated the box office during the 1930s, and the studio was credited for inventing the Hollywood stable of stars system, as well.

MGM Studios contracted with the American Musical Academy of Arts Association to handle all of their press and artist development.

MGM Studios received a boost through the man who would become known as "King of Hollywood", Clark Gable.

Rumors had begun circulating for some time that Thalberg was leaving MGM Studios to set up his own independent company; his premature death at age 37 in September 1936 cost MGM Studios dearly.

LeRoy convinced Mayer to acquire the film rights to the popular children's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; MGM Studios purchased the rights from Samuel Goldwyn for $75,000 in 1938.

MGM Studios produced some well-regarded and profitable musicals that would later be acknowledged as classics, among them An American in Paris, Singin' in the Rain, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers .

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Schary's reign at MGM Studios had been marked with few legitimate hits, but his departure left a power vacuum that would prove difficult to fill.

In 1958, MGM Studios released what is generally considered its last great musical, Arthur Freed's Cinemascope color production of Gigi, starring Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, and Louis Jourdan.

However, MGM Studios did release later musical films, including an adaptation of Meredith Willson's The Unsinkable Molly Brown with Debbie Reynolds and Harve Presnell.

MGM Studios took bids for its movie library in 1956 from Lou Chesler and others, but decided on entering the TV market itself.

MGM Studios Television was started with the hiring of Bud Barry to head up the operation in June 1956.

MGM Studios Television was to distribute its films to TV, TV production and purchasing TV stations.

In 1956, MGM Studios sold the television rights for The Wizard of Oz to CBS, which scheduled it to be shown in November of that year.

The studio was all too happy to see Oz become, through television, one of the two or three most famous films MGM has ever made, and one of the few films that nearly everybody in the U S has seen at least once.

In 1933, Ub Iwerks canceled the unsuccessful Flip the Frog series and MGM Studios began to distribute its second series of cartoons, starring a character named Willie Whopper, that was produced by Ub Iwerks.

Harman and Ising came to MGM Studios after breaking ties with Leon Schlesinger and Warner Bros.

The Happy Harmonies regularly ran over budget, and MGM Studios dismissed Harman-Ising in 1937 to start its own animation studio.

In 1961, MGM Studios resumed the release of new Tom and Jerry shorts, and production moved to Rembrandt Films in Prague, Czechoslovakia under the supervision of Gene Deitch, who had been hired away from UPA.

In 1959, MGM Studios enjoyed what is quite probably its greatest financial success of later years, with the release of its nearly four-hour Technicolor epic Ben–Hur, a remake of its 1925 silent film hit, loosely based on the novel by General Lew Wallace.

MGM Studios released David Lean's immensely popular Doctor Zhivago, later followed by such hits as The Dirty Dozen and 2001: A Space Odyssey .

However the company's time was taken up fighting off proxy attacks by corporate raiders, and then MGM Studios backed another series of box office failures, including the musical remake of Goodbye, Mr Chips and Ryan's Daughter .

In 1971, it was announced that MGM Studios was in talks with 20th Century-Fox about a possible merger, a plan which never came into fruition.

Under Aubrey, MGM Studios sold off MGM Studios Records and its overseas theater holdings.

Under Melnick's regime, MGM Studios released a number of successful films in the 1970s, including Westworld, Soylent Green, The Sunshine Boys, and Network, which the studio co-produced with United Artists.

MGM Studios proceeded to return to theatrical distribution in 1981 with its purchase of United Artists, as UA's parent company Transamerica Corporation decided to jettison the studio following the huge financial debacle of Heaven's Gate .

Turner immediately sold MGM Studios's United Artists subsidiary back to Kerkorian for roughly $480 million.

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How much of MGM Studios's back catalog Turner actually obtained was a point of conflict for a time; eventually, it was determined that Turner owned all of the pre-May 1986 MGM Studios library, as well as the pre-1950 Warner Bros.

However, a year later, Parretti's ownership of MGM Studios–Pathe dissolved in a flurry of lawsuits and a default by Credit Lyonnais, and Parretti faced securities-fraud charges in the United States and Europe.

MGM Studios started distributing Carolco's films in January 1994 after its deal with TriStar Pictures ended.

In May 1995, MGM Studios agreed to distribute four of Rysher Entertainment's films in 1996 and 1997 and co-produce and co-finance two or three in that same period.

In December 1997, MGM Studios attempted to purchase 1,000 films held by Consortium de Realisation, but was outbid by PolyGram.

Since 1981, MGM Studios had distributed its films internationally through United International Pictures, a joint venture of MGM Studios, Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures.

UIP was accused by the European Union of being an illegal cartel, and effective November 2000 MGM Studios severed its ties with UIP and distributed films internationally through 20th Century Fox.

In January 2002, MGM Studios formed the MGM Studios Entertainment Business Group with lawyer Darcie Denkert as president.

In 2004, many of MGM Studios's competitors started to make bids to purchase the studio, beginning with Time Warner.

In 2006, MGM Studios announced it would return as a theatrical distribution company.

On May 31,2006, MGM Studios announced it would transfer the majority of its home video output from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

MGM Studios announced plans to restructure its worldwide television distribution operation.

MGM Studios served as New Line's barter sales representative in the television arena until 2008.

Also in 2006, MGM Studios licensed its home video distribution rights for countries outside of the United States to 20th Century Fox.

MGM Studios teamed up with Weigel Broadcasting to launch a new channel titled This TV on November 1,2008.

On November 10,2008, MGM Studios announced that it will release full-length films on YouTube.

Whether MGM Studios could avoid voluntary or involuntary bankruptcy had been a topic of much discussion in the film industry.

MGM Studios had to repay a $250-million line of credit in April 2010, a $1-billion loan in June 2011, and its remaining US$2.

In May 2009, MGM Studios's auditor gave the company a clean bill of health, concluding it was still on track to meet its debt obligations.

Industry observers questioned whether MGM Studios could avoid a Chapter-11 bankruptcy filing under any circumstances, and concluded that any failure to conclude the negotiations must trigger a filing.

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MGM Studios stated in February 2010 that the studio would likely be sold in the next four months, and that its latest film, Hot Tub Time Machine, might be one of the last four films to bear the MGM Studios name.

On December 20,2010, MGM Studios executives announced that the studio had emerged from bankruptcy.

On February 2,2011, MGM Studios named Jonathan Glickman to be the film president of MGM Studios.

Six days later, MGM Studios was finalizing a distribution deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to handle distribution of its 4,000 films and DVDs worldwide and on digital platforms, including the two upcoming Bond films: Skyfall and Spectre.

MGM Studios moved forward with several upcoming projects, including remakes of RoboCop and Poltergeist, and released their first post-bankruptcy film Zookeeper, which was co-distributed by Columbia Pictures on July 8,2011.

In separate 2011 deals, the rights to MGM Studios's completed films Red Dawn and The Cabin in the Woods were dealt to FilmDistrict as well as Lionsgate Films, respectively.

In May 2014, MGM Studios introduced The Works, a channel available in 31 percent of the country, including stations owned by Titan Broadcast Management.

In March 2017, MGM Studios announced a multi-year distribution deal with Annapurna Pictures for some international markets and including home entertainment, theatrical and television rights.

On February 5,2019, Annapurna and MGM Studios rebranded and expanded their US distribution joint venture as United Artists Releasing, marking another revival of the United Artists brand, with the Orion Pictures distribution team and films joining the venture.

In October 2017, MGM Studios's board renewed Gary Barber's contract as chairman and CEO until December 2022.

On March 19,2018, MGM Studios Holdings announced that Barber had been fired by the studio's board of directors.

MGM Studios agreed to a $100 million co-financing slate deal with Bron Creative in June 2019.

MGM Studios was the first studio to delay the film No Time to Die due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In May 2020, MGM Studios made an investment, facilitated by its television group, in Audio Up podcast production studio, platform and network.

Audio Up would produce 5 podcasts per year for MGM Studios and agreed to an exclusive first look for its works.

Later that month, MGM Studios agreed to a two-year film and television first-look development deal with Killer Films.

MGM Studios indicated that month that the license tracking system was fixed.

In December 2020, MGM Studios began to explore a potential sale of the studio, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the domination of streaming platforms due to the closure of movie theaters as contributing factors.

The negotiations were made directly with MGM Studios board chairman Kevin Ulrich whose Anchorage Capital Group is a major shareholder.

Since August 22,2011, MGM Studios's headquarters have been in Beverly Hills, California, where it rents space in a six-story office building.

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MGM Studios planned to house a private theater and a private outdoor patio in the building.

The street leading to the building's garage was renamed MGM Studios Drive and a large MGM Studios logo, illuminated at night, crowned the building.

For several years after the sale, MGM Studios continued to distribute home video releases of those films under license from Turner, though in 1990 it sold all of its home video distribution rights to Warner Bros.

From 1924 to 1973 and 1981 to 2010, MGM Studios has theatrically distributed most of its movies entirely in-house, as well as those of United Artists after July 1981 and Orion Pictures after April 1997.

In October 2017, seven years after shutting down their major distribution operations, MGM Studios re-entered US theatrical distribution by launching an American joint venture with Annapurna Pictures that will share distribution financing between the two companies and release certain MGM Studios and Annapurna films, beginning with the 2018 remake of Death Wish.

From 2006 to September 2008, MGM Studios distributed films produced or acquired by The Weinstein Company .

That same year, in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, MGM arranged to get its films distributed through AB Svensk Filmindustri, which was renamed to SF Studios in 2016.