Revolution in the world of streaming: for the first time, a platform pays for a film studio.
By signing an agreement to buy MGM for $ 8.45 billion (around 6.9 billion euros), Amazon Prime Video gets its hands on a catalog of 17,000 TV content and 4,000 films with centerpieces like the “James Bond” saga, and intends to relaunch in the race he is leading against two other giants, Netflix and Disney +.
This acquisition, which has not yet been concluded because it must receive the approval of the American competition authority, announces many upheavals.
What is MGM?
Founded in 1924 in Hollywood, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) quickly became a global heavyweight in film and television production. Over the years, the studio illustrated by its roaring lion in the credits of the films will produce masterpieces such as "West Side Story", "Singing in the rain" or "The Silence of the lambs", notable sagas such as " James Bond ”,“ Rocky ”,“ RoboCop ”, then essential series such as“ Vikings ”,“ Fargo ”or“ The Handmaid's Tale ”.
But the studio had experienced recent setbacks: it had become one of the fewest film producers (between five and nine) in recent years, changing owners countless times.
Unable to financially launch its own streaming platform, unlike Warner or Disney, the studio sells for a reasonable price to Amazon.
For comparison, Disney bought Fox in 2019 for ... $ 71 billion (around 58.2 billion euros today).
Why is Amazon buying this studio?
Unlike Netflix, which relies on a strategy of permanent innovations, Amazon intends, like Disney +, to attract new subscribers more with films and series that will immediately speak to the general public.
"The real financial value of this agreement is the treasure of the intellectual property of the complete catalog that we plan to reinvent and develop with the talented team at MGM", analyzed Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and from Amazon Studios.
Better still, by acquiring a well-known film studio, the platform will become a producer of new films and licenses like that of 007 or of “Rocky”.
Can Amazon compete with Disney + and Netflix?
With the MGM, Amazon is taking a big step to stay at their level, or even surpass them. By enriching its offer of films and series that matter, it hunts on the lands of Disney +, which has conquered more than 100 million subscribers thanks to its great classics, from "Snow White" to "Frozen ", The animation wonders of Pixar, but also the" Star Wars "saga, the Marvel and more recently the Fox catalog (" Titanic "," Avatar "...).
Faced with Netflix and its 200 million subscribers inundated with new creations, Amazon does not intend to race for novelties but therefore relies on safe values for its 170 million subscribers.
A figure that could quickly climb if the takeover of MGM was validated.
And the French Salto-type platforms in all of this?
For now, they do not risk much, but eventually, they could be swallowed raw "and become just tabs of Amazon or Netflix", according to Maxime Valette, leader of the BetaSeries fan community.
A bit like the Fox catalog became the Star section on Disney +.
What consequences for the cinema?
Now, it's no longer a historic Hollywood studio that will produce highly anticipated films like "Die Can Wait", the James Bond coming October 8, or the upcoming Ridley Scott, "House of Gucci", but Amazon Prime Video. Will the group take the risk of streaming them directly without theatrical release? “There is little chance, believes Maxime Valette, because the platform would pass for the evil ogre who no longer wants to leave films in the cinema. "
On the other hand, in the future, Amazon could very well reserve MGM productions for theatrical releases, others for its sole subscribers, or still others for a joint release, which is currently practiced by Warner with films such as "Wonder Woman 84" or Disney with "Nomadland".
With one notable exception: France, whose protective media chronology system prohibits a new film from being released in theaters and streaming at the same time.
And the public in all this?
For subscribers, current or future, this buyout sounds like good news. They will have easy access - for the cost of subscription to Amazon - to thousands of prestigious content, masterpieces of cinema, series and outstanding programs. And the competition will inevitably react, even outbid. Better, this buyout means, in the long term, that Amazon will develop products and interactive content on licenses which, for the moment, were confined to the cinema. The platform is already producing a series devoted to the “Hobbit”, and one can imagine that it will soon put one in the works on James Bond or that it creates video games around “Rocky” or “RoboCop”.