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What Happens to James Bond, ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ and Other MGM

MGM’s intensive catalog is crammed with acquisitions and titles with distribution rights tied up by different studios

Amazon’s $8.four billion buy of MGM will add over 5,000 films and TV exhibits to Amazon Prime’s streaming catalog. But that doesn’t imply Amazon will change into dwelling to all of MGM hits like James Bond and “Handmaid’s Tale” unexpectedly — or maybe ever. Why? It’s sophisticated.

MGM properties just like the James Bond franchise, “Legally Blonde,” “Rocky/Creed,” “Pink Panther,” “Poltergeist,” “Silence of the Lambs” and “The Thomas Crown Affair” are all anticipated to stream on Amazon Prime when their present streaming offers expire. But different titles, like “Gone With the Wind” and “West Side Story,” are topic to beforehand negotiated offers.

“Oz,” “GWTW,” “West Side Story” and hundreds of movies produced by MGM throughout its heyday in Hollywood’s Golden Age will probably be streaming on HBO Max by phrases of a deal made by Ted Turner in 1986 to buy rights to MGM’s total catalog as much as that time. That sale supplied programming for the early days of TNT and TBS and later served because the launch pad for Turner Classic Movies.

While Amazon will get a lot of notable post-1986 MGM movies and franchises — together with 007, “RoboCop,” “Creed,” “Tomb Raider” and “Legally Blonde” — a lot of what makes the catalog so expansive are the acquisitions made by the studio after the Turner deal (or that weren’t included in that pact). According to a person with data of the MGM catalog, the studio retained rights to sure pre-1986 movies and franchises as a part of the Turner deal, together with the “Rocky” sequence (and subsequent “Creed” spinoffs), and people will go to Amazon as properly.

While some movies are already obtainable on Amazon Prime — together with “RoboCop” and “Tomb Raider” — some are additionally streaming elsewhere, like “Poltergeist” on HBO Max and “Legally Blonde” on Netflix. Eventually, although, most movies on different websites are more likely to find yourself on Amazon when their streaming offers run out. A spokesperson for MGM didn’t reply to TheWrap’s request for touch upon the longevity of those offers.

MGM’s output during the last decade can also be tangled in an online of distribution offers. While MGM retained dwelling distribution rights to the Bond movies, nearly all of movies MGM produced within the 2010s had been distributed by different studios, usually for a distribution payment that didn’t embody possession rights.

On the TV facet, MGM is the studio behind Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” FX’s “Fargo,” CBS’ “Clarice” and Netflix’s upcoming “Vikings” spinoff, “Valhalla” — in addition to a bunch of unscripted exhibits. But MGM’s current manufacturing and licensing offers make it unclear if these or different exhibits can transfer over to Amazon — or if they will transfer when present contracts expire, simply as exhibits like “Friends” and “The Office” jumped from Netflix to HBO Max and Peacock (respectively).

“Clarice,” which is co-produced with CBS Studios, is in negotiations to maneuver over to streaming service Paramount+ for its second season. Meanwhile, Hulu and MGM collectively acquired the rights to “The Testaments,” Margaret Atwood’s followup novel to “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and an MGM insider stated the studio stays absolutely dedicated to Hulu on the venture. Additionally, FX confirmed that any future installments of “Fargo” would air on FX.

“Vikings,” which premiered its ultimate season on Amazon earlier than a run on the History Channel and has an upcoming run on Netflix in sure territories. When it involves “Valhalla,” that can stream solely Netflix.