MGM | Principles & Practices

By Arden Phillips

[1]

Metro Goldwyn Mayer

245 N Beverly Dr.

Beverly Hills, CA 90210

(310) 449-3000

http://www.mgm.com

[2]

History

MGM, also known by its full name Metro Goldwyn Mayer, was founded in April of 1924 when Metro Pictures Corporation, Goldwyn Pictures, Louis B. Mayer Productions merged together, thus developing the title “MGM.” MGM is an independent, privately-held, film, television, and home video company that specializes in theatrical and production distribution. The company was incredibly successful right away and for the first 3 decades after it was founded, MGM produced a “Best Picture” nominee at every Academy Awards ceremony. Some of MGM’s most notable titles include “Gone with the Wind,” “Annie Hall,” “The Wizard of Oz,” and “Doctor Zhivago.” [3]

Key Executives

[4]

Gary Barber- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Gary Barber has been with MGM since 2010. Before this, he was the president of Vestron International Group. He also founded Spyglass Entertainment. Under his leadership, the company has been seeing a ton of success with the release of films such as James Bond: Skyfall, 21 Jump Street, and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. Another aspect of MGM that has thrived under the control of Mr. Barber is MGM’s television division.

[5]

Ken Schapiro- Chief Operating Officer

Ken Schapiro has been the Chief Operating Officer of MGM since 2011. Before this, he held a few different positions at numerous companies. The position that was perhaps his most important besides MGM was COO and co-founder of Qualia Capital LLC, an investment company that focuses on the media and entertainment.

[6]

Jonathan Glickman- President, Motion Picture Group

Jonathan Glickman is in charge of the Motion Picture division of MGM. He was previously the president of Spyglass Entertainment. Since he’s been the President of this division, MGM has celebrated the release of Skyfall, which became the highest grossing James Bond film of all time, as well as the release of the first film in The Hobbit series. [7]

Financials

The fiscal year for MGM ends on December 31^st. In 2011, the total revenue for the year was $680.6 million. [8] In 2012, the total revenue was $1.38 billion, which is a 97% raise in revenue. [9] This huge raise in revenue is mostly due to the fact that MGM released both Skyfall, the latest installation in the James Bond series, as well as the first film in The Hobbit series. Both of these films were released in the fourth quarter of the 2012 fiscal year which was a huge reason for the monetary success in 2012. Although the 2013 fiscal year is not over, the second quarter results from this year put the revenue at $821 million. [10] At this rate, the second quarter for this year is already higher than the total revenue in all of 2011. It’s hard to say at this point if 2013 will beat 2012 but with the recent release of the remake of Carrie and the release of the second film in The Hobbit series in December, it’s definitely possible that 2013 will beat or at least match 2012 in regard to revenue. [11]

Competition

Two of MGM’s current biggest competitors include Lionsgate Entertainment Corporation, and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. [12] It’s hard to compete with what’s coming up for MGM (The Hobbit films and James Bond). Lionsgate can be seen as MGM’s biggest rival right now because throughout the next 2 years, Lionsgate will be releasing the next three films in The Hunger Games series. [13] Twentieth Century doesn’t have any majorly anticipated film releases coming up which is why it currently isn’t as big of a competitor for MGM as Lionsgate is. However, Twentieth Century does have two film adaptations of popular novels coming out in the next year. This includes “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green and “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn. [14]

What’s Happening Now

Deal with Amazon.com

On October 22^nd, MGM announced that it had come to an agreement with Amazon.com that will allow Amazon to provide the MGM Television produced show, Vikings to users via Amazon Prime Instant Video. This popular series has aired on the History channel but by making it accessible on Prime Instant Video, it will allow fans another medium to access it through and will provide another form of revenue for MGM’s television distribution branch. The deal not only made Vikings available for streaming, but also popular MGM films such as Annie Hall, Fargo, and Hotel Rwanda. [15]

[16]

Filming Begins on If I Stay

On October 30^th, MGM Studios released a statement announcing the start of filming on the motion picture, If I Stay, a film based on a young adult novel with the same title. The film stars Chloe Grace Moretz (the star of the new MGM film Carrie) as its main character. The book, which was released in 2009, was highly rated and this film will hopefully garner much success since the genre of young-adult fiction has made a very successful transition to the screen world in recent years, an example of this is Pretty Little Liars. [17]

[18]

MGM Wins James Bond Rights

On November 15th, it was announced that MGM Studios in partnership with Danjaq LLC (The production company in charge of the James Bond films) has finally acquired all of the rights to the James Bond series. This legal battle has been going on for 50 years. It all began because of a man named Kevin McClory, the co-writer of the James Bond script, Thunderball. After this script was completed, James Bond creator, Ian Fleming turned the script into a novel with the same name. McClory sued Fleming on the basis that this was a violation of ownership rights. Eventually, this specific incident ended with a compromise but the battle about who owned what in regards to James Bond content went on for the next 50 years until MGM just won the rights to all James Bond related content. [19]

[20]

What’s Coming Up

[21]

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The next film in The Hobbit series is set to be released on December 13^th of this year. The film will star some of the characters from The Lord of the Rings series as well as add some new stars including British actor Benedict Cumberbatch. [22]

[23]

22 Jump Street

This film is set to release on June 13^th, 2014. It’s the sequel to 21 Jump Street which came out last year. The film stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill who play a duo of undercover cops. [24]

[25]

The Hobbit: There and Back Again

This is the final film in The Hobbit trilogy and is set for release on December 17^th, 2014. MGM is hoping for as much success for The Hobbit trilogy as the The Lord of the Rings trilogy received, given it involves many of the same characters and many overlapping plots. [26]

[27]

Bond 24

This film, an installment of the James Bond series is scheduled to be released on October 23, 2015 and will be directed by Sam Mendes, the director of the latest Bond film, Skyfall. The film will star Daniel Craig, who has starred as Bond in the last three James Bond films. [28]

Sources

[1] MGM Logo Image

[2] MGM Address and Contact Information

[3] MGM History Information

[4] Gary Barber Image

[5] Ken Schapiro Image

[6] Jonathan Glickman Image

[7] All MGM Corporate Executive Information

[8] MGM 2011 Revenue Information

[9] MGM 2012 Revenue Information

[10] 2013 Quarter 2 Financial information

[11] MGM Upcoming Releases