by MARIA J. NACER

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Headquarters

MGM Studios Inc.
245 N Beverly Dr.
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Phone: (310) 449-3000 Website: mgm.com

ABOUT

MGM Motion Pictures is one division of the entertainment company, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The division is mainly focused on the production and global distribution of film content. [2] The company was founded in April of 1924 by Marcus Loew, a film exhibitor and distributor. Loew had bought Metro Pictures Corp. in 1920, and after four years he merged his company with Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Productions.

MGM takes credit in the development, production, and co-production of many great classic films like; The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, the James Bond and Rocky franchises,The Hobbit, 21 Jump Street, among thousands of other movies.[3]

To learn more about the company and their films click here.

FINANCIALS

MGM generates revenues by exploiting their content through traditional and digital distribution platforms, as well as from licensing content and intellectual property rights. The company’s last financial report available is from 2014. The same reveals that MGM’s total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2014 was $1.44 million, which suggest that their revenues were $82.5 million lower than the $1.53 billion revenue for 2013.[4] However, this was to be expected being that MGM 2013 revenues include the $1.1 billion gross from the worldwide release of Skyfall from the James Bond franchise.[5]

Although the film division of MGM Studios did better on 2013 than in 2014 in terms of revenues, their net income for 2014 was $155.6 million, a $33.4 million higher than their 2013 net income which was $122.1 million. This was mostly due to their worldwide television licensing which increased $97.1 million in revenues from 2013 to 2014 thanks to their success of their televisions series, which include Teen Wolf, Vikings, among others.[4]

Another thing to consider from the film revenue side of MGM is that The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies grossed $955.1 million at the box office and those numbers will be shown in the financial report for 2015 which could possibly mean an increase from 2014 in film revenues and in net income.[6] The same thing can be expected from the 2016 financial reports where the company will include the gross numbers from big revenues movies like Spectre and possibly Creed (Rocky 7).

 SPRING 2015 RELEASED

So far, MGM’s only Spring 2015 released movie was Hot Tub Time Machine 2, which came out in theaters in February 20. The box office results for the comedy sequel were not good, being that they could not  breakeven with a total gross of $12.3 million for a production budget of $14 million. [7] This number were quite disappointing considering that the first one grossed $64.5 million worldwide with a production budget of $36 million back in 2010.

UPCOMING

The new comedy Hot Pursuit is just weeks away from coming out in theaters. The movie that is set to come out in theaters in May 8, was co-produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and New Line Media, a Warner Bros. subsidiary. [8]

The movie features actresses Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara. Witherspoon is a cop given the task to escort a key witness (Vergara) in the trial of a drug lord. The comedy promises to be really good, hopefully resulting in good box office gross for MGM studios. [9]

To watch trailer and learn more about the movie click on Hot Pursuit.

 

 

 

Another soon to be released film by MGM is Poltergeist, the remake of the 1982 classic horror film. The movie is the result of a co-production with 20th Century Fox and the work of filmmaker Sam Raimi with director Gil Kenan. Featuring the story of a family whose new house is haunted by evil forces, the film opens in theaters May 22.[11] Reviewers say that the marketing has done a good job with differentiating the movie from the original film and the predictions suggest that the movie can easily end up with more that $100 million gross.[12]

To watch trailer click here.

 

Coming out in June 26 is Max. An MGM film co-produced with Warner Bros. that tells the story, inspired by true life events, of a dog that helped US Marines in Afghanistan and is adopted by the family of his handler after a traumatic experience in the battle field. [24]

Aside from all of the above, the most important movie for MGM in 2015 will be Spectre, the 24th film of the James Bond franchise. The last James Bond movie produced over $1 billion and the studio is hoping to top this with a production budget higher than Skyfall’s $200 million.[14]

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is co-producing this film with Sony, and it appears that they have been having some problems with the budget. Although it had been determined that the production budget would be larger than the one for Skyfall, the movie has gone overbudget using more than $300 million for production.[15] In order to decrease their budget Sony and MGM accepted a deal proposed by Mexico in which Mexican officials gave $20 million in tax incentives in exchange for changes to be made to the scrip that portray a positive image of the country. [16] Fortunately, for both MGM and Sony it is much likely that Spectre’s total gross will be higher than the last movie predictions even say that they will  breakeven on the first weekend with a approximate domestic gross of $365 million. [17]

The movie is set to come out in November 2015, if interested in the synopsis click here or watch the trailer below.

The last movie MGM will be releasing in 2015 is Creed a spinoff of the Rocky movies. In the film Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) becomes the trainer and mentor of Apollo Creed’s grandson, Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan). The movie directed by Ryan Coogler is set to come out November 25 of this year. [19]

 

 FUTURE

There are many thing coming in the future for MGM Motion Pictures. MGM studios bought the rights to Robert C. O’Brien’s children’s book Mrs. Frisby & The Rats of Nimh. With Ice Age 5 writer, Michael Berg, working on the script, the story is currently being developed into a live action/animated hybrid to be shown on the big screen. The release date is yet to be announced since the rights where just bought and the movie is still in the process of development, but sources say that the company has plans to turn the series of books into a franchise. [21]

Another project MGM has taken on is the production of the horror film The Belco Experiment. James Gunn, the director of Guardians of the Galaxy, wrote the script several years ago and made a the deal with the head of MGM Motion Picture, Jonathan Glickman. The movie is set to start production in June in Colombia with Peter Safran as co-producer and Greg McLean as director. [22]

OVERVIEW

Although, MGM Motion Pictures had some ups and downs in the last few years, especially in 2010 when they had to filed for bankruptcy, the company has come a long way and is still standing strong.[23] Their 2015 releases and future projects show great potential for success.

SOURCES

[1]“Leo the Lion (MGM).” Moviepedia. wikia, n.d. Web. April 17, 2015

[2] “Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. (MGM): American Movie Company.” Encyclopædia Britanica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., August 29, 2013. Web. April 17, 2015.

[3] “Corporate.” Metro Goldwyn Mayer. MGM, 2015. Web. April 2016.

[4] Metro Goldwyn Mayer. MGM Holdings Inc. Delaware: Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 2014. Print

[5] “Skyfall.” Box Office Mojo. IMDb, April 17, 2015. Web. April 17, 2015.

[6] “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.” Box Office Mojo. IMDb, April 17, 2015. Web. April 17, 2015.

[7] “Hot Tub Machine 2.” Box Office Mojo. IMDb, April 17, 2015. Web. April 17, 2015.

[8] “Hot Pursuit: Armed and Sort of Dangerous.” hotpursuitmovie.com. Warner Bros. Ent., 2015. Web. April 16, 2015.

[9] Madden, Sidney. “Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara are a comedy dream team in ‘Hot Pursuit’.” People’s Choice. One Three Digital, February 13, 2015. Web. April 16, 2015.

[10] “Hot Pursuit.” Metro Goldwyn Mayer. MGM, 2015. Web. April 2016.

[11] “Poltergeist.” Metro Goldwyn Mayer. MGM, 2015. Web. April 2016.

[12] “2015 Box Office Predictions.” IMDb. amazon.com, 2014. Web. April 17, 2015.

[13]“Max.” Metro Goldwyn Mayer. MGM, 2015. Web. April 2016.

[14] “Skyfall.” Box Office Mojo. IMDb, April 17, 2015. Web. April 17, 2015.

[15] Agar, Chris. “ ‘Spectre’ Is Over Budget at $300+ Million; Script Leaks.” Screen Rant. Valnet Inc., 2015. Web. April 16, 2015.

[16] “Mexican officials paid Sony and MGM $20million to rewrite new James Bond film ‘Spectre’ to make their country look good.” DailyMail.com. Associated Newspaper Ltd., March 17, 2015. Web. April 17, 2015.

[17] “2015 Box Office Predictions.” IMDb. amazon.com, 2014. Web. April 17, 2015.

[18] “Spectre.” Metro Goldwyn Mayer. MGM, 2015. Web. April 2016.

[19] “Creed.” comingsoon.net., Craveoline Media, LLC., 2015. Web. April 17, 2015.

[20] “Apollo Creed Movie Poster.” DeviantArt. DeviantArt, 2015. Web. April 16, 2015.

[21] Harris, Rob. “MGM To Adapt Classic Children’s Book, Mrs. Frisby & The Rats of Nimh With Ice Age Writer.” MoviePilot. Moviepilot Inc., March 10, 2015. Web. April 16, 2015.

[22] McMilan, Graeme. “James Gunn Unveils Film Project ‘The Belco Experiment’.” The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, March 31, 2015. Web. April 16, 2015.

[23] “MGM Files for Bankruptcy Protection.” DealBook. The New York Times Company, November 3, 2010. Web. April 16, 2015.

[24] Lafferty, Jennifer. “Military Dog Drama ‘Max’ Comes to Theaters in January.” Stack Gamer. Yardbarker part of FOX Sports Digital, October 27, 2014. Web. April 16, 2015.

[25]  “Spectre Official Teaser Trailer #1 (2015) – Daniel Craig Movie HD.” YouTube. YouTube, LLC, March 27, 2015. Web. April 17, 2015.

[26] “MGM 90th Trailer.” YouTube. YouTube, LLC, January 22, 2014. Web. April 17, 2015.