Amazon Acquires MGM Film Studios for $8.45 Billion

One more season is in the works, then it's done. It's supposed to be on Hulu only.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Out of curiosity do you hate the conservative media for the exact same argument?
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Absolutely. Full disclosure, on some topics I absolutely lean towards being a conservative. However, conservative media (what little there is by comparison) is often just as bad. However, it's not as mainstream and not as widespread from where I'm sitting. You have Fox and Tucker Carlson, that's about all that I'm aware of that's remotely credible or close to mainstream. Past that you have nut jobs like Alex Jones who are as bad as anything on the left, possibly even worse. I also haven't forgotten the 1980's where the right was pretty much in total control of everything the way the left is now. I remember the conservatives screaming about shows like the A-Team being too violent and British people whining that Doctor Who kissed a female companion. The puritanical beliefs and preaching about Christian family values was always annoying. The right is also the same side who has politicians screaming about family values and the sanctity of family and good Christian living while sucking off strangers in a public bathroom glory hole.
 
So fun bit of conspiracy theory stuff.
Trump loves ripping on Bezos
Bezos now owns MGM
MGM owns the rights the "The Apprentice"
Bezos now owns all The Apprentice outtakes that supposedly have Trump doing and saying a lot of bad things.
Bezos bought MGM to spite Trump
 
Dan_D said:
This is incorrect on virtually every level. Star Trek: Discovery is a woke dumpster fire. The difference between classic Star Trek up through Voyager and Enterprise and something like STD is striking. When TNG or DS9 presented a progressive or liberal idea, it was done with some subtlety in most cases. Even when it wasn't, the opposite viewpoint was presented as well. While the characters in the show would make their own decisions based on things in the show and based on that character's viewpoint, the viewer wasn't lectured or brow beaten by either side. We were left to decide what was wrong or right for ourselves. The Orville is oddly better at this than even Star Trek TNG or Deep Space Nine were.
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This is demonstrably and categorically false.

The original Star Trek had an episode with characters that were literally half-black and half-white, while another had Uhuru and Kirk kiss despite the objections of network executives. TNG tackled gender identity (albeit softly) in "The Outcast;" DS9 made people more comfortable with LGBT romance, and directly addressed anti-Black racism in "Far Beyond the Stars." Voyager addressed mixed-race identity (Torres), among other issues. In these cases, the social issues brought up were explicit; there was no "both sides" rhetoric. And that's not counting the inherently progressive nature of the entire franchise, which strives for pacifism as well as inter-cultural acceptance and understanding.

And while I won't go in-depth on the other missteps... you do know Captain Marvel from the movie is based on the 2012 comic, right? And that Superman was born near-flawless?

Now, you don't have to like the execution of that approach. I'd say Discovery is occasionally heavy-handed even by franchise standards, and a good character should be flawed enough that they feel relatable and generate sympathy. But to pretend that your favourite series delicately broached subjects and pretended there were usually valid points on both sides? Nah, that's the revisionism we often apply to past shows to preserve the impression we have of them from our memories, not what they were really like.

At any rate, that's as far as I'll go on this subject... we're supposed to be talking about Amazon buying MGM!
 
HAL_404 said:
"Amazon intends to allow MGM to operate as usual"

LOL, yes, right.
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I suspect some parts will be exactly the same, but you just know it's drooling at the thought of releasing major MGM movies on Prime Video either simultaneously with theatres or exclusively after the initial theatrical run.
 
Lakados said:
So I am looking over the long ass list of MGM releases over the past 100 years or so
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer_films


And that gets them a lot more IP than I thought was there, but I think the assets are more valuable to Amazon than the IP for much of it. Especially if they want to get into content creation more than just serving it out.

How long till either Amazon or Disney buy Paramount at this rate?
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Paramount is owned by Viacom, so they're pretty safe for now.
 
Derangel said:
Paramount is owned by Viacom, so they're pretty safe for now.
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Not quite, Philippe Dauman was the last holdout in not selling, he's been ousted and is putting his 80% stake in Viacom, and 49% stake of Paramount up on the bidding block. Viacom has been looking to unload Paramount since 2016.
What is also in the works is WarnerDiscovery is also fishing around and Disney is supposedly circling which would get them the DC and Harry Potter IP's
 
Lakados said:
So fun bit of conspiracy theory stuff.
Trump loves ripping on Bezos
Bezos now owns MGM
MGM owns the rights the "The Apprentice"
Bezos now owns all The Apprentice outtakes that supposedly have Trump doing and saying a lot of bad things.
Bezos bought MGM to spite Trump
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Its possible that now the apprentice will never end up on any streaming platform. Probably did everyone a favor. As for digging up dirt... if this had happened while trump had any power I would have agreed it may have been the only reason.

I don't doubt the apprentice falling in amazons hands was icing on the cake.
 
Verge said:
That movie was filmed like 3 year ago. Gonna have iphone 8's in in it.
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A decent chunk of change is spent to pay for digital alterations of films stuck in extended production to update product placement to whatever is currently on sale when the movie is finally scheduled for release.
 
Verge said:
That movie was filmed like 3 year ago. Gonna have iphone 8's in in it.
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My friends at the local Range Rover dealership swore that movie was gonna sell RR defenders. I’m not sure what Land Rover paid for the placement but I bet it’s a fair amount. Now they can’t even get adaptive cruise control parts.

It’s funny.
 
Lakados said:
Not quite, Philippe Dauman was the last holdout in not selling, he's been ousted and is putting his 80% stake in Viacom, and 49% stake of Paramount up on the bidding block. Viacom has been looking to unload Paramount since 2016.
What is also in the works is WarnerDiscovery is also fishing around and Disney is supposedly circling which would get them the DC and Harry Potter IP's
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While Disney could easily throw enough money to get that deal passed federal regulators, I'd like to assume there's a zero percent chance of it getting approved in the EU....But, they were allowed to get Fox and ATT was allowed to get WB so.......
 
Derangel said:
While Disney could easily throw enough money to get that deal passed federal regulators, I'd like to assume there's a zero percent chance of it getting approved in the EU....But, they were allowed to get Fox and ATT was allowed to get WB so.......
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Yeah, I’m super dubious it would happen but given what Disney has done with Marvel and compare it to what WB has done with DC… and the geek in me wants to see what Disney can do to the DC. Because I don’t see it being worse….
 
Krazy925 said:
My friends at the local Range Rover dealership swore that movie was gonna sell RR defenders. I’m not sure what Land Rover paid for the placement but I bet it’s a fair amount. Now they can’t even get adaptive cruise control parts.

It’s funny.
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Pretty sure it was supposed to come out pre-covid, and they delayed it.... OOOPS
 
Aurelius said:
This is demonstrably and categorically false.

The original Star Trek had an episode with characters that were literally half-black and half-white, while another had Uhuru and Kirk kiss despite the objections of network executives. TNG tackled gender identity (albeit softly) in "The Outcast;" DS9 made people more comfortable with LGBT romance, and directly addressed anti-Black racism in "Far Beyond the Stars." Voyager addressed mixed-race identity (Torres), among other issues. In these cases, the social issues brought up were explicit; there was no "both sides" rhetoric. And that's not counting the inherently progressive nature of the entire franchise, which strives for pacifism as well as inter-cultural acceptance and understanding.

And while I won't go in-depth on the other missteps... you do know Captain Marvel from the movie is based on the 2012 comic, right? And that Superman was born near-flawless?

Now, you don't have to like the execution of that approach. I'd say Discovery is occasionally heavy-handed even by franchise standards, and a good character should be flawed enough that they feel relatable and generate sympathy. But to pretend that your favourite series delicately broached subjects and pretended there were usually valid points on both sides? Nah, that's the revisionism we often apply to past shows to preserve the impression we have of them from our memories, not what they were really like.

At any rate, that's as far as I'll go on this subject... we're supposed to be talking about Amazon buying MGM!
Click to expand...

Those are good examples and I would agree those were one sided and particularly heavy handed for classic Trek. However, I still never felt brow beaten and insulted by those episodes. Why do you suppose that is? I never felt like I was being lectured by the ideology or subjects being presented in the plot. Probably because there was an entertaining show around it, which is more than I can say for New Trek. Also, old Trek never had to build women up by tearing men down or prop up one ethnic over another group by demonizing them.
 
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MarkVI said:
I'm always confused by people complaining about liberal ideas in sci-fi. It's not exactly a new phenomenon. Have people forgotten the black woman, Japanese man, and Russian on the bridge of the original Star Trek? It may not seem that unusual now, but in the context of the times it was pretty revolutionary. Have they forgotten literally everything about The Next Generation? Generally sci-fi and fantasy authors are pretty open minded and liberal. Do people expect shows about meeting and interacting with alien cultures to be anything else? I guess someone could make a colonialist/imperialist sci-fi show, but I don't think it would make for very pleasant viewing.
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Fair point. It made sense to recognize other cultures/ethnicities when they were being underrepresented. However, the difference between that and "wokeness" is that then, those characters were just part of the norm. They were treated as equals.
"Wokeness" goes too far. It beats people over the head that others are different, instead of just accepting who they are. It pushes racial division. It forces cast members that are intentionally more diverse than what is normal in society and recruits less talented people solely, because of their skin color. It pushes people to be guilty for who they are, for no fault of their own. That promotes segregation over equality.

One thing is for sure with this purchase, movies are only going to get worse!

So Amazon now owns part of Vegas, too?
 
Things are once again coming full circle. Everyone was hating on cable and saying that they only wanted to pay for "what they want to watch." Then we got 8-million streaming services that divided up all the worthwhile content so you had to subscribe to a pile of them. Now they're all consolidating and we're inching back toward the cable model again.
 
Domingo said:
Things are once again coming full circle. Everyone was hating on cable and saying that they only wanted to pay for "what they want to watch." Then we got 8-million streaming services that divided up all the worthwhile content so you had to subscribe to a pile of them. Now they're all consolidating and we're inching back toward the cable model again.
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And I went from saving a lot of money on cable all those years with Windows Media Center, to saving a lot on all these streaming services with Plex :) (legit DVR + from disc content with each all this time) - I think the most I payed for cable TV only ever was $50 + CableCard fee of $2 (now cable is included in my HOA fees at new place so I have it whether I want it or not - Cable Card is now free too with new ISP - Comcast) - Netflix discs (not constant, on and off as there's stuff I want) + Redbox whenever + shared Plex libraries from other Plex users that we all share with each other (only me and 2 of my buds, not some vast network) - only thing else I've ever actually needed is Youtube, which is free.

Even music, I've been listening to K-Rock (now Alt 92.3) from NY all these years streaming online + free Pandora + my music in WMC or again later Plex - I don't nor ever have paid for music streaming either.

I don't know what I'm getting at here - I've just always been happy the way I've approached TV and never felt like I was underwater or wasting money or missing out - both cost and experience.
 
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Dan_D said:
Unfortunately, I'm afraid of what that might look like if made today.
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You'd get this, but the robot would be transorganic.

1622140811141.png
 
Domingo said:
Things are once again coming full circle. Everyone was hating on cable and saying that they only wanted to pay for "what they want to watch." Then we got 8-million streaming services that divided up all the worthwhile content so you had to subscribe to a pile of them. Now they're all consolidating and we're inching back toward the cable model again.
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And that was almost certain to happen, cable tv was an over 200 billions industry, going from that to a single low fee streaming platform would have been a destruction of revenues even bigger than the music industry had potentially, ott streaming went from showing only to mostly already monetized content to the main window over time.
 
LukeTbk said:
And that was almost certain to happen, cable tv was an over 200 billions industry, going from that to a single low fee streaming platform would have been a destruction of revenues even bigger than the music industry had potentially, ott streaming went from showing only to mostly already monetized content to the main window over time.
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It's pretty much inevitable in almost any industry. The fact is, a few players who are hugely successful will buy up other services and consolidate into mega-giants. At the end of all this there will probably only be two or three services to choose from. More than likely, people will end up subscribing to one or more of those anyway. Overtime, successful businesses will crush the bulk of their competitors. We've seen it happen time and time again.
 
Probably already said, but I am glad it wasn't Disney. It was slowly becoming a monopoly on film/tv entertainment.
 
Jagger100 said:
I think people confuse Politics with Preachy Propaganda. There are some people so far gone they can't tell the difference with How Star Trek handled say Vietnam back then and how it's handled in current year. There's a difference in broaching a topic, looking at it in abstract sometimes to the point of it not being recognizable, debating both sides and finding a common ground solution (SG-1, old Trek for example) and a thinly vailed Orange Man Bad pontification.

So when people say they don't want politics they mean they don't want moralizing on current year politics.
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Indeed. Shows are much more in-your-face preachy now. If someone denies that, they are either being disingenuous or they're just blind-stupid.
 
Dan_D said:
Unfortunately, I'm afraid of what that might look like if made today. If they keep Brad Wright onboard it has a chance as Travelers was pretty awesome.
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I'd like an SGU wrap up movie - even if you don't bring back all of the cast under the guise
hypersleep screwed up - a bunch died and the ones left aged in hypersleep - even better for drama if Eli did it trying to fix shit
 
sfsuphysics said:
When people say they don't want politics, what they very often mean is they don't want things that clash with their view of what they like. It's an age old argument, like when people bash the liberal media... but then happily watch Tucker Carlson on Fox. Now I'm not saying everyone is like that, but in general it's what most mean.
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Agreed. It’s exactly what they mean, equally, on both sides. Political affiliation has become dogma to a good portion of political non-thinkers of either stripe, and the only differentiating factor to any statement in a dogmatic politico’s mind is whether it glorifies followers of the red god or the blue god (or more simply, My God or the heretics’ Great Satan of the Other Color) There is no actual logical thought or desire for truth. Just do not offend their god god dammit!
 
Can we get this back to Amazon and MGM, please? As it stands, it's amusing watching a bunch of supposedly grown men (and I'm pretty sure they're all men) soiling themselves because they can't watch a 'woke' show without feeling like it's a personal attack.

I'm wondering how movie theaters will react if Amazon decides to stream MGM flicks early. AMC and the like threw a fit early in the pandemic, but they seem to realize that they have fewer and fewer bargaining chips after the pandemic. Might accelerate the decline of movie theaters as a whole.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Out of curiosity do you hate the conservative media for the exact same argument?
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If that's all you saw out of that, you've missed the point of the whole argument. BTW the conservative media exists because of the one-sided-ness of the other side. CNN came first, then Fox; beat fox out the door by about 16 years. Founded by Ted Turner, of all people. I used to watch CNN a fair bit prior to 2016, then they went all out, couldn't take anymore.
 
staknhalo said:
I'd like an SGU wrap up movie - even if you don't bring back all of the cast under the guise
hypersleep screwed up - a bunch died and the ones left aged in hypersleep - even better for drama if Eli did it trying to fix shit
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Man I completely forgot about SGU, I remember there were a number of episodes I liked, but equally so it seemed a lot of very slow episodes I didn't like. But ultimately that's what shows become, effort into producing them... unless they don't get the ratings and then they go away regardless of how good they actually were, meanwhile "reality" shows that involve "talent" in some way just keep popping up that use the same formula. Which ultimately pushed me to the breaking point of realizing I am not the target demographic for the majority of what it is pushed hard for on TV, and cut the proverbial cable.

And don't get me wrong, I would not call SGU a "great" show by any stretch (or maybe even a "good" one, but it was better than what else that was out there so I did watch it. Ditto with that show Lucifer, I'm sure that one ruffled some feathers with the moral majority though.
 
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