MGM Seeking to Sell No Time to Die Directly to Streaming Media?

Although the release date of No Time to Die has been changed from November 20 to April 2, some of the scheduled promotional processes are still going on. Recently, Total Film magazine exposed new stills and set photos of the film. According to foreign media reports, the film's producer MGM is seeking to sell it, so that this Bond blockbuster has the possibility of being directly released on streaming media.

According to the Wall Street Journal, due to the repeated postponements of the film's release, the film's producer MGM is under increasing pressure. Chairman of the board Kevin Ulrich revealed that they are actively looking for a company to take over, and potential buyers include Amazon, Apple, Comcast and Facebook.

The epidemic has prevented MGM from carrying out its filming business, and its latest work "No Time to Die" is in its hands and cannot be released for cash. Fortunately, this old Hollywood company has a library of more than 4,000 old movies, which is still worth some money when seeking to sell.

Foreign media speculated that if MGM was sold to Silicon Valley companies such as Apple or Amazon, "No Time to Die" would have the possibility of being directly released on streaming media. However, Universal Pictures is responsible for the overseas distribution rights of this film, and they need to be given some compensation to achieve this goal.

People familiar with the matter said that MGM came close to an $8 billion acquisition agreement with a Chinese buyer in 2016. Kevin Ulrich, who was a board member at the time, was also a supporter of the deal. However, the deal was eventually canceled due to the Chinese government's policy to restrict overseas investment.

A Brief History of MGM Studios

MGM was founded in 1922 and merged with United Artists in 1981.

On February 11, 2005, a group of consortiums led by Sony formed MGM Holdings. On April 8, 2005, MGM Holdings acquired MGM Studios through a leveraged buyout worth $4.8 billion.

On November 3, 2010, MGM declared bankruptcy due to its inability to repay its huge debts and launch new works.

In early 2010, MGM publicly sought a buyer, but no one was interested. According to the restructuring plan, the Hollywood private studio "Telescope Entertainment" merged its two subsidiaries with MGM to form a new MGM film company. "Telescope Entertainment" will hold the remaining 5% of the shares of the reorganized new company, but will obtain the operating rights of the new company.

After that, the cooperation with Warner on "The Hobbit" trilogy and Sony on the 007 series of films helped MGM get rid of its debt crisis.

In 2019, MGM ended its cooperation with Sony, and the 007 series of films turned to cooperation with Universal, which was responsible for overseas distribution.