Amazon has been envious of the media empire Netflix and Disney have built for some time now. While it’s not short of its own pack of superheroes with the likes of The Boys and Invincible, the company is now nearing a deal to buy MGM for almost $9 billion, which would mean a new home for James Bond.
MGM is said to have been on the market for potential buyers since 2010 when the company filed for bankruptcy and successfully climbed out under creditor leadership. Since then, MGM has continued turning out films for its most famous franchises, James Bond and Rocky, including three 007 movies and the launch of Michael B. Jordan's Creed saga within the Rocky universe.
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According to a report put out by the Wall Street Journal, Amazon's acquisition plans include MGM’s massive $2 billion debt, but also the James Bond, Rocky, and The Hobbit properties, which are seen as the company’s crown jewels, aside from its library of both classic and newer productions like The Handmaid’s Tale. The news comes on the back of AT&T’s recent Discovery Inc. and WarnerMedia merger, which will certainly draw more scrutiny from government authorities that have had their eyes set on Amazon’s tech monopoly for years.
With this in mind, there are no guarantees that the deal will go through, even if negotiations continue to move along as smoothly as reported. Of course, there’s always the chance that Amazon could present itself as a tiny media company whose catalog is dwarfed by its competitors, despite Netflix itself relying on Amazon Web Services. It’s also unclear whether the deal would include or affect the release of 007’s No Time to Die, which has constantly been stifled by pandemic-related delays that plagued the movie industry for the past year.
No Time to Die is currently slated for an October premiere in the United States, and after so long the movie certainly has built more hype than any other James Bond film before it. The film’s delays and MGM’s reluctance to sell it to streaming services like Netflix and Apple TV stems from its potential to yield over a billion dollars in box office revenue, which could at least triple the studio’s investment in 007.
Of course, that is provided No Time to Die didn’t incur any additional expenses for rumored reshoots needed to update James Bond's ancient 2020 gadgets. Regardless of what this means for corporate consolidation, the possibility of a James Bond Amazon Prime Video series in the future does not sound bad at all.
James Bond's No Time to Die is scheduled to be released in theaters on October 8, 2021.
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Source: The Wall Street Journal