{"id":112480,"date":"2022-03-18T18:32:02","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T23:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=112480"},"modified":"2022-03-18T18:32:04","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T23:32:04","slug":"amazon-completes-8-5-billion-purchase-of-mgm-and-gains-hobbit-distribution-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2022\/03\/18\/112480-amazon-completes-8-5-billion-purchase-of-mgm-and-gains-hobbit-distribution-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon completes $8.5 billion purchase of MGM (and gains Hobbit distribution rights)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to Variety<\/a>, Amazon has finally completed its $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was MGM’s precarious financial situation in the mid-2000s that delayed The Hobbit film series and contributed to the departure of Guillermo Del Toro from the production. Peter Jackson subsequently assumed the directorial role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon says it’s acquisition of “the storied, nearly century-old studio … will complement Prime Video and Amazon Studios\u2019 work in delivering a diverse offering of entertainment choices to customers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Variety reports that the buy followed merger approval by the European antitrust regulator. That body’s review decided that overlaps between Amazon and MGM were “limited”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Readers may recall that the Saul Zaentz Co. also recently announced<\/a> the sale of its entire holding of Middle-earth IP, and that there is an ongoing legal stoush<\/a> over whether Warner Bros.\/New Line Cinema still retains its LOTR\/Hobbit film adaptations license. Given the above, it’s not impossible (though the chance is, perhaps, remote) that Amazon could eventually unite all the currently available Middle-earth film and television IP under its own banner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"MGM<\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Variety, Amazon has finally completed its $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM. It was MGM’s precarious financial…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":112483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3127,435,4,1156,1287,74,498,148,149,392],"tags":[3206,357,3725,698],"class_list":["post-112480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amazon-studios","category-guillermo-del-toro","category-hobbit-movie","category-mgm-production-studios-production","category-new-line-cinema-production-studios","category-jackson","category-production-studios","category-hobbit","category-lotr","category-warner-bros","tag-amazon-studios","tag-mgm","tag-prime-video","tag-saul-zaentz-company"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t