A gigantic media merger has been completed as Amazon has officially acquired MGM for a whopping $8.5 billion. The deal was initially announced last May after years of speculation that MGM was a target for acquisition by a bigger, hungrier company looking to expand its operations. Now, after passing all of the necessary legal hurdles, the deal is done, and it means MGM is officially joining Prime Video and Amazon Studios, which puts a great deal of content in the hands of a gigantic streaming empire with deep pockets.
Much has been made of the fact that this deal includes franchises like James Bond, Rocky, and The Pink Panther, but MGM’s library contains over 4,000 movies and 17,000 TV episodes. That means a ton of horror properties are in new hands. Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, had this to say in a statement:
“MGM has a nearly century-long legacy of producing exceptional entertainment, and we share their commitment to delivering a broad slate of original films and television shows to a global audience. We welcome MGM employees, creators, and talent to Prime Video and Amazon Studios, and we look forward to working together to create even more opportunities to deliver quality storytelling to our customers.”
Christopher Brearton, chief operating officer of MGM, had the following to add:
“We are excited for MGM and its bounty of iconic brands, legendary films and television series, and our incredible team and creative partners to join the Prime Video family. MGM has been responsible for the creation of some of the most well-known and critically acclaimed films and television series of the past century. We look forward to continuing that tradition as we head into this next chapter, coming together with the great team at Prime Video and Amazon Studios to provide audiences with the very best in entertainment for years to come.”
So, what does this mean for horror fans? Well, it means that the likes of Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Silence of the Lambs, Poltergeist, Amityville Horror, Pumpkinhead, and Species now fall under Amazon’s empire. This doesn’t account for any of the thousands of TV episodes in the company’s library, but it’s enough to illustrate the point that we are probably in for some major reboots and/or revivals of iconic properties in the not-too-distant future. Amazon didn’t pay that kind of money just to own old content, they are surely going to exploit the library for new content as well.
In practice, this could mean we get a new Killer Klowns movie. Maybe that long-awaited Pumpkinhead reboot can finally come to pass. Perhaps a Poltergeist series. Anything is possible.
The TV side of things doesn’t contain seemingly as much for genre fans, but some highlights of the library include the 1980s Twilight Zone revival, 1991’s Dark Shadows, Wes Craven’s short-lived Nightmare Cafe, the 1995 revival of The Outer Limits, Showtime’s Dead Like Me, and MTV’s Teen Wolf.
Now, with TV, it gets complicated as the rights are often shared between the networks and the production company. Teen Wolf, for example, lives on Paramount+ and Dead Like Me is unlikely to leave Showtime. But some of those others? They would seem to be in play. The main takeaway is, to possibly be on the lookout for lots of genre movies and TV shows on Prime Video in the coming months/years.
