![]() ![]() ![]() It’s a recap of news releases: “Quantum of Solace” and “The Pink Panther 2” went into production Peter Jackson will produce two new films based on “The Hobbit” “American Gladiators” became a prime-time hit for NBC Mary Parent was hired MGM joined with Paramount Pictures and Lionsgate in announcing a pay-TV channel to take the place of their expiring deals with Showtime and the new MGM HD channel, yet another outlet for its film library, has been picked up by the five biggest domestic cable and satellite distribution systems. Sloan ticks off his accomplishments in the last six months. SITTING in his 14th-floor office, just off a rotunda where MGM’s ancient Oscars are displayed behind glass, Mr. (Comcast, which owns 20 percent of MGM, has already passed on buying the rest 20th Century Fox, which releases MGM’s movies overseas in addition to managing its library, is seen as MGM’s ideal buyer. Parent’s push could also bolster the studio’s value in a sale. Parent’s production spree - after unsuccessful moves putting the MGM logo on other companies’ poor-to-middling films and turning over MGM’s United Artists unit to Tom Cruise - could drive MGM’s costs through the roof next year. Though that deal has three more years to run, the guarantees are expiring, which means that a source of steady income will be far less predictable.Īnd Ms. But amid an industrywide downturn in DVD catalog sales, by the end of August MGM will have received the last in a series of guaranteed video-distribution fees totaling $625 million from 20th Century Fox. That unit threw off $558 million in cash in the latest fiscal year. The mounting losses have caused financial headaches for an investor group led by Sony, which brought together Comcast and four private equity funds to buy MGM from Kirk Kerkorian for $5 billion in 2004.Ī bright spot for MGM has been its prized library of old film titles. For the fiscal year ended in March, MGM lost about $400 million it lost about the same amount a year earlier. Bargain hunters are circling the company as it continues to bleed cash. Mayer - invested about $15 million of his own money in the faded studio, gambling that he could turn it around.īut MGM is choking on $3.7 billion in debt, forcing it to cough up more than $300 million in annual interest payments while it delays paying down the principal, its financial statements show. Sloan - MGM’s chief executive and the would-be heir to Louis B. What MGM does have, however, is a daunting pile of debt and other financial challenges. That feat will require hundreds of millions of dollars that the studio doesn’t yet have. Parent, who had never marketed or distributed her own films before, was being asked to turn MGM into a player, and do it quickly. ![]()
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