Will MGM and Warner Bros. collaborate on MGM's 100th anniversary?

[Eurbane132]

I think so. MGM should have all it's pre-1986 back to it's rightful owner by next year.

[BobSimms]

Originally Posted by Eurbane132

I think so. MGM should have all it's pre-1986 back to it's rightful owner by next year.

Oh…? Can you explain more? I’m sort of unaware of the behind-the-scenes machinations and who owns what and for how long…

[Areyakiddin]

Originally Posted by BobSimms

Oh…? Can you explain more? I’m sort of unaware of the behind-the-scenes machinations and who owns what and for how long…

Might be misinterpreting them, but I think it's a jab at WBD's financial situation right now. Otherwise there's nothing pointing to WB being interested in selling the pre-1986 MGM movies or Bezos interested in buying a library comprised of films that are all decades old.

[Eurbane132]

Originally Posted by BobSimms

Oh…? Can you explain more? I’m sort of unaware of the behind-the-scenes machinations and who owns what and for how long…

Ted Turner owns all of MGM pre-1986 stuff since that year then in 1999 all of MGM's pre-1986 stuff was owned by Warner Bros.

[romuald121]

Originally Posted by Eurbane132

I think so. MGM should have all it's pre-1986 back to it's rightful owner by next year.

You would sing a different tune if God forbid Disney acquired the MGM catalog. MGM on home video would have been buried 6 feet under and the catalog would have been streaming only exclusive.

WB and WAC are doing their best with the release of MGM back catalog while Disney have buried 20TH century Fox
back catalog with the exception of Avatar and its sequel (the money maker franchise)

[steve_dave]

Originally Posted by romuald121

You would sing a different tune if God forbid Disney acquired the MGM catalog. MGM on home video would have been buried 6 feet under and the catalog would have been streaming only exclusive.

WB and WAC are doing their best with the release of MGM back catalog while Disney have buried 20TH century Fox
back catalog with the exception of Avatar and its sequel (the money maker franchise)

Warner has not acquired MGM’s post 1986 film library. Read what I posted: Warner just has physical home media distribution rights. MGM still has control over their films and Warner can only release what MGM allows them.

Warner only owns via Turner MGM’s directly made pre-1986 films. Orion Pictures and United Artists are excluded from this deal. Previously, Sony then 20th Century had physical home media distribution to MGM’s library.

[romuald121]

Originally Posted by steve_dave

Warner has not acquired MGM’s post 1986 film library. Read what I posted: Warner just has physical home media distribution rights. MGM still has control over their films and Warner can only release what MGM allows them.

Warner only owns via Turner MGM’s directly made pre-1986 films. Orion Pictures and United Artists are excluded from this deal. Previously, Sony then 20th Century had physical home media distribution to MGM’s library.

I wasn't responding to you, I was responding to Eurbane132, and I was referring to the pre-1986 catalog.

[Areyakiddin]

Originally Posted by Bolty

Are West Side Story, Terminator and Logan's Run part of the pre 1986 WB deal?

The Pre-1986 movies they owned considered United Artists productions stayed with MGM instead of going with Turner. First two are owned by MGM, and third stayed with WB as it was a MGM production.

[Egbert Souse]

Here's a breakdown of who owns what...

Warner Bros. Discovery:
- Actual Warner Bros. Pictures films, obviously.
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer up to May 9, 1986
- New Line Cinema
- RKO Radio Pictures
- Allied Artists/Monogram
- Some Castle Rock
- Some Cannon
- Theatrical Popeye cartoons
- North American distribution of pre-1960 Samuel Goldwyn

MGM/Amazon:
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starting on May 23, 1986
- United Artists (generally 1952 to present, though they own some pre-1952 titles)
- Orion Pictures
- American International Pictures
- Filmways Pictures
- Embassy Pictures (internationally owned by StudioCanal)
- Cannon (handful of titles owned by Warner)
- Some Castle Rock
- Bunch of smaller companies like Empire, Virgin, Island Alive, Sherwood, Gladden, Nelson, The Samuel Goldwyn Company (80s/90s incarnation)

Some of the split company situations like for Cannon and Castle Rock can get confusing. For example, MGM owns City Slickers, but Warner owns City Slickers 2. I think the only Cannon titles Warner still owns are Masters of the Universe, Barfly, Bloodsport, and Superman IV.

There's also titles that changed hands over the years as one-off purchases for remakes or other situations. Warner owns the 1956 Around the World in 80 Days (originally released by United Artists), but Universal owns Rope (1948) because Hitchcock personally purchased it from United Artists Television when they owned the pre-1950 Warner catalog that was later purchased by Turner.

[Ashirg]

Originally Posted by Egbert Souse

Here's a breakdown of who owns what...

Warner Bros. Discovery:
- Allied Artists/Monogram

MGM owns pre-1946 Monograms like first 6 Charlie Chans and Mr. Wong.

[johnny_g]

Originally Posted by Bolty

West Side Story and Terminator are still under control of MGM and they don't seem interested in UHD.

West Side Story is available streaming in 4K DolbyVision, but, as far as I know, MGM still hasn't fixed the Overture, which is frustrating. I miss the old days of MGM/UA.

[dickdarlington]

With The Terminator, per DGA rules, Cameron has to sign off on any video releases. It has been a title that has been offered to boutiques and rejected because they didn’t want to purchase distribution rights for a limited time and have them lapse because Cameron wouldn’t be available.

[Egbert Souse]

Originally Posted by Bolty

Awesome breakdown....now I need to learn which movies were made by all those entities.

The "good" news is that WB owns Forbidden Planet, Logan's Run, Time Machine, Village of the Damned, Seven Brides, etc and could release them in 4K if they wanted.

West Side Story and Terminator are still under control of MGM and they don't seem interested in UHD.

I think the Rocky films are the only "self-released" titles so far and they're obviously through SDS (Warner/Universal distributor).

However, we've gotten quite a lot of UHDs from the boutiques, which seem more likely. And from a lot of different catalogs, too. From my count, there's 54 UHDs from MGM properties (half United Artists, rest split between MGM, AIP, Embassy, Orion, Cannon, Empire, Nelson, Hemdale, and Polygram).

Originally Posted by Ashirg

MGM owns pre-1946 Monograms like first 6 Charlie Chans and Mr. Wong.

I forgot about split on the Monograms. Also forgot about the Polygram titles.