MGM Studio Orchestra

MGM Studio Orchestra

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM), is an American media company specializing in film and television production and distribution. Founded on April 17, 1924 and based in Beverly Hills, California, it is the primary asset of MGM Holdings, which has been owned by Amazon since March 17, 2022. MGM was formed by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. It hired a number of well-known actors as contract players—its slogan was "more stars than there are in heaven"—and soon became Hollywood's most prestigious film studio, producing popular musical films and winning many Academy Awards. MGM also owned film studios, movie lots, movie theaters and technical production facilities. Its most prosperous era, from 1926 to 1959, was bracketed by two productions of Ben Hur. It divested itself of the Loews movie theater chain and, in 1956, expanded into television production. In 1969, businessman and investor Kirk Kerkorian bought 40% of MGM and dramatically changed the operation and direction of the studio. He hired new management, reduced the studio's output to about five films per year, and diversified its products, creating MGM Resorts International and a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company (which it later divested in the 1980s). In 1980, the studio acquired United Artists. Kerkorian sold MGM to Ted Turner in 1986, who retained the rights to the MGM film library, sold the studio lot in Culver City to Lorimar, and sold the remnants of MGM back to Kerkorian a few months later. After Kerkorian sold and reacquired the company again in the 1990s, he expanded MGM by purchasing Orion Pictures and the Samuel Goldwyn Company, including both of their film libraries. Finally, in 2004, Kerkorian sold MGM to a consortium that included Sony Pictures. In 2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and reorganization. After reorganization, it emerged from bankruptcy later that year under its creditors' ownership. Two former executives at Spyglass Entertainment, Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, became co-chairmen and co-CEOs of MGM's new holding company. After Barber's departure in 2018, the studio sought to be acquired by another company to pay its creditors. In May 2021, Amazon acquired MGM for $8.45 billion; the deal closed in March 2022. As of 2023, its major franchises include Rocky and James Bond and one of its most recent television productions is The Handmaid's Tale.

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