MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. In 1971, it was announced that MGM was to merge with 20th Century Fox, but the plan never came to fruition. Over the next 39 years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3, 2010, MGM filed for bankruptcy. MGM emerged from bankruptcy on December 20, 2010.
About Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in brief
MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. In 1971, it was announced that MGM was to merge with 20th Century Fox, but the plan never came to fruition. Over the next 39 years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3, 2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM emerged from bankruptcy on December 20, 2010. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘MGM’, was created in 1973 as a division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. MGM was acquired on September 23, 2004, by a partnership consisting of Sony Corporation of America, Comcast, Texas Pacific Group, Providence Equity Partners, and other investors. The company was spun out in 1979, with the studio’s then owner Kirk Kerkorian maintaining a large share, but it ended all affiliation with Metro- goldwyn-mayer in 1986. The studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Pathé lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGM’s ability to survive as a separate motion picture studio. In spite of this fact, from the end of the silent film era through the late 1950s, Metro-goldwyn- mayer was the dominant motion pictures studio in Hollywood.
In 1925, MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years of production. The first full year of MGM’s full existence was 1925, when it released Ben-Hur, taking a USD 7 million profit that year. Also in 1925, UFA formed a joint German distributor with MGM, Paramount Pictures and UFA. In 1927, Samuel Goldwyn sued Samuel Parufet over the use of his name of Goldwyn, and he left MGM. In 1929, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben- Hur, taking $4.7 million that year that year, and the next year, it made a profit of $1.5 million. In 1931, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr., whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios. Three years later, an increasingly unprofitable MGM was bought for $2.5 billion. In 1961, MGM ceased theatrical distribution, but continued to produce five to six films a year that were distributed through other studios, usually United Artists. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production. In 1981, MGM ramped up internal production, as well as keeping production going at UA, which included the lucrative James Bond film franchise. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few months later, sold the company back to Kerkianr to recoup massive debt, while keeping the library assets for himself.
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