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MGM Home Entertainment LLC (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment, d/b/a MGM Home Entertainment and formerly known as MGM Home Video, MGM/CBS Home Video and MGM/UA Home Video) is the
home video Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...
distribution arm of the American media company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
(MGM). It is owned by Amazon MGM Studios, a subsidiary of
Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
. Their releases are currently distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment since 2020 (and 2021 through Studio Distribution Services). Starting with the 4K UHD and
Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
release of ''Fallout'', TV series solely produced by Amazon MGM Studios will be distributed through MGM Home Entertainment.


History


1978–1982

In 1978, the company was established as MGM Home Video, releasing MGM films and television series. In 1980, MGM joined forces with CBS Video Enterprises, the home video division of the CBS television network, and formed MGM/CBS Home Video. In October of that year, they released their first batch of Betamax and VHS tapes. The initial printings of all 24 films were packaged in brown leather clamshell cases with gold lettering; they were presented to CBS executives. Later printings of these films, as well as all printings of later releases by MGM/CBS, were packaged in oversized gray book-style boxes with either the MGM Abstract Lion print logo or CBS Video print logo in the upper right hand corner of the packaging. MGM/CBS also issued some early tapes of Lorimar product; those releases would instead bear the Lorimar print logo where the MGM or CBS Video print logo would normally be. In 1981, MGM/CBS and Samuel Goldwyn Home Entertainment began to co-market certain Goldwyn titles, with CBS Video Enterprises handling distribution on Goldwyn's behalf.


1982–1998

In 1982, a year after MGM bought and merged with the near-bankrupt United Artists (UA) from Transamerica, CBS dropped out of the video partnership with MGM and moved to
20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...
to create CBS/Fox Video (Samuel Goldwyn titles moved to CBS/Fox, as they were distributed via CBS). MGM's video division became known as MGM/UA Home Entertainment Group, Inc., more commonly known as MGM/UA Home Video. MGM/UA continued to license pre-1981 UA and pre-1950 WB films (as well as some post-1981 titles) to CBS/Fox (due to an agreement UA had with Fox years earlier dating back to when CBS/Fox Video was called Magnetic Video). In 1982, the company entered into an agreement with The Cannon Group to release titles from the mini-major film studio through 1985. In 1985, it entered into an agreement with Rene Malo Video to handle Canadian distribution of MGM/UA product. In 1986, MGM's pre-May 1986 library (also including the pre-1950 Warner Bros. library, '' Bugs Bunny: Superstar'', the Fleischer Studios/
Famous Studios Famous Studios (renamed Paramount Cartoon Studios in 1956) was the first animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was established as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount seized contr ...
'' Popeye'' cartoons, and most US rights to the RKO Pictures library), was acquired by
Ted Turner Robert Edward Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and Philanthropy, philanthropist. He founded the CNN, Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, ...
and his company Turner Entertainment Co. After the library was acquired, MGM/UA signed a deal with Turner to continue distributing the pre-May 1986 MGM and to begin distributing the pre-1950 Warner Bros. libraries for video release (the rest of the library went to Turner Home Entertainment). Also that year, it signed an agreement with Roger Corman and his film studio Concorde Pictures that enabled MGM/UA worldwide access to motion pictures that were produced by Concorde. In October 1990, after Pathé Communications bought MGM, MGM/UA Home Video struck a deal with Warner Home Video to have them distribute MGM/UA titles exclusively on home video worldwide. The Pathé merger also meant MGM acquired a majority of the Cannon Films library (certain rights for other media and select films during the Thorn EMI merger now lie with other entities with few exceptions), ironic considering MGM/UA had previously distributed Cannon output in the 1980s. MGM/UA also began distributing the rest of the UA library around this time after its contract with CBS/Fox ended. In 1994, MGM/UA Home Video launched the MGM/UA Family Entertainment label for family-friendly releases. In 1996, Warner made an exclusive deal with Image Entertainment to distribute MGM/UA titles on
LaserDisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...
. In 1997, MGM/UA, along with the other studios that were distributed by Warner Home Video, began releasing its titles on DVD. Some of the films MGM released on DVD were from the Turner catalog, which they were still allowed to keep after Turner merged into Time Warner Entertainment some time before because of their distribution deal. That same year, MGM acquired Orion Pictures. As a result, Orion Home Video (Orion's home video division) was absorbed by MGM/UA, and was retained as an in-name-only division until the acquisition deal was finalized in 1998. That year, the company was renamed MGM Home Entertainment.


1998–2005

After the Orion acquisition, MGM kept Orion Pictures intact as a corporation, mostly to avoid its video distribution agreement with Warner Home Video, and thus, Orion Pictures films would be distributed under the Orion Home Video label. In 1999, MGM acquired 2/3 of the pre-1996 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment library from Seagram for $250 million, increasing their library holdings to 4,000. The PolyGram libraries (which included the Epic film library) would be placed under Orion Pictures, so as to avoid its 1990 home video distribution agreement with Warner Home Video. In March that same year, MGM paid $225 million to end its distribution contract with Warner Home Video, effectively ending the distribution problem (the initial deal was to have expired in 2003, but as a result of the early termination, it instead ended in February 2000). As a result of the deal, Warner Home Video took over home video rights to the MGM/UA films owned by Turner. Upon the expiration of the Warner Home Video deal, MGM signed a deal with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment to distribute its films on home video overseas. In 2001, MGM and Amazon.com launched the "MGM Movie Vault" to distribute VHS copies of selected films, either previously unreleased on video or long out-of-print, exclusively through Amazon. On March 3, 2003, MGM Home Entertainment launched the MGM Kids sub-label. On May 27, 2003, MGM reinstated full distribution rights to their products in regions like the United Kingdom, Australia, Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Germany, although 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment continued to distribute for MGM in a majority of developing regions.


2005–2019

In 2005, following MGM's acquisition by a
Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...
-led consortium (in part so Sony could ensure MGM's support of the Sony-invented
Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
format), MGM started releasing its newest content through Sony Pictures Home Entertainment under the standard MGM label, from that point onward, MGM releases began to be credited as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc., the MGM Home Entertainment moniker would be retired within the same year. However, Sony failed to meet projected sales of MGM content on DVD (in part because of a cooling DVD market); further issues came when Harry Sloan was hired as MGM's chairman and split MGM from Sony Pictures control, instead championing MGM as a company independent of Sony. Further issues between the companies and inside both plagued the deal, and MGM dropped Sony Pictures Home Entertainment as a home media distributor in May 2006, instead signing a new worldwide distribution deal with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. In 2010, parent company
MGM Holdings MGM Holdings, Inc. was an American holding company based in Beverly Hills, California. It was launched on February 11, 2005, by a creditor-oriented consortium and the former parent company of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (from which the "MGM" initials ...
emerged from bankruptcy. As of 2011 until 2018, MGM no longer released or marketed their own movies. Instead, MGM shared distribution with other studios that handle all distribution and marketing for MGM's projects. Since then, only a handful of MGM's most recent movies, such as '' Skyfall'', '' Red Dawn'', '' Carrie'', '' RoboCop'', '' If I Stay'', ''
Poltergeist In German folklore and ghostlore, a poltergeist ( or ; ; or ) is a type of ghost or spirit that is responsible for physical disturbances, such as loud noises and objects being moved or destroyed. Most claims or fictional descriptions of polter ...
'' (which Fox 2000 Pictures co-produced) and '' Spectre'' have been released on DVD and
Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
by its home video output via 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Others, such as '' The Hobbit trilogy'', '' Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters'', '' G.I. Joe: Retaliation'', '' Hercules'', '' Hot Tub Time Machine 2'', ''
Tomb Raider ''Tomb Raider'', known as ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' from 2001 to 2008, is a media franchise that originated with an Action-adventure game, action-adventure video game series created by British video game developer Core Design. The franchise i ...
'', '' Creed I'' and '' II'', '' 21'' and ''
22 Jump Street ''22 Jump Street'' is a 2014 American adult buddy cop action comedy film directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, written by Jonah Hill, Michael Bacall, Oren Uziel and Rodney Rothman and produced by and starring Hill and Channing T ...
'', '' Ben-Hur'', '' Sherlock Gnomes'' and '' The Magnificent Seven'' have been released by the home video output of the co-distributor—in these cases, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (which MGM's catalog is currently handled by), Paramount Home Entertainment and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment respectively. In 2011, MGM launched the "MGM Limited Edition Collection", a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD service that issues unreleased and out-of-print titles from the MGM-owned library. Its releases are sold through the Warner Archive Collection. On April 14, 2011, Fox's deal distributing the MGM library was extended through 2016. On June 27, 2016, Fox's distribution deal with MGM was renewed until June 30, 2020.


2019–present

With the acquisition of Fox's parent company 21st Century Fox by
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
on March 20, 2019, MGM announced in their 2019 report that it would not renew its deal with Fox, and would search for a new distributor afterwards. In the studio's 2020 financial report, MGM named Warner Bros. Home Entertainment as their new home media distributor. However, the transfer does not include co-production films outside Warner Bros. such as ''Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters'' and ''Hercules'' (both owned by
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...
) as well as remakes to ''
Poltergeist In German folklore and ghostlore, a poltergeist ( or ; ; or ) is a type of ghost or spirit that is responsible for physical disturbances, such as loud noises and objects being moved or destroyed. Most claims or fictional descriptions of polter ...
'' (owned by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through 20th Century Studios), '' Ben-Hur'' (also owned by
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...
), and '' The Magnificent Seven'' (owned by Sony Pictures through Columbia Pictures). On May 26, 2021, it was officially announced that MGM would be acquired by
Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
for $8.45 billion, subject to regulatory approvals and other routine closing conditions; with MGM continuing to operate as a label under Amazon, but leaving the future of the physical home video releases of its titles other than its current distribution deal with Studio Distribution Services and several third-party boutique labels in question. The merger was finalized on March 17, 2022.


Catalog and distribution deals

Currently in the United States and Canada, MGM's catalog is distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment through Studio Distribution Services, a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Universal that was first announced on January 14, 2020, later revealing the name on April 23, 2021, and marketed by Warner Bros., with Warner Bros. also handling distribution internationally. Warner Bros. already owns and distributes MGM's pre-May 1986 library (besides '' Electric Dreams'' as that was produced by Virgin and released through MGM/UA Entertainment Co. in the US and Asia and 20th Century Fox elsewhere) through their ownership of Turner Entertainment Co., but the former began a distribution deal with the latter for its remaining catalog titles and select UAR releases when the latter left 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment – a prior distribution deal that began in 1999 – on June 30, 2020, and Universal distributed some of UAR's other releases beginning with '' Operation Finale'' on December 4, 2018, and ended with '' Licorice Pizza''. MGM also licenses out some of its film and television library to Kino Lorber,
the Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...
, Shout! Studios, Vinegar Syndrome, Visual Entertainment Inc., Twilight Time, Arrow Films, Severin Films, Olive Films and Sandpiper Pictures in addition to handling home media releases of its Manufacture-on-demand titles through Allied Vaughn. Max handles the streaming rights to the pre-May 1986 library, while
Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...
and
MGM+ MGM+ (formerly known as Epix; pronounced ''epics'' and stylized as eᴘix), is an American Pay television, premium cable television, cable and satellite television, satellite television network owned by the MGMPlus Entertainment subsidiary of M ...
handle the streaming rights to the post-May 1986 library. Many of Orion Pictures' films since its revival have been released through various third-party companies rather than through MGM/Fox. For example, the remake of '' The Town That Dreaded Sundown'' was released by Image Entertainment. However, 20th Century Fox, and later on Warner Bros. (via SDS, LLC.) would handle home video distribution of Orion's movies released through UAR.


Current distribution deals

* Studio Distribution Services ** Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment (1990–1999; 2020–present) for the MGM library, including its post-April 1986 films; MGM's pre-May 1986 library and pre-1950 Warner Bros. library remains with Warner Bros. through Turner Entertainment Co. * Allied Vaughn ( Manufacture-on-demand releases only)


Past distribution deals

* Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2005–2006) (worldwide) * 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (1999–2005) (internationally), 2006–2019 (worldwide) * Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2019–2020) (worldwide) (as a result of Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox) * Studio Distribution Services **
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Universal Pictures Home Entertainment LLC (UPHE) is the home video distribution division of Universal Pictures, an American film studio owned by NBCUniversal, the entertainment unit of Comcast. UPHE is the home video distributor for all of the ...
(2018–2022) (worldwide) * Deuce Entertainment (2021–2022) ( Dollar store DVD releases only)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mgm Home Entertainment Home video companies of the United States Home video distributors Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer subsidiaries Entertainment companies based in California Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010 Entertainment companies established in the 1970s 1970s establishments in California Amazon MGM Studios