 | |
| MGM Home Entertainment | |
| Formerly |
|
| Company type | Division Label |
| Industry | Home video |
| Founded | 1978; 47 years ago (1978) |
| Fate | Physical media agreement transferred toSony Pictures Home Entertainment in 2005, then transferred to20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, and thenWarner Bros. Home Entertainment in 2020 (and 2021 throughStudio Distribution Services). Its labels remain in use on SDS-distributed releases. |
| Headquarters | , |
| Products | |
| Parent | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
MGM Home Entertainment LLC[1] (also known asMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment,d/b/aMGM Home Entertainment and formerly known asMGM Home Video,MGM/CBS Home Video andMGM/UA Home Video) is thehome video distribution arm of the American media companyMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer that was founded in 1978. It is owned byAmazon MGM Studios, a subsidiary ofAmazon.
Their releases are currently distributed byWarner Bros. Home Entertainment since 2020 (and 2021 throughStudio Distribution Services).
Starting with the4K UHD,Blu-ray andDVD release ofFallout on July 8, 2025, television series solely produced by Amazon MGM Studios are distributed through MGM Home Entertainment.
In 1978, the company was established asMGM Home Video, releasing MGM films and television series. On June 4, 1980, MGM announced that it joined forces withCBS Video Enterprises, the home video division of theCBS television network, and formedMGM/CBS Home Video.[2] In October of that year, they released their first batch of Betamax and VHS tapes.[3]
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 ofLorimar 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 andSamuel Goldwyn Home Entertainment began to co-market certain Goldwyn titles, with CBS Video Enterprises handling distribution on Goldwyn's behalf.[4]
In 1982, a year after MGM bought and merged with the near-bankruptUnited Artists (UA) fromTransamerica, CBS dropped out of the video partnership with MGM and moved to20th Century Fox to createCBS/Fox Video (Samuel Goldwyn titles moved to CBS/Fox, as they were distributed via CBS). MGM's video division became known asMGM/UA Home Entertainment Group, Inc., more commonly known asMGM/UA Home Video. MGM/UA continued to license pre-1981 UA andpre-1950WB 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 calledMagnetic Video). In 1982, the company entered into an agreement withThe Cannon Group to release titles from the mini-major film studio through 1985.[5][6] In 1985, it entered into an agreement withRene Malo Video to handle Canadian distribution of MGM/UA product.[7]
In 1986, MGM's pre-May 1986 library (also including the pre-1950Warner Bros. library,Bugs Bunny: Superstar, theFleischer Studios/Famous StudiosPopeye cartoons, and most US rights to theRKO Pictures library), was acquired byTed Turner and his companyTurner 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 toTurner Home Entertainment).
Also that year, it signed an agreement withRoger Corman and his film studioConcorde Pictures that enabled MGM/UA worldwide access to motion pictures that were produced by Concorde.[8]
In October 1990, afterPathé Communications bought MGM, MGM/UA Home Video struck a deal withWarner Home Video to have them distribute MGM/UA titles exclusively on home video worldwide.[9] The Pathé merger also meant MGM acquired a majority of theCannon Films library (certain rights for other media and select films during theThorn 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 theMGM/UA Family Entertainment label for family-friendly releases. In 1996, Warner made an exclusive deal withImage Entertainment to distribute MGM/UA titles onLaserDisc.[10]
In 1997, MGM/UA, along with the other studios that were distributed by Warner Home Video, began releasing its titles onDVD. Some of the films MGM released on DVD were from the Turner catalog, which they were still allowed to keep after Turner merged intoTime Warner Entertainment some time before because of their distribution deal. That same year, MGM acquiredOrion 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 renamedMGM Home Entertainment.
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-1996PolyGram Filmed Entertainment library fromSeagram for $250 million, increasing their library holdings to 4,000. The PolyGram libraries (which included theEpic film library) would be placed under Orion Pictures to avoid the Warner Home Video contract.[11]
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 the home media rights to the MGM/UA films owned by Turner.[12][13]
Upon the expiration of the Warner Home Video deal, MGM signed a deal with20th Century Fox Home Entertainment to distribute its films on home video overseas.[14]
In 2001, MGM andAmazon.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.[15]
On March 3, 2003, MGM Home Entertainment launched theMGM Kids sub-label.[16] On May 27, 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.[17]
In 2005, following MGM's acquisition by aSony-led consortium (in part so Sony could ensure MGM's support of the Sony-inventedBlu-ray format), MGM stopped self-releasing their content and started releasing its newest content throughSony 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 the DVD market was cooling); 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 with20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.[18][19]
In 2010, parent companyMGM Holdings emerged from bankruptcy. As of 2011 until 2018, MGM no longer released or marketed their own movies (excluding the revivedOrion Pictures films from the 2010s). Instead, MGM shared distribution with other studios that handle all distribution and marketing for MGM's projects.[20] Since then, only a handful of MGM's most recent movies, such asSkyfall, the remake ofRed Dawn,[21]Carrie,[22]RoboCop,[23]If I Stay,[24]Poltergeist (whichFox 2000 Pictures co-produced) andSpectre have been released onDVD andBlu-ray by its home video output via20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Others, such asThe Hobbit trilogy,Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters,G.I. Joe: Retaliation,Hercules,Hot Tub Time Machine 2,Tomb Raider,Creed I andII,21 and22 Jump Street,Ben-Hur,Sherlock Gnomes andThe Magnificent Seven[25] 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 andSony 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.[26] Its releases are sold through theWarner Archive Collection.[27]
On April 14, 2011, Fox's deal distributing the MGM library was extended through 2016.[28] On June 27, 2016, Fox's distribution deal with MGM was renewed until June 30, 2020.[29]
With theacquisition of Fox's parent company 21st Century Fox byDisney 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.[30] In the studio's 2020 financial report, MGM namedWarner Bros. Home Entertainment as their new home media distributor.[31] However, the transfer does not include co-production films outside Warner Bros. as some MGM co-financed films are still owned by the respective co-distributors. On May 26, 2021, it was officially announced that MGM would be acquired byAmazon 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 withStudio Distribution Services and several third-party boutique labels in question.[32] The merger was finalized on March 17, 2022.[33]
Currently in the United States and Canada, MGM's catalog is distributed byWarner Bros. Home Entertainment throughStudio Distribution Services, a joint venture between Warner Bros. andUniversal that was first announced on January 14, 2020, later revealing the name on April 23, 2021,[34][35] and marketed by Warner Bros., with them also handling distribution internationally (expect for Japan, where Warner Bros. Japan LLC handling owner of rights andHappinet through its Media Marketing unit handling distribution). Warner Bros. already owns and distributes MGM's pre-May 1986 library (besidesElectric Dreams as that was produced byVirgin and released throughMGM/UA Entertainment Co. in the United States and Asia and20th Century Fox elsewhere) through their ownership ofTurner Entertainment Co., but the former began a distribution deal with the latter for its remaining catalog titles and selectUAR releases when the latter left20th Century Fox Home Entertainment – a prior distribution deal that began in 1999[36] – on June 30, 2020, and Universal distributed some of UAR's other releases beginning withOperation Finale[37] on December 4, 2018, and ended withLicorice Pizza. MGM also licenses out some of its film and television library toKino Lorber,the Criterion Collection,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 itsManufacture-on-demand titles through Allied Vaughn.HBO Max handles the streaming rights to the pre-May 1986 library, whileAmazon Prime Video andMGM+ handle the streaming rights to the post-May 1986 library.
Many ofOrion Pictures' films since its revival have been released through various third-party companies rather than through MGM/Fox. For example, the remake ofThe Town That Dreaded Sundown was released byImage Entertainment.[38] However, 20th Century Fox, and later on Warner Bros. (via SDS, LLC.) would handle home video distribution of Orion's movies released through UAR.
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