And THR’s coverage of the Ben-Hurdebacle simply did not fit that narrative. Valued at just $1.9 billion, MGM under Barber quickly cut costs and moved heavily into TV, especially with the full acquisition of the Epix cable channel and Mark Burnett’s production company. Forced into bankruptcy with its storied film library partially sold and heavily leveraged, the studio’s creditors had recruited Barber and partner Roger Birnbaum in 2010 to resuscitate and flip the thing. The story’s opening line: “ Ben-Hur? More like Ben- Horrendous.”īarber had taken over MGM at its nadir. Barber wanted to berate me in person about The Hollywood Reporter’s coverage of his pricey Ben-Hurremake, which, according to THR, was on course to lose about $120 million. Gary Barber, himself a tight-fisted accountant by training. The Park and T-Mobile Arena are two of the regional casinos owned by MGM Growth. The European Union’s antitrust regulators gave clearance to Amazon’s proposed acquisition of MGM, despite the fact that MGM’s content cannot be considered as must- have. It was summer 2016, and I had been summoned to MGM by its then-C.E.O. Did Amazon buy MGM casinos Amazon bought MGM for 8.5 billion. Mayer, MGM’s co-founder, famously touted “more stars than there are in heaven.” To me, though, it looked like a place where the stars’ accountants might work. The dark entryway and long, vacant walls suggested a financial services company of a quasi-dystopian future, not a surviving link to Hollywood’s glorious past. The first time I set foot in MGM’s headquarters, in Beverly Hills, I was struck by its unglamorous sterility.
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