MGM auction of entire horror catalog/all genre titles coming?

[fceurich39]

not really horror news but is horror related reported here on the horror website dread central
http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/345...-auction-block

i guess we know why no poughkeepsie tapes release as well as amityville sequel among alot others mgm genre titles

also not sure what this means for the Video Dead dvd release since it just debuted nov 1st on the mgmhd channel as well as i am still hoping for a blu-ray of Return of the Living Dead

[Nailwraps]

The way I see it, if someone won the auction of the MGM/United Aritsts library, it should be Universal. Why? That way, all the Pink Panther films, Child's Play films, and Hannibal films can be together in one place and therefore if MGM and Universal released a Pink Panther, Child's Play, or Hannibal DVD collection, we'll have all the films instead of a Pink Panther box set without Return Of The Pink Panther or a Child's Play box set without Child's Play. Do you agree?

[Shlockjock81]

Originally Posted by Nailwraps

The way I see it, if someone won the auction of the MGM/United Aritsts library, it should be Universal. Why? That way, all the Pink Panther films, Child's Play films, and Hannibal films can be together in one place and therefore if MGM and Universal released a Pink Panther, Child's Play, or Hannibal DVD collection, we'll have all the films instead of a Pink Panther box set without Return Of The Pink Panther or a Child's Play box set without Child's Play. Do you agree?

Yup I'm in total agreement there. I'm not crazy about the fact that certain companies own the rights to certain sequels, thus splitting up the series/franchise. Kind of ridiculous.

[X-human]

Universal is in almost as bad of financial situation as MGM. They don't have the money and no investor would loan it to them.

I'm thinking Turner (Warner) or Sony are taking a long hard look. Turner already owns MGM from about the mid-50's down. They may have an interest to seal the deal. But Sony has recently been beefing up and utilizing their own back catalog, so they may also see some opportunity too. Sony also owns a stake in MGM. Fox was distributing for them, so they already have a vested interest in MGM's catalog as well.

MGM has been pretty two-faced about their back catalog, some great moves and some not so great moves. They kinda evened out. Either Sony or Warner would treat their films much better. Warner already put out MGM's Wizard of Oz in a deluxe Blu-ray boxset.

[SynapseFilms]

Hey, if Synapse had 1.5 billion dollars, we'd buy 'em!

[17thJuggalo]

Originally Posted by SynapseFilms

Hey, if Synapse had 1.5 billion dollars, we'd buy 'em!

That'd be awesome.

[Nailwraps]

I would like to now bring out a speculation of what some MGM/United Artists films/libraries/franchises should belong to which companies (remember, this is pure speculation):

-Flipper (TV Series), Child's Play, The Pink Panther (Franchise, including films, cartoons, specials, and TV series), Hannibal, Good Boy!, Alfred Hitchcock, Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course: Universal
-Mel Brooks' Films, Westerns: A tie between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros.
-Missing In Action, Mad Max, Fame (TV Series), Classic Films (12 Angry Men, The Great Escape, etc.), Elvis films: Warner Bros.
-Films Released by Independent Film Companies (Example: Cannon Films, Empire, Avco Embassay, Trans World Entertainment), Bubba Ho-Tep: Anchor Bay
-Stargate (Franchise, including TV series, and movies): A tie between 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate, and Universal
-The Addams Family (TV show): A tie between Paramount and Universal
-It's A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie: A tie between Universal and Disney
-Meatballs 4, Cops and Robbers, Rocky (Franchise, including movies), James Bond (franchise, including movies and whatnot), Care Bear movies, Pumpkinhead: Columbia/Sony Pictures
-Little Monsters, Cyborg, The Amityville Horror (franchise including films), Clownhouse: Lionsgate
-Jeepers Creepers 1 and 2, Igor, The Pebble and The Penguin, Of Mice and Men, Guys and Dolls, Hoosiers, Death Wish 2-4, Dances With Wolves, Delirious, Dressed To Kill, Carrie 1,2, and remake, Misery, Canadian Bacon, Legally Blonde, Back To School, Bull Durham, Bill and Ted, A Fish Called Wanda: 20th Century Fox
-Terminator: Whoever will win the Terminator Franchise
-Fantasticks, Escape From New York, Dead Like Me (TV Show and Movie): Paramount
-Hammer Horror: A tie between Universal and Warner Bros.
-RoboCop (franchise, including films, and cartoon series): A tie between 20th Century Fox or Lionsgate

[Kolpitz]

Originally Posted by Nailwraps

Jeepers Creepers, Igor, The Pebble and The Penguin, Of Mice and Men, Guys and Dolls, Hoosiers, Death Wish 2-4, Dances With Wolves, Delirious, Dressed To Kill, Carrie, Misery, Canadian Bacon, Legally Blonde, Back To School, Bull Durham, Bill and Ted, RoboCop, A Fish Called Wanda, Wall Street: 20th Century Fox

Wall Street isn't owned by MGM. It is, and always has been, a 20th Century Fox movie.

[Nailwraps]

Thank you for correcting me.

[chrismac87]

Originally Posted by SynapseFilms

Hey, if Synapse had 1.5 billion dollars, we'd buy 'em!

Oh God if only...

Okay, so I'm waiting to hear back from MGM about what's going on in terms of their releases and such, at this point nothing has changed as far as we and other interested parties know. My main concern obviously was THE VIDEO DEAD, and as of right now, nothing's changed pending that release. But then again the news was just delivered today and things could change over night...but I'm hoping they remain in the same state they're in now. Or get better...

[indiephantom]

Big props to MGM for the many good DVDs they produced in their time. Hope the catalog goes to a company willing to press some fine Blu-rays.

[Matt89]

Originally Posted by X-human

Universal is in almost as bad of financial situation as MGM. They don't have the money and no investor would loan it to them.

I'm thinking Turner (Warner) or Sony are taking a long hard look. Turner already owns MGM from about the mid-50's down. They may have an interest to seal the deal. But Sony has recently been beefing up and utilizing their own back catalog, so they may also see some opportunity too. Sony also owns a stake in MGM. Fox was distributing for them, so they already have a vested interest in MGM's catalog as well.

MGM has been pretty two-faced about their back catalog, some great moves and some not so great moves. They kinda evened out. Either Sony or Warner would treat their films much better. Warner already put out MGM's Wizard of Oz in a deluxe Blu-ray boxset.

I'm in total agreement here. There's no way Universal would get these films. I'm like 99% sure Warner will pick them up. They already own all (or like 99% of) MGM's titles up to about the late '50s, early '60s (hence the reason they own The Wizard of Oz and North by Northwest, Gone With the Wind, etc). They own all of RKO's titles (Citizen Kane, King Kong, etc), Turner Entertainment titles, etc. They just recently bought New Line and Warner Bros already has the largest catalog of titles out of any studio, so I could definitely see them picking this up. They'll probably get it, they have money coming out of their ass.

I highly doubt Universal would buy it anyway just for the sake of having all the Child's Play movies or Hannibal films, etc. They have no interest in that. Hell, they've owned all the Jaws movies since their initial release and have we ever seen a Jaws box set? Nope.

But yeah, totally agree with x-human on this. Warner will probably grab 'em. Either them or Sony.

~Matt

[fceurich39]

too bad anchor bay couldn't snatch up some of the horror catalogue titles but but they are mainly interested in newer type films since they merged with starz they have hardly release any catalogue title movies lately just a few

[Nailwraps]

I forgot to mention, that if Universal won, they could also get the full rights to all the films they co-distributed/produced with Dino De Laurentiis (example: Army Of Darkness, Halloween II).

[rxfiend]

I guess the Midnite Movie line is truly dead with this news. That's too bad.