Amazon has a very low valuation of MGM’s 4000-film back catalog

This year Amazon completed its acquisition of MGM after announcing its intent to do so in 2021 and now a new filing from Bezos’ behemoth shows what they got was only worth about two Marvel movies’ profits.

In an article posted today by Variety about the company’s 10-Q filing with the SEC, it was revealed MGM’s 4,000 films and 17,000 television episodes are only worth $3.4 billion. The deal was initially valued at around $8.5 billion, but, apparently, the extra cash only came from the 98-year-old studio’s branding.

“The deal price [includes] $4.9 billion of goodwill, which represents ‘the established reputation of a business regarded as a quantifiable asset.’ Due to the limited amount of time since the MGM acquisition, the value of certain assets and liabilities is preliminary and subject to change.”

The studio owns franchises like Rocky, Legally Blonde and has distributed movies with the James Bond character for years in concert with Eon Productions. The studios’ content from before 1986 was sold off to Ted Turner and, while work like a James Bond-inspired reality series is already in the works for Amazon’s streaming service, Amazon may not get to exploit all the crucial content they captured in the transaction.

Films like 1987’s RoboCop stand to return to their creators unless Amazon strikes a deal to keep the copyright in the future, and so do other works which meet the 35 years rule under U.S. copyright law. So, ultimately, just how much Amazon will get from this deal remains to be seen in the months and years ahead.