Amazon is starting its acquisition of MGM for a whole lotta cash. This is a bid to try to buy the defeat of Netflix via Amazon Prime streaming services. James Bond, the Addams Family, Stargate, The Lord of the Rings,

There’s a famous anti-trust case, US vs Paramount, which put an end to the Hollywood studio system. In the old system we had The Big Five studios - which included MGM - and they had a 90% ownership over the film market.

The studios had actors that had exclusive contracts, they made films that they owned exclusive rights to, and would only release them in theaters owned by the studio. The studios owned the entire vertical and it prevented smaller studios from breaking into the market. They couldn’t get actors. They couldn’t get their pictures up on screens.

This is all very similar now to the big VOD streaming companies. But hey, there’s legal precedent to prevent history from repeating itself, right? Well.. not exactly. On August 7th, 2020, the DOJ reversed the decision and added a termination period to the decree. This was heavily opposed by independent movie theater owners. By the time Amazon acquires MGM this will be completely reversed and Amazon will continue to burninate the countryside, gobbling up as much as possible. All it takes is for Amazon to buy AMC.

Now we’ll have a new Big Five: Netflix, Youtube, Amazon, Hulu, and Dinsey+ take up 85% of the streaming market. Art for Art’s sake, right?