The delay in "007: No Time to Die" eventually dragged down MGM Pictures.
Thanks to the willingness of amazon, the century-old Hollywood studio to survive.
While the North American film market is recovering well with Fast & Furious 9 and Black Widow, the industry as a whole is like a giant ship, and after being damaged by the storm, it is not so easy to recover as before.
In particular, the impact of the streaming wave has made the route more difficult to predict.
After MGM, another Hollywood studio was unsustainable and announced that it was seeking a sale.
Although this is a small independent production company, it is not small in the industry.
"Room" in 2015, which helped Brie Larson crown oscar queen;
In the same year, "Lobster" won the Grand Jury Prize of the Main Competition in Cannes;
2016's "Moonlight Boy", beating "Philharmonic City" in a cold way, won the Oscar for Best Picture;
In 2017, Miss Bird, "Florida Paradise" was a hit in the awards season;
In 2019, "Don't Tell Her" made Okafina the first Golden Globe Award-winning Asian actress;
In 2020, "Minari" won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Founded in 2012, in just 9 years, a24 Pictures has dedicated its beautiful art film masterpieces to the world film industry.
Therefore, the purchase price of a24 is not a small amount.
$2.5 billion to $3 billion.
Some foreign media believe that the asking price of a24 is somewhat high.
Although it is some distance from MGM's $8.45 billion purchase price, Lucasfilm, which owns the commercial IP of "Star Wars", was acquired by Disney that year, and it was also sold for $4 billion.
A24's content library is mostly literary and artistic films, lack of diverse means of monetization, and there are almost no IP that can be developed, and the commercial value is definitely much lower.
However, considering inflation, and the possibility of only being a tentative asking price, it is not particularly outrageous.
Shouting a little higher price, waiting for the intentional gold owner to cut the price, and the final transaction price falls above and below the real target price, this operation is very conventional.
In addition to the strong films in a24, there are certain popularity, and there are many films that are small explosions.
Like "Under the Skin" starring Scarlett Johansson, the goddess's flesh is enough to attract the eyes of countless audiences;
Tom Hardy starred in Locke, comparable to the one-man show film Buried Alive;
"Mechanical Ji", a science fiction film that was highly popular on the Internet that year, directed by Alex Garland in a world war;
The thriller "The Witch" starring Anya Taylor-Joy, and there will be no shortage of specially sought-after audiences after "Rear Wing Deserter";
"Swiss Army Knife Man", "Harry Potter" Daniel Radcliffe plays the dead body, the evil joke is absurd;
"Twentieth Century Woman", Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig, Ellie Fanning, these three generations of goddesses alone are enough to watch;
"The Disaster Artist", which interprets Tommy Wessell's epic bad film "Room" from another perspective;
"Genetic Doom", a popular North American horror film, set a new box office high of $80 million worldwide;
"Original Diamond" can be called the word-of-mouth black comedy of the American version of "Crazy Stone".
Therefore, for streaming media, a24 not only has the production strength, can bring award-winning works, but also can bring a good supplement to the film library.
It is reported that the most willing buyer at present is Apple.
Apple developed Apple TV+ to join the streaming war, however, compared with the old studios such as Disney and Warner, which can rush into the head competition as soon as they come up, Apple can only temporarily hover in the second echelon even if it invites Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and other big guys to help.
Even Amazon, which has a user base that is close to Netflix, needs to buy MGM to strengthen, and Apple naturally has enough reasons to buy the A24.
For a24, embracing streaming is one of the few ways out.
Even without the impact of the closure of theaters last year, the survival of literary and art films in theaters is becoming more and more difficult.
Streaming media provides a new platform and distribution channel for art films, and exaggeratedly, it provides a way for art films to live.
Cinemas won't die out so easily.
But only if a good production company can survive, it will not die.