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Assessing MGM Under Amazon Rule

From August 2022, when Amazon officially acquired MGM, through to this past weekend’s flop Blink Twice, the studio released copious features greenlit by predecessors Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy. So, how’d they do? Not great… but not awful considering the grim new normal.

Mike De Luca Pam Abdy
The 10 films left on Amazon’s doorstep by De Luca and Abdy have grossed $538 million worldwide. Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Scott Mendelson
August 27, 2024

Given the challenges facing adult-skewing, non-franchise studio films, it’s almost a miracle that anyone showed up for Blink Twice, one of the last greenlights of the Mike De Luca–Pam Abdy regime at MGM before they decamped for Warner Bros., in March 2022, and Courtenay Valenti stepped in to run what is now the film unit of Amazon MGM Studios. The thriller, directed by Zoë Kravitz and starring Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum, grossed $7 million domestic during its opening weekend. (The film made $14 million globally.)