MGM WON’T HAVE TO FUND THE HOBBIT AFTER ALL

MGM has handed over foreign distribution of the two The Hobbit movies to Warner Bros. in exchange for Warners’ putting up the entire $530-million production budget for the movies, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Friday). A previous agreement called for the two studios to split the production costs, with Warners getting domestic distribution and MGM foreign distribution. Last month it was announced that the new MGM chiefs Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum had secured a $500-million line of credit to produce new movies and television shows, and it was assumed that $265 million of that amount would go to cover MGM’s share of The Hobbit‘s budget. Now, analysts figure, MGM will use most of the $500 million to produce an expanded slate of movies.