'Bond's' Broccoli Bests Bezos for a Billion
It took 65 years for James Bond to finally exit the U.K., but as of February 20, 2025, the man with a license to kill is officially an Amazon employee. The nearly decade-long saga of the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos' quest for the right to first distribute and then make official films for the 007 canon has been in process almost since the company launched Amazon Studios in 2010 and produced its first original series in 2014. In the end, the company that's synonymous with Bezos' name paid twice for it, costing somewhere in the ballpark of $9.5 billion, and that's before a single dime has been spent on actually making a film.
It may seem odd to readers that we don't talk much about James Bond here; he is, after all, only one of British entertainment's most recognizable enduring cultural figures. However, that disconnect is quite simple. Telly Visions is, at heart, TV-focused (it's right there in our name), and despite the streaming revolution blurring those lines between the big and small screen, the James Bond franchise has been strictly theatrical. Sibling owners Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson have kept the company running for decades on the simple premise of making one bespoke film every three to five years and then keeping it off broadcast/cable for as long as humanly possible.
Broccoli and Wilson's successful formula was always at odds with Amazon's entire ethos, as is their mantra: "Don't have temporary people make permanent decisions," which Broccoli was quoted as saying not long after Amazon bought MGM in 2021 after the company refused to sell him the rights to Bond. The message was obvious: Bond is forever, Bezos' company is not.
