'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.

Amazon first started competing for the rights to stream James Bond films in 2017, competing with Apple TV, the only one with a budget large enough to go toe-to-toe with the everything store. It took three years, but in early 2020, just before the pandemic, Amazon won the battle to stream all 24 Bond films that currently existed and would have the right to stream "James Bond 25" after its release that spring. Most know what came next: the shutdown delayed Bond from reaching theaters for nearly two years, with the film finally hitting theaters in November 2021 and raking in $774.2 million globally as a reward for its patience.

However, Bezos had not been patient over those two years, pushing for the film to debut on Amazon, to the point of offering MGM millions in 2020 to stream it at Christmas for those in lockdown at home, only to be rebuffed. (Bezos was not offering three-quarters of a billion dollars for it, only $600m, so MGM was right to wait.) Amazon then offered to buy the Bond franchise outright from MGM, only to be told it wasn't for sale. So, in mid-2021, Amazon bought MGM for a whopping $8.5 billion since that was the only way to own James Bond.

Anyone who has read my MGM+ rants knows full well Amazon had no interest in the company or anything other than Bond, which it saw as a franchise to be mined the way Warner Bros. is doing with Harry Potter and Game of Thrones. However, buying MGM meant Amazon only had 50% of James Bond rights; Broccoli and Wilson still owned the other half and were not interested in making "content" with their family legacy or how much MGM+ could line pockets.

The last four years have been something of a comedy in the world of Bond, with Broccoli casually dropping the names of young hot actors who she claimed to be considering. (The reason they all sounded so surprised when their names came up? She wasn't actually talking to any of them.) Meanwhile, MGM's brass (or what was left) sent less than subtle messages to Amazon in their programming choices, such as picking A Spy Among Friends as the "substitute Bond Spy Series" to launch MGM+, a six-episode clinical defenestration of the myth of MI-6 and James Bond.

It's unclear if Broccoli thought she could hold out against "the temporary people" or if the 2024 election forced her to admit that Amazon wouldn't be broken up soon. Age is also a factor; Wilson is considering retiring, and Broccoli would have had to stand against the world's biggest company alone. However, she stood her ground. If she was selling the family birthright, she was getting all the money for it. While Amazon sources dispute the number, Deadline reports, all told, the deal is worth one billion American dollars to make her go away.

Considering Amazon already spent $8.5b, this probably feels like "in for a penny, in for a pound." After all, the company bought MGM for Bond, and four years later, still has nothing to show for it other than a streaming service it didn't want that no one watches. But what has the company got for its investment? 

This is the second time Amazon has spent gobs of money in foolish ways for a product that wasn't worth the cash. Listen, we like Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power around here, but I will be the first to say the show is utterly unnecessary to the Tolkien canon, has been deeply mid at points, and is certainly not worth the billion dollars it cost to make the contractually required two seasons. (I genuinely thought someone would step in and quietly cancel it after Season 2, but no. In for a penny, in for a pound.)

The Wilson-Broccoli exit most likely takes most of those who ran Bond under them out of the picture, either self-selecting to leave or laid off as redundant. That means Amazon has to assemble a production team from the ground up, a month-long process, before it can even begin considering casting the role. At best, James Bond 26 rives in what, 2027? 2028? Followed by a spinoff TV series no one asked for in 2029-2030? 

Because Broccoli was waiting out Amazon, and she still is. She only needs ten more years: James Bond goes out of copyright in 2035.* 

Now she has a billion dollars, company loyalists, and children who will help her build a new bespoke studio. In just a decade's time, she can declare the films made by her company are the only canon Bond films true fans should recognize. She's done it before; she can do it again. Who says Bond doesn't make Supervillains pay?

(*To be clear, the OG James Bond from the first novel goes out of copyright in 2035. Sean Connery's version is protected until 2060.)

The first 25 James Bond movies are streaming on Amazon's Prime Video (but not MGM+, because, and that's why.) The still untitled, uncast, and unwritten James Bond 26 will, one supposes, eventually get made.