Is Sony Pictures getting a raw deal as studios war over Bond rights?

Is Sony Pictures getting a raw deal as studios war over Bond rights?

MUMBAI: Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, and 20th Century Fox are among the Hollywood studio majors fighting for the rights to distribute 'Bond 25'. Universal Pictures, Times and Annapurna are also warring for the rights to distribute the forthcoming James Bond movie.

The rights to all 007 films are owned by EON and MGM, but they only produce the movies and need a distributor to handle the marketing, PTI reported. Sony Pictures was chosen for the job starting with 'Casino Royale' in 2006 and continued until 2015 with 'Spectre'.

Sony, under its previous agreement, paid 50 per cent of the production costs for 'Spectre' -- which was around USD 250 million -- but only received 25 per cent of certain profits, once costs were recouped, according to a report.

Sony also shelled out tens of millions of dollars for the sake of marketing and gave MGM a share of the profit from non-Bond films Sony had in its pipeline, including '22 Jump Street'.

Now, MGM and EON are allegedly offering a one-film contract only. MGM, which is owned by private equity firms, including Anchorage Capital Partners, probably wants to keep its options open as it considers a public offer or sale, the report added.