1978–1982 In 1978, the company was established as
MGM Home Video, releasing MGM films and television series. On June 4, 1980, MGM announced that it joined forces with
CBS Video Enterprises, the home video division of the
CBS television network, and formed
MGM/CBS Home Video. In October of that year, they released their first batch of Betamax and VHS tapes. The initial printings of all 24 films were packaged in brown leather clamshell cases with gold lettering; they were presented to CBS executives. Later printings of these films, as well as all printings of later releases by MGM/CBS, were packaged in oversized gray book-style boxes with either the MGM Abstract Lion print logo or CBS Video print logo in the upper right hand corner of the packaging. MGM/CBS also issued some early tapes of
Lorimar product; those releases would instead bear the Lorimar print logo where the MGM or CBS Video print logo would normally be. In 1981, MGM/CBS and
Samuel Goldwyn Home Entertainment began to co-market certain Goldwyn titles, with CBS Video Enterprises handling distribution on Goldwyn's behalf.
1982–1998 In 1982, a year after MGM bought and merged with the near-bankrupt
United Artists (UA) from
Transamerica, CBS dropped out of the video partnership with MGM and moved to
20th Century Fox to create
CBS/Fox Video (Samuel Goldwyn titles moved to CBS/Fox, as they were distributed via CBS). MGM's video division became known as
MGM/UA Home Entertainment Group, Inc., more commonly known as
MGM/UA Home Video. MGM/UA continued to license pre-1981 UA and
pre-1950 WB films (as well as some post-1981 titles) to CBS/Fox (due to an agreement UA had with Fox years earlier dating back to when CBS/Fox Video was called
Magnetic Video). In 1982, the company entered into an agreement with
The Cannon Group to release titles from the mini-major film studio through 1985. In 1985, it entered into an agreement with
Rene Malo Video to handle Canadian distribution of MGM/UA product. In 1986, MGM's pre-May 1986 library (also including the pre-1950
Warner Bros. library,
Bugs Bunny: Superstar, the
Fleischer Studios/
Famous Studios Popeye cartoons, and most US rights to the
RKO Pictures library), was acquired by
Ted Turner and his company
Turner Entertainment Co. After the library was acquired, MGM/UA signed a deal with Turner to continue distributing the pre-May 1986 MGM and to begin distributing the pre-1950 Warner Bros. libraries for video release (the rest of the library went to
Turner Home Entertainment). Also that year, it signed an agreement with
Roger Corman and his film studio
Concorde Pictures that enabled MGM/UA worldwide access to motion pictures that were produced by Concorde. In October 1990, after
Pathé Communications bought MGM, MGM/UA Home Video struck a deal with
Warner Home Video to have them distribute MGM/UA titles exclusively on home video worldwide. The Pathé merger also meant MGM acquired a majority of the
Cannon Films library (certain rights for other media and select films during the
Thorn EMI merger now lie with other entities with few exceptions), ironic considering MGM/UA had previously distributed Cannon output in the 1980s. MGM/UA also began distributing the rest of the UA library around this time after its contract with CBS/Fox ended. In 1994, MGM/UA Home Video launched the
MGM/UA Family Entertainment label for family-friendly releases. In 1996, Warner made an exclusive deal with
Image Entertainment to distribute MGM/UA titles on
LaserDisc. In 1997, MGM/UA, along with the other studios that were distributed by Warner Home Video, began releasing its titles on
DVD. Some of the films MGM released on DVD were from the Turner catalog, which they were still allowed to keep after Turner merged into
Time Warner Entertainment some time before because of their distribution deal. That same year, MGM acquired
Orion Pictures. As a result,
Orion Home Video (Orion's home video division) was absorbed by MGM/UA, and was retained as an in-name-only division until the acquisition deal was finalized in 1998. That year, the company was renamed
MGM Home Entertainment. 1998–2005 After the Orion acquisition, MGM kept Orion Pictures intact as a corporation, mostly to avoid its video distribution agreement with Warner Home Video, and thus, Orion Pictures films would be distributed under the Orion Home Video label. In 1999, MGM acquired 2/3 of the pre-1996
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment library from
Seagram for $250 million, increasing their library holdings to 4,000. The PolyGram libraries (which included the
Epic film library) would be placed under Orion Pictures to avoid the Warner Home Video contract. In March that same year, MGM paid $225 million to end its distribution contract with Warner Home Video, effectively ending the distribution problem (the initial deal was to have expired in 2003, but as a result of the early termination, it instead ended in February 2000). As a result of the deal, Warner Home Video took over the home media rights to the MGM/UA films owned by Turner. Upon the expiration of the Warner Home Video deal, MGM signed a deal with
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment to distribute its films on home video overseas. In 2001, MGM and
Amazon.com launched the "MGM Movie Vault" to distribute VHS copies of selected films, either previously unreleased on video or long out-of-print, exclusively through Amazon. On March 3, 2003, MGM Home Entertainment launched the
MGM Kids sub-label. On May 27, MGM reinstated full distribution rights to their products in regions like the United Kingdom, Australia, Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Germany, although 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment continued to distribute for MGM in a majority of developing regions.
2005–2019 In 2005, following MGM's acquisition by a
Sony-led consortium (in part so Sony could ensure MGM's support of the Sony-invented
Blu-ray format), MGM stopped self-releasing their content and started releasing its newest content through
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment under the standard MGM label, from that point onward, MGM releases began to be credited as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc., the MGM Home Entertainment moniker would be retired within the same year. However, Sony failed to meet projected sales of MGM content on DVD (in part because the DVD market was cooling); further issues came when Harry Sloan was hired as MGM's chairman and split MGM from Sony Pictures control, instead championing MGM as a company independent of Sony. Further issues between the companies and inside both plagued the deal, and MGM dropped Sony Pictures Home Entertainment as a home media distributor in May 2006, instead signing a new worldwide distribution deal with
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. In 2010, parent company
MGM Holdings emerged from bankruptcy. As of 2011 until 2018, MGM no longer released or marketed their own movies, as they shared distribution with other studios that handle all distribution and marketing for MGM's projects. Since then, only a handful of MGM's most recent movies, such as
Skyfall, the remake of
Red Dawn,
Carrie,
RoboCop,
If I Stay,
Poltergeist (which
Fox 2000 Pictures co-produced) and
Spectre have been released on
DVD and
Blu-ray by its home video output via
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Others, such as
The Hobbit trilogy,
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters,
G.I. Joe: Retaliation,
Hercules,
Hot Tub Time Machine 2,
Tomb Raider,
Creed I and
II,
21 and
22 Jump Street,
Ben-Hur,
Sherlock Gnomes and
The Magnificent Seven have been released by the home video output of the co-distributor—in these cases,
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment,
Paramount Home Entertainment and
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment respectively. In 2011, MGM launched the "MGM Limited Edition Collection", a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD service that issues unreleased and out-of-print titles from the MGM-owned library. Its releases are sold through the
Warner Archive Collection. On April 14, 2011, Fox's deal distributing the MGM library was extended through 2016. On June 27, 2016, Fox's distribution deal with MGM was renewed until June 30, 2020.
2019–present With the
acquisition of Fox's parent company 21st Century Fox by
Disney on March 20, 2019, MGM announced in their 2019 report that it would not renew its deal with Fox, and would search for a new distributor afterwards. In the studio's 2020 financial report, MGM named
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment as their new home media distributor. However, the transfer does not include co-production films outside Warner Bros. as some MGM co-financed films are still owned by the respective co-distributors. On May 26, 2021, it was officially announced that MGM would be acquired by
Amazon for $8.45 billion, subject to regulatory approvals and other routine closing conditions; with MGM continuing to operate as a label under Amazon, but leaving the future of the physical home video releases of its titles other than its current distribution deal with
Studio Distribution Services and several third-party boutique labels in question.{{cite news |last1=Spangler |first1=Todd |title=Amazon Said to Make $9 Billion Offer for MGM On January 12, 2026, MGM announced that their US and Canadian physical media distribution would shift to Alliance Entertainment (possibly related to
the former Canadian company of the same name). == Catalog and distribution deals ==