‘Die Another Day’ Gives MGM a Brighter Outlook

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.’s latest James Bond film, “Die Another Day,” is beginning to look like a license to make a killing.

MGM said Wednesday that the picture would be the most lucrative of 20 films about the British secret agent, adding more than $100 million to the studio’s bottom line.

“It will be the most profitable, by a significant margin,” Vice Chairman Chris McGurk said in discussing the Santa Monica company’s fourth-quarter earnings. The film starring Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry, which has grossed $382 million worldwide, eventually should gross $425 million and is expected to reap more after it’s released on DVD in June, McGurk said.

MGM’s results, reported Wednesday after being detailed last month in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, showed fourth-quarter net income up 50% to $58.7 million, or 24 cents a share. A year earlier, MGM earned $39.1 million, or 16 cents.

Earnings were boosted by two gains: $32.5 million from the sale to General Electric Co. unit NBC of its 20% stake in the Bravo cable network and an additional $13.2 million stemming from a settlement with an insurance company.

MGM said revenue soared 65% in the quarter to $620.9 million from $375.5 million a year earlier.

For the year, MGM lost $142.2 million stemming from such disappointments as “Rollerball,” “Hart’s War,” and “Windtalkers.”

MGM said that it expects revenue to increase 3% to 5% this year to about $1.7 billion and that the company should generate as much as $150 million in cash.

The company forecast a net loss of $60 million to $94 million for 2003, but blamed bookkeeping, not operations. MGM is required to take noncash amortization adjustments to its books that stem largely from acquisition of the Orion and Polygram film libraries in the late 1990s.

Industry analyst Jeffrey Logsdon of Gerard Klauer Mattison said he is encouraged that MGM is trimming its debt, and that its upcoming slate features lower-budget, lower-risk films such as sequels to “Legally Blonde” and “Barbershop.”

“Clearly they have some sequels that have some franchise value,” Logsdon said. “I think they’re in the best shape they’ve been in for years.”

MGM is planning a “Legally Blonde” TV series with ABC, which probably will be launched in 2004. Sources said the company also is negotiating with NBC for a “Barbershop” series.

MGM’s stock closed at $9.85, down 18 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.