Warner Bros. to Release MGM Movies Internationally, With One Major James Bond Exception

MGM has a new partner for international movie distribution. The Amazon-owned MGM studio releases its own films here in the United States, but it has partnered with Universal for its international rollouts for some time. No Time to Die, the 25th film in the James Bond franchise that was released last year, was released by Universal overseas. On Sunday, however, MGM announced a new international partnership with Warner Bros.

Going forward, Warner Bros. will be the international distributor for the majority of MGM’s films. Bones and All, the new movie arriving in November, will be the first of MGM’s upcoming films to be released internationally by Warner Bros. Creed III, hitting theaters early next year, will follow suit. The next James Bond movie, though, will still be released overseas by Universal.

Bond 26 is still a long ways off; Daniel Craig’s successor has yet to be named and there has been very little talk about the film since No Time to Die‘s release. Regardless of when it hits theaters, Bond 26 will still fall under the previous MGM/Universal partnership, so Universal will release it internationally. That is the only Bond film still under that contract, however, and Bond 27 is free to be released by Warner Bros., should the deal with MGM still be in place whenever that time comes.

Warner Bros. and MGM will be collaborating on all of the marketing, advertising, publicity, exhibitor relations, and film distribution of MGM films outside of North America.

The biggest IP in the MGM library is undoubtedly James Bond, so both Universal and Warner Bros. are likely looking forward to seeing where the long-running franchise goes next. With Daniel Craig no longer in the role, all eyes are on the James Bond series to see who will be named the next 007.

“Nobody’s in the running,” James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli told Deadline. “We’re working out where to go with him, we’re talking that through. There isn’t a script and we can’t come up with one until we decide how we’re going to approach the next film because, really, it’s a reinvention of Bond. We’re reinventing who he is and that takes time. I’d say that filming is at least two years away.”