James Bond Trapped in an Ugly Stalemate Between Amazon and Broccoli Family

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Nearly three years after Amazon acquired the right to release Bond movies through its $6.5 billion purchase of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio, the relationship between the family that oversees the franchise and the e-commerce giant has all but collapsed. The decaying partnership has scuttled any near-term hope of a new Bond film—a black eye for Amazon’s ambitions in Hollywood, since at the time of the MGM sale, the Bond franchise represented a significant share of the $6.5 billion the company paid for the studio.

When it comes to Bond’s future, the power lies in the hands of Barbara Broccoli, who inherited the control from her father, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, and who for 30 years has decided when a new Bond movie can go into production. She has told friends she doesn’t trust algorithm-centric Amazon with a character she helped to mythologize through big-screen storytelling and gut instinct. This fall, she characterized the status of a new movie in dire terms—no script, no story and no new Bond.

To friends, Broccoli has characterized her thoughts on Amazon this way: “These people are f— idiots.”

The two sides are at an impasse: Amazon needs Broccoli to furnish them with ideas for a new Bond movie, but Broccoli doesn’t want to make a new Bond movie with Amazon. The standoff, say people on both sides of the divide, boils down to a clash between the 20th-century Hollywood of big screens and big swings and a new entertainment industry ruled by Silicon Valley firms that prize data, algorithms and streaming subscriptions.

The Broccoli family’s control of James Bond has few comparisons in contemporary Hollywood, where cherished characters are gobbled up by conglomerates eager to exploit them across screens, toy shelves and theme parks. For decades, studio executives have salivated over the chance to do the same with Bond.

It’s a job that has forced her to weather the hot-potato game of studio mergers and consolidations before. Due to the current impasse, the franchise hasn’t moved any closer to its next installment since “No Time to Die” came out in 2021, after a delayed premiere during the pandemic. That’s unusually long for a series that regularly saw releases every year or two starting with “Dr. No” in 1962 and rarely took more than three years off—and it’s a risky lull in today’s crowded entertainment landscape.

Broccoli has complained that Amazon isn’t a good home for Bond, since the company’s core business is selling everything from toilet paper to vacuums—a perspective Amazon executives find unfair. But since she makes the creative calls that come first—script, casting, story—Broccoli can hold Bond hostage from Amazon for as long as she sees fit.

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