In October 1992, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that Disney could continue to use the Disney-MGM name and logo on productions made at the Florida park.Īnd MGM/UA could license the MGM name to other companies, such as Kerkorian’s hotel-casino company MGM Grand, even for theme parks.Īn October 26, 1992, article in Variety summed up the issues: The relationship with MGM/UA was a rocky one.Īround the time the park opened, MGM/UA sued Disney over the licensing agreement. Putting the two most recognized names in entertainment together would be just the marketing angle that the new park needed, right? Then again, the Disney of 1985 was also a company whose greatest movie achievements had been in the past. The MGM of 1985 was only a shadow of the great MGM of earlier decades. Not only that, but MGM had a library of many of the greatest movies of all time. It was because the new park would not just be about Disney movies, it would be about the movies, and no movie studio had a more glorious past than MGM. Why did Disney seek the MGM name for its new theme park and studio in Florida? Ice cream vending cart at Disney-MGM Studios

Notice that Eisner used the term perpetual rights.

In his 1998 book Work in Progress, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner explained, “In June 1985, we signed an agreement that gave us most of everything we sought, including perpetual rights to use much of MGM’s library and its logo for a very modest fee.įor reasons that remain a mystery Kerkorian was told about the deal only as it was being signed.” When Kerkorian learned of the deal in 1985, he couldn’t believe that his executives had traded one of the most valuable assets of MGM/UA (as the company was called at the time)-its legendary name-to a competitor for a relatively modest fee. The owner of MGM, billionaire financier Kirk Kerkorian (1917–2015), wasn’t happy about it. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer simply collected a licensing fee from The Walt Disney Company. There are still people who call it MGM for short.īased on a Yesterland article originally published April 18, 2008ĭespite the “MGM” in the park’s name, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had no part in designing, owning, or operating Disney-MGM Studios. It kept the Disney-MGM name for almost 19 years. The third major theme park at Walt Disney World had originally opened May 1, 1989.

The next day, January 7, 2008, it reopened as Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The End of Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park and the beginning of Disney’s Hollywood Studiosįifteen years ago today-January 6, 2008-was the final operating day of the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park.

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