Apple loads iTunes with MGM blockbusters

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) and Apple announced Wednesday that movies from MGM will be available for purchase and download on the iTunes Store, expanding the iTunes catalog to more than 500 movies.

The American media company, MGM announced yesterday that it has entered into a deal with Apple to make more than 150 of its films available for purchase and download from the world’s biggest online movie store, becoming the latest major film studio to offer downloadable movies on Apple's iTunes Store.

Starting today, iTunes customers will be able to purchase blockbuster MGM films like "Mad Max," "Rocky," "Dances With Wolves" and "The Great Train Robbery," and many others.

MGM said initially it will offer some classic movies from its esteemed collection of feature films to iTunes and will add other titles in the coming weeks.

"It's exciting to be bringing so many amazing films from our catalog to iTunes," said Douglas A. Lee, MGM's executive vice president of Worldwide Digital Media. "We have an unrivaled movie library and are looking forward to adding even more films in the future so users can take their favorite movies with them wherever they go."

The library of Apple's online store that began offering movie downloads in September the Cupertino, California-based company said now consists more than 500 films, which have now been downloaded more than 2 million times.

"More than two million movies have now been downloaded from the iTunes Store making it the world's most popular online movie store," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "We're absolutely thrilled so many legendary MGM films are joining an iTunes film catalog that now has over 500 movies."

Apple launched the movie download service with films from Walt Disney Co.’s four Hollywood studios: Pixar, Walt Disney Pictures, Miramax Films and Touchstone Pictures.

Missing from the lineup are feature films from other major studios such as Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures, General Electric Corp.'s Universal Studios and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., which already have started distributing movies on rival services from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.

Titles from the California-based motion pictures studio’s collection of blockbusters and classics have received as many as 208 Academy Awards in its history, which makes them one of the biggest award winning collections of films in the world.

Movies downloaded from the iTunes Store have near-DVD quality, 640-by-480-pixel video, perfect for watching on a computer, fifth generation iPod or widescreen TV with Apple TV.

Besides a huge collection of movies, the iTunes Store features the world's largest catalog with over five million songs and 350 television shows. Songs on iTunes Music store cost $0.99 each, television episodes and music videos cost $1.99 each while full length movies cost $9.99 or $14.99 if the movie downloaded during their first week of release. Apple has sold until now over 2.5 billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over two million movies via its online store, making it the world's most popular online music, TV and movie store.

After igniting the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II, the Cupertino, California-based Apple reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Continuing with its tendency of revolutions, Apple is leading the industry with its award-winning desktop and notebook computers, OS X operating system, and iLife and professional applications. In digital music segment, it is moving ahead with its iPod portable music players, iTunes online store and most recent its upcoming much-hyped, revolutionary iPhone.