| Company name | Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. |
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| Company logo | |
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| Company type | Subsidiary of Time Warner |
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| Foundation | 1918 (as Warner Bros. Studios)1923 (as Warner Bros. Pictures) |
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| Founder | Jack WarnerHarry WarnerAlbert WarnerSam Warner |
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| Location city | Burbank, California |
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| Location country | United States |
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| Key people | Barry Meyer(Chairman and CEO)Alan F. Horn(President and COO)Edward A. Romano(Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer) |
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| Industry | Entertainment |
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| Products | Motion pictures, television programs |
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| Revenue | (2007) |
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| Operating income | (2007) |
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| Parent | Independent (1918–1967)Seven Arts (1967–1970)Kinney (1969–1972)Warner Communciations (1972–1989)Time Warner (1989–2001, 2003–present)AOL Time Warner (2001–2003) |
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| Homepage | warnerbros.com |
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Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. (the often-spoken Warner Brothers was used historically on its building and is often spoken including by company officials, but the abbreviated form Warner Bros. tends to be their only official name in writing) is an American producer of film and television entertainment.
One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank, California and New York City. Warner Bros. has several subsidiary companies, including Warner Bros. Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, TheWB.com, and DC Comics. Warner owns half of The CW Television Network.
History
1903–25: founding
The corporate name honors the four founding Warner brothers (born Wonskolaser)—
Harry (born Hirsz),
Albert (born Abraham),
Sam (born Szmul), and
Jack (born Itzhak), who emigrated from Poland, which was at that time part of the
Russian Empire, to
London, Ontario, Canada. The three elder brothers began in the movie theatre business, having acquired a
movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania and Ohio. They opened their first theater, the Cascade, in
New Castle, Pennsylvania in 1903. (The site of the Cascade later became the
Cascade Center, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex honoring its Warner Bros. heritage, though in late 2010 all of the businesses have closed and the complex is currently for sale.) When this original theatre building in New Castle was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the modern building owners, and arranged a 3 way even splitting of the cost of saving it, between the state, Warner Bros, and the modern owners. The owners noted the fact that they were taking phone calls from all over the country in reference to the historical significance of the humble building that should be saved historically.
In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. However, as late as the 1960s, Warner Bros. claimed 1905 as its founding date.
The first important deal for the company was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwood's 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, from theatrical impresario David Belasco. However, what really put Warner Bros. on the Hollywood map was a dog, Rin Tin Tin, brought from France after World War I by an American soldier. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins. The movie was so successful that Jack Warner agreed to sign the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jack Warner's right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including the day-to-day production of films. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director; Lubitsch's film The Marriage Circle was the studio's most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for the year.
Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners was still unable to achieve star power. As a result, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. like The Marriage Circle, Beau Brummell was named one of the ten best films of the year by The New York Times. As a result, Harry Warner – while speaking at a convention of 1,500 independent exhibitors in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – was able to convince the filmmakers to spend $500,000 in newspaper advertising, and Harry saw this as an opportunity to finally be able to establish theaters in big cities like New York and Los Angeles.
1925–35: sound, color, style
Warner Bros. was a pioneer of films with
synchronized sound (then known as
"talking pictures" or "talkies"). In 1925, at the urging of Sam, the Warners agreed to expand their operations by adding this feature to their productions. Harry, however, opposed it, famously wondering, "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" By February 1926, the studio suffered a reported net loss of $333,413.
After a long period of denying Sam's request for sound, Harry now agreed to accept Sam's demands, as long as the studio's use of synchronized sound was for background music purposes only. In 1926, Vitaphone began making films with music and effects tracks, most notably, in the feature Don Juan starring John Barrymore. The film was silent, but it featured a large number of Vitaphone shorts at the beginning. To hype Don Juan's release, Harry Warner also acquired the large Piccadilly Theater in Manhattan, New York and renamed it the Warner Theater.
Don Juan premiered at the Warner Theater in New York on August 6, 1926. While Don Juan was a success at the box office, it did not earn back its production cost and Western Electric renewed Warner's Vitaphone contract with terms that allowed other film companies to test sound. Sam's death also had a great effect on Jack's emotional state, as Sam was arguably Jack's inspiration and favorite brother. In the years to come, Jack ran the studio with an iron fist. Among those whom Jack fired were Rin Tin Tin (in 1929) and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. – who had served as First National's top star since the brothers acquired the studio in 1928—in 1933. With the success of these first talkies (The Jazz Singer, Lights of New York, The Singing Fool, and The Terror), Warner Bros. became one of the top studios in Hollywood and the brothers were now able to move out from the Poverty Row section of Hollywood and acquire a big studio in Burbank, California. They were also able to expand studio operations by acquiring the Stanley Corporation, a major theater chain. This gave them a share in rival First National Pictures, of which Stanley owned one-third. In a bidding war with William Fox, Warner Bros. bought more First National shares on September 13, 1928;
In 1929, Harry was also able to produce an adaptation of a Cole Porter musical titled Fifty Million Frenchmen. Through First National, the studio's profit increased substantially. After the success of the studio's 1929 First National film Noah's Ark, Harry also agreed to make Michael Curtiz a major director at the Burbank studio. Mort Blumenstock, a First National screenwriter, became a top writer at the brothers' New York headquarters.
In the third quarter of 1929, Warner Bros. gained complete control of First National, when Harry purchased the company's remaining one-third share from Fox. When the Great Depression hit, Warner asked for and got permission to merge the two studios; soon afterward Warner Bros. moved to the First National lot in Burbank. Though the companies merged, the Justice Department required Warner to produce and release a few films each year under the First National name until 1938. For 30 years, certain Warner productions were identified (mainly for tax purposes) as 'A Warner Bros. – First National Picture.'
In the latter part of 1929, Jack Warner hired sixty-one year old actor George Arliss to star in Disraeli, which was a surprise success. In July 1930, the studio's banker, Motley Flint, was murdered by a disgruntled investor in another company.
By 1931, however, the studio began to feel the effects of the Depression as the general public became unable to afford the price of a movie ticket. and an additional $14 million the following year. While at the studio, Mizner had hardly any respect for authority and found it difficult to work with studio boss Jack Warner,
In 1928, Warner Bros. released Lights of New York, the first all-talking feature. Due to its success, the movie industry converted entirely to sound almost overnight. By the end of 1929, all the major studios were exclusively making sound films. In 1929, National Pictures released their first film with Warner Bros., Noah's Ark. Despite its expensive budget, Noah's Ark was profitable. In 1929, Warner Bros. released On with the Show, the first all-color all-talking feature. This was followed by Gold Diggers of Broadway which was so popular it played in theatres until 1939. The success of these two color pictures caused a color revolution (just as the first all-talkie had created one for talkies). Warner Bros. released a large number of color films from 1929 to 1931, including The Show of Shows (1929), Sally (1929), Bright Lights (1930), Golden Dawn (1930), Hold Everything (1930), Song of the Flame (1930), Song of the West (1930), The Life of the Party (1930), Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930), Under A Texas Moon (1930), Bride of the Regiment (1930), Viennese Nights (1931), Woman Hungry (1931), Kiss Me Again (1931), Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931), and Manhattan Parade (1932). In addition to these, scores of features were released with Technicolor sequences as well as a numerous variety of short subjects. The majority of these color films were musicals.
Three years later, the audience had grown so tired of musicals, the studio was forced to cut the musical numbers of many of the productions and advertise them as straight comedies. The public had begun to associate musicals with color and thus the movie studios began to abandon its use. Warner Bros. had a contract with Technicolor to produce two more pictures in that process. As a result, the first mysteries in color were produced and released by the studio: Doctor X (1932) and Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933). In the latter part of 1931, Harry Warner rented the Teddington Studios in London, England. The studio focused on making films for the London market, that saved the company from bankruptcy. In the wake of 42nd Street's success, the studio produced further profitable musicals. These starred Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell and were mostly directed by Busby Berkeley. In 1935, the revival suffered a major blow when Berkeley was arrested after killing three people while driving drunk. By the end of the year, people again tired of Warner Bros. musicals,
1931–1935: Pre-code realistic period
(1936)]]
With the collapse of the market for musicals, Warner Bros., under production head Darryl F. Zanuck, turned to more socially realistic storylines, "torn from the headlines" pictures some said glorified gangsters; Warner Bros. soon became known as a "gangster studio". The studio's first gangster film, Little Caesar, was a great box office success and Edward G. Robinson was a star in many of the subsequent wave of Warner gangster films. The studio's next gangster film, The Public Enemy, made James Cagney arguably the studio's new top star, and Warner Bros. was now convinced to make more gangster films. In addition to Cagney and Robinson, Muni was also given a big push as one the studio's top gangster stars after appearing in the successful film, By January 1933, the film's protagonist Robert Elliot Burns – who was still imprisoned in New Jersey – and a number of different chain gang prisoners nationwide in the United States were able to appeal and were released. In January 1933, Georgia chain gang warden J. Harold Hardy – who was also made into a character in the film – sued the studio for displaying "vicious, untrue and false attacks" against him in the film. After appearing in the film The Man Who Played God, Bette Davis became a top star for the studio.
In 1933, relief for the studio came after Franklin D. Roosevelt became president and was able to stimulate the economy with the New Deal; because of this economic rebound, Warner Bros. again became profitable. Also, the studio reduced Zanuck's salary as a result of the losses as a result of the Great Depression, and Harry continued to refuse to restore it in the wake of the New Deal's rebound. Zanuck resigned and established his own company. Hearst had previously been signed with MGM, but ended the relationship after a dispute with the company's head producer Irving Thalberg over the treatment of Marion Davies; Davies was a longtime mistress of Hearst of which $500,000 was the result of a fire at the Burbank studio at the end of 1934, destroying 20 years worth of early Vitagraph, Warner Bros., and First National films. The following year, Hearst's film adaption of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream failed at the box office and the studio's net loss increased. During this time, Warner Bros. President Harry Warner and six other movie studio figures were indicted of conspiracy to violate the Sherman Antitrust Act, In 1935, Harry was put on trial; 1935 also saw the studio rebound with a net profit of $674,158.00. As a result, Warner Bros. turned out a number of historical pictures from around 1935 in order to avoid confrontations with the Breen office. In 1936, following the success of The Petrified Forest, Jack Warner also signed Humphrey Bogart to a studio contract. Warner, however, did not think Bogart was star material, and decided to only cast Bogart in infrequent roles as a villain opposite either James Cagney or Edward Robinson over the next five years. and the Hays Code began to be enforced in 1935, the studio was forced to abandon this realistic approach in order to produce more moralistic, idealized pictures. The studio naturally turned to historical dramas which would not cause any problems with the censors. Other offerings included melodramas (or "women's pictures"), swashbucklers, and adaptations of best-sellers, with stars like Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Paul Muni, and Errol Flynn. In 1936, Bette Davis, by now arguably the studio's top star, was unhappy with the roles Warner was giving her. She fled to England and tried to break her contract with Warner Bros. Although many of the studio's employees had problems with Jack Warner, they considered Albert and Harry fair.
Code era
This period also saw the disappearance of a large number of actors and actresses who had characterized the realistic pre-Code era but who were not suited to the new trend into moral and idealized pictures. Warner Bros. remained a top studio in Hollywood since the dawn of talkies, but this changed after 1935 as other studios, notably MGM, quickly overshadowed the prestige and glamor that previously characterized Warner Bros. However, in the late 1930s, Bette Davis became the studio's top draw and was even dubbed as "The Fifth Warner Brother."
In 1935, Cagney sued Jack Warner for breach of contract. Cagney claimed Warner had forced him to star in more films than his contract required. Nevertheless, Cagney left the studio to establish an independent film company with his brother Bill. The Cagneys released their films though Grand National Films, however they were not able to get good financing for their productions and again quit to form his own film production and distribution company with his brother Bill. In 1936, Wallis hired Foy as a producer for the studio's low budget B-films leading to his nickname "the keeper of the B's". and Paul Muni, the film's star, won the Oscar for Best Actor in March 1937. Although Reagan was initially a small-time B-film actor,
In 1936, Harry Warner's daughter Doris read a copy of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind and was interested in making a film adaptation. Doris then offered Mitchell $50,000 for the book's screen rights. Warner had signed Raft in 1939, hoping he could substitute in gangster pictures when either Robinson or Cagney were on suspension. Eventually, Jack Warner agreed to release Raft from his contract. Following Raft's departure, the studio gave Bogart the role of Roy Earl in the 1941 film High Sierra, following High Sierra, Bogart was also given a role in John Huston's successful 1941 remake of the studio's 1931 failure, The Maltese Falcon.
1930: birth of Warner's cartoons
and
Daffy Duck are some of the characters that became central to the company's image.]]
Warner's cartoon unit had its roots in the independent Harman and Ising studio. From 1930 to 1933, Disney alumni Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising produced a series of musical cartoons for Leon Schlesinger, who sold the shorts to Warner. Harman and Ising introduced their character Bosko in the first Looney Tunes cartoon, Sinkin' in the Bathtub, and created a sister series, Merrie Melodies, in 1931.
Harman and Ising broke away from Schlesinger in 1933 due to a contractual dispute, taking Bosko with them to MGM. As a result, Schlesinger started his own studio, Leon Schlesinger Productions, which continued with Merrie Melodies while starting production on Looney Tunes starring Buddy, a Bosko clone. By the end of the decade, a new Schlesinger production team, including directors Friz Freleng, Tex Avery, Robert Clampett, and Chuck Jones was formed. Schlesinger's staff developed a fast-paced, irreverent style that made their cartoons immensely popular worldwide.
In 1936, Avery directed a string of cartoons, starring Porky Pig, which established the character as the studio's first bona fide star. In addition to Porky Pig, Warner Bros. cartoon characters Daffy Duck (who debuted in the 1937 short Porky's Duck Hunt) and Bugs Bunny (who debuted in the 1940 short A Wild Hare) also achieved star power. By 1942, the Schlesinger studio had surpassed Walt Disney Studios as the most successful producer of animated shorts in the United States.
Warner Bros eventually bought Schlesinger's cartoon unit in 1944 as a division, renamed it as Warner Bros. Cartoons. Unfortunately, the unit was indifferently treated by senior management, beginning with the installation of Edward Selzer as senior producer, whom the creative staff considered an interfering incompetent. Furthermore, Jack Warner, who had little regard for his company's short film product, reputedly was so ignorant of his animation division that he was mistakenly convinced that the unit produced cartoons of Mickey Mouse, rival company Walt Disney Pictures' flagship character. Furthermore, he sold off the unit's pre-1948 library for a mere $3000 each, which proved a short sighted transaction in light of the considerable long term value that the company's animation product proved to have.
Warner Brothers Cartoons continued, with intermittent interruptions, until 1969 when it was dissolved when the parent company ceased film short production entirely. Regardless of this treatment, its characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, and Porky Pig became central to the company's image in subsequent decades. Bugs in particular remains a mascot to Warner Bros.' various divisions and Six Flags (which Time Warner previously owned). In fact, it was the success of the compilation film, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie in 1980, featuring the archived film of these characters that prompted Warner Brothers to organize Warner Brothers Animation as a new production division to restart production of original material.
World War II
as
Blanche DuBois in
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)]]
According to Jack Warner in his autobiography, prior to the United States entering World War II, the head of Warner Bros. sales in Germany, Philip Kauffman, was murdered by the Nazis in Berlin in 1936.
Harry Warner produced the successful anti-German film
The Life of Emile Zola (1937). After that, Harry supervised the production of several more anti-German films, including
Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939),
The Sea Hawk (1940), which made
King Phillip II an equivalent of
Hitler,
Sergeant York, and
You're In The Army Now (1941). Also, one-fourth of the studio's employees, including Jack Warner and his son Jack Jr., were drafted or enlisted. the latter became controversial a few years afterwards. At the premieres of
Yankee Doodle Dandy (in Los Angeles, New York, and London), audiences purchased $15.6 million in
war bonds for the governments of England and the United States. After
Casablanca made Bogart one of the studio's top stars, Bogart found his relationship with Jack Warner deteriorating.
Warners cut its film production in half during the war, eliminating its B Picture unit in 1941. Bryan Foy was quickly snapped up by 20th Century Fox.
De Haviland had refused to accept an offer to portray famed abolitionist Elizabeth Blackwell in an upcoming film for Columbia Pictures. The court ruled in de Haviland's favor
The same year, Jack Warner also signed newly-released MGM actress Joan Crawford, a former top star who found her career fading. Crawford's first role with the studio was 1944's Hollywood Canteen. Her first starring role at the studio, in the title role as Mildred Pierce (1945), revived her career
After World War II: changing hands
The record attendance figures of the World War II years made the Warner brothers rich. The gritty Warner image of the 1930s gave way to a glossier look, especially in women's pictures starring Davis, de Havilland, and Crawford. The 1940s also saw the rise of Bogart. In the post-war years, Warner Bros. continued to create new stars, like
Lauren Bacall and
Doris Day. The studio prospered greatly after the war. By 1946, company payroll reached $600,000 a week and net profit $19.4 million.
One problem for Warner Bros., however, was Jack Warner's refusal to meet Screen Actors Guild salary demands. In September 1946, the employees engaged in a month-long strike. In retaliation, Warner-during his 1947 testmony before Congress, for making the 1942 Russian propaganda film Mission to Moscow – accused a number of studio employees of having ties to Communists. By the end of 1947, the studio reached a record net profit of $22 million. This dropped 50% the following year.
Warner was a party to the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust case of the 1940s. This action, brought by the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission, claimed the five integrated studio-theater chain combinations restrained competition. The Supreme Court heard the case in 1948, and ruled in favor of the government. As a result, Warner and four other major studios were forced to separate production from exhibition. In 1949, the studio's net profit was only $10 million. Unfortunately, despite the success of House of Wax, 3-D films soon lost their appeal among moviegoers.
In 1952 Warner Bros. made their first film (Carson City) in "Warnercolor" the studio's name for Eastman Color.
3-D almost caused the demise of the Warner Bros. cartoon studio. Having completed a 3D Bugs Bunny cartoon, Lumber Jack-Rabbit, Jack Warner ordered the animation unit to be shut down, erroneously believing that all cartoons hence would be produced in the 3D process. Several months later, Warner relented and reopened the cartoon studio. Fortunately, Warner Bros. had enough of a backlog of cartoons and a healthy reissue program so that there was no noticeable interruption in the release schedule.
After the downfall of 3D films, Harry Warner decided to use CinemaScope in future Warner Bros. films. One of the studio's first CinemaScope films, The High and the Mighty (now owned by John Wayne's company Batjac), enabled the studio to show a profit.
Early in 1953, the Warner theater holdings were spun off as Stanley Warner Theaters; Stanley Warner's non-theater holdings were sold to Simon Fabian Enterprises, and its theaters merged with RKO Theatres to become RKO-Stanley Warner Theatres. By 1956, however, the studio was losing money. By the end of 1953, the studio's net profit was $2.9 million and ranged between $2 and $4 million for the next two years. In February 1956, Jack Warner sold the rights to all of the studio's pre-1950 films to Associated Artists Productions (which merged with United Artists Television in 1958).
In May 1956, the brothers announced they were putting Warner Bros. on the market. Jack, however, secretly organized a syndicate – headed by Boston banker Serge Semenenko and bought back all his stock, 200,000 shares. Jack – now the company's largest stockholder – appointed himself new president. By the time Harry and Albert learned of their brother's dealings, it was too late. Shortly after the deal was closed, Jack Warner announced the company and its subsidiaries would be "directed more vigorously to the acquisition of the most important story properties, talents, and to the production of the finest motion pictures possible."
Warner Bros. Television
By 1949, with the success of television threatening the film industry more and more, Harry Warner decided to shift his focus towards television production. However, the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would not permit it.
The other Warner brother, Jack, began his hatred of television with problems with Milton Berle being hired by the studio to make an unsuccessful film Always Leave Them Laughing during the peak of his television popularity. Warner felt that Berle was not strong enough as a lead to carry a film and that people would not pay to see the man they could see on television for free. However Jack Warner was pressured into using Berle, even replacing Danny Kaye with him. Berle's outrageous behaviour on the set and the film's massive failure proving Jack Warner right led to Jack Warner forbidding television sets appearing in the studio's film sets.
In 1954, the studio was finally able engage in television through the successful Warner Bros. Television unit run by William T. Orr, Jack Warner's son-in-law. Warner Bros. Television provided the ABC with a weekly show, Warner Bros. Presents; the show featured a rotating series of shows based on three of the studio's film successes, Kings Row, Casablanca and Cheyenne, followed by a promotion for one of Warner's big screen films. It was not a success.
The studio's next effort, making a weekly series out of Cheyenne, would be. Cheyenne was television's first one hour Western with two episodes placed together for feature film release outside the United States. In the tradition of their B Pictures, the studio followed up with a series of rapidly produced popular Westerns, such as Maverick, Bronco, and Colt .45. Warners then produced a series of popular private detective shows beginning with 77 Sunset Strip (1958–64) followed by Hawaiian Eye (1959–1963), Bourbon Street Beat (1960) and Surfside Six (1960–1962).
Within a few years, the studio, in a matter reminiscent of their problems with James Cagney and Bette Davis, provoked hostility among their emerging contract TV stars like Clint Walker and James Garner, who sued over a contract dispute and won. Edd Byrnes was not so lucky and bought himself out of his contract. Jack Warner was angered by the perceived ingratitude of television actors, who evidently showed more independence than film actors, and this deepened his contempt for the new medium.
Many of Warners television stars appeared in the casts of Warner's cinema releases of the time. In 1963 as a result of a court decision Warners has to cease their contracts with their television stars, engaging them for specific series or film roles. In the same year Jack Webb took over the television unit and did not have any successes.
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. was already the owner of extensive music-publishing holdings, whose tunes had appeared in countless Warners cartoons (arranged by
Carl Stalling) and television shows (arranged by
Max Steiner).
In 1958 the studio launched Warner Bros. Records. Initially the label released recordings made by their television stars whether they could sing or not and records based on the soundtracks of favourite Warner Bros. Television shows.
In 1963, Jack Warner agreed to a "rescue takeover" of Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records. The deal gave Sinatra US$1.5 million and part ownership of Warner Bros. Records, with Reprise becoming a sub-label; In its first eighteen months, Warner Bros. Records lost around $2 million.
===New owners ===
Warner Bros. rebounded in the late 1950s, specializing in adaptations of popular plays like The Bad Seed (1956), No Time for Sergeants (1958), and Gypsy (1962).
With his health slowly recovering from a car accident whilst on holiday to France in 1958, Jack returned to the studio and made sure his name was featured in studio press releases. In each of the first three years of the 1960s, the studio's net profit was a little over $7 million. In 1963, the net profit dropped to $3.7 million.
In November 1966, Jack gave in to advancing age and the changing times, selling control of the studio and its music business to Seven Arts Productions, run by the Canadian investors Elliot and Kenneth Hyman, for $32 million. The company, including the studio, was renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Jack Warner did, however, remain studio president until the summer of 1967, when Camelot failed at the box office and Warner gave up his position to the studio's longtime publicity director, Ben Kalmenson; Warner did, however, remain on board as an independent producer and vice-president.
as Batman in Batman Returns (1992).]]
Two years later, the Hymans, now fed up with Jack Warner, and it was Ted Ashley who led Kinney head Steve Ross to purchase Warner Bros. Ashley became the new head of the studio, and the name was changed to Warner Bros., Inc. once again. Jack Warner, however, was outraged by the Hymans' sale, The decision was purely financial, and Alan Horn said, "There were no delays. I’ve seen the movie. It is fabulous. We would have been perfectly able to have it out in November.” This resulted in a massive fan backlash. The seventh and final adaptation, to be shown in two parts, has been announced for 2010 and 2011.
Over the years, Warner Bros. has had distribution and/or co-production deals with a number of small companies. These include (but are not limited to) Amblin Entertainment, The Zanuck Company, Morgan Creek Productions (now working with Universal Studios), Regency Enterprises (now working with 20th Century Fox), Village Roadshow Pictures, Icon Productions, Legendary Pictures, Heyday Films, Alcon Entertainment, Lakeshore Entertainment, Malpaso Productions, Virtual Studios, Silver Pictures (including Dark Castle Entertainment), The Ladd Company, Castle Rock Entertainment and The Geffen Film Company. Green Hat Films, Troublemaker Studios, DC Entertainment, Appian Way Productions, GK Films, Media Rights Capital, Syncopy Films, Cruel and Unusual Films and Spyglass Entertainment.
Warner Bros. played a large part in the discontinuation of the HD DVD format. On January 4, 2008, Warner Bros. announced that they would drop support of HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray Disc. HD DVDs would continue to be released through May 2008 (when their contract with the HD DVD promotion group expired), but only following Blu-ray and DVD releases. This started a chain of events which resulted in HD DVD development and production being halted by Toshiba on February 16, 2008, ending the format war.
Warner Bros. and National CineMedia have formed a partnership to provide pre-feature entertainment and advertising in movie theaters nationwide.
Warner Bros. celebrated its 90th anniversary on June 1, 2008 even though the company celebrated for its 85th anniversary for films only.
In 2009, Warner Bros. became the first studio in history to gross more than $2 billion domestically in a single year.
It is responsible for the Harry Potter film series, the highest grossing film series of all time. Warner Brothers is also responsible for The Dark Knight, the 2008 Academy Award-winning Batman film that eventually became the studio's highest grossing film ever with over $1 billion. Warner Bros. films were the top-grossing films worldwide for 2001 (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone), 2005 (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), 2008 (The Dark Knight) and 2010 (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part one).
IMAX Corp. has finalized a pact with Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Pictures unit to release as many as 20 giant-format films through 2013.
Since 2006, Warner Bros operated a joint venture with China Film Group Corporation and HG to form Warner China Film HG to produce films in Hong Kong and China, including Connected, which is a remake of the 2004 thriller film Cellular, they have co-produced many other Chinese films as well.
In 2010, Warner announced its intention to buy Leavesden Film Studios near London, where the Harry Potter films were shot, making Warner Bros. the first studio since MGM in the 1940s to establish a permanent base in Europe.
In 2010, Warner Bros. had a deal with French film distributor, Pathé to handle their films for theatrical distribution in the UK with 20th Century Fox still distributing their film catalog for DVD release.
Flixster including Rotten Tomatoes was acquired by Warner Bros. in May 2011.
Film library
Over the years, a series of mergers and acquisitions have helped Warner Bros. (the present-day Time Warner subsidiary) to accumulate a diverse collection of movies, cartoons, and television programs.
In the aftermath of the 1948 antitrust suit, uncertain times led Warner Bros. in 1956 to sell most of its pre-1950
Five years later, Turner Broadcasting System, having failed to buy MGM, settled for ownership of the MGM/UA library. This included almost all the pre-May 1986 MGM film and television library with the exception of those owned by United Artists (i.e. James Bond franchise), although some UA material were included such as the a.a.p. library, the U.S. rights to a majority of the RKO Radio Pictures library, and the television series Gilligan's Island.
In 1991, Turner Broadcasting System bought animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions, and much of the back catalog of both Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears Productions from Great American Broadcasting, and three years later, Turner bought New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment. In 1996, Time Warner bought Turner Broadcasting System, and as a result, the pre-1950 sound films and the pre-August 1948 cartoon library (excluding the B&W; Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies which WB bought back as it merged with Seven Arts but including the Harman-Ising Merrie Melodies, save Lady, Play Your Mandolin! which was bought back by WB when merging with 7A) returned to WB ownership. WB tried to buy back the pre-1950 sound films and pre-August 1948 cartoons from MGM/UA in 1982, but the deal fell through.
Previously owned by HiT Entertainment/Lyric Studios, and Playhouse Disney, since 2007, Warner Bros. now owns the rights to produce The Wiggles with the first production "Getting Strong" DVD and "Pop Goes the Wiggles" and future DVDs.
In 2007, Warner Bros. added the Peanuts/Charlie Brown library to its collection (this includes all the television specials and series outside of the theatrical library, which continues to be owned by CBS and Paramount through United Feature Syndicate, licensor and owner of the Peanuts material).
In 2008, Warner Bros. absorbed New Line Cinema, as a result, Warner added the New Line Cinema film and television library to its collection. On October 15, 2009, Warner Bros. acquired the home entertainment rights to the Sesame Street library, in conjunction with Sesame Workshop.
The Warner Bros. Archives
The
University of Southern California Warner Bros. Archives is the largest single studio collection in the world. Donated in 1977 to USC's School of Cinema-Television by Warner Communications, the WBA houses departmental records that detail Warner Bros. activities from the studio's first major feature,
My Four Years in Germany (1918), to its sale to Seven Arts in 1968.
UA donated pre-1949 Warner Bros. nitrates to the Library of Congress and post-1951 negatives to the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Most of the company's legal files, scripts, and production materials were donated to the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Warner Bros. franchises
This is a list that Warner Bros. Entertainment owns primarily by Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. itself and by ownership through acquisition of companies such as Turner Entertainment Co., New Line Cinema, and Hanna-Barbera.
Looney Tunes (featuring ''Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam, Marvin the Martian, Elmer Fudd, Speedy Gonzales, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester, Tasmanian Devil, Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner, Pepe Le Pew, Granny, Tweety, Baby Looney Tunes, Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures, etc.)
Tom and Jerry (Through Turner Entertainment Co.)
Warner Bros. Animation
The CW (in partnership with CBS)
Warner Bros. Television
Hanna-Barbera (The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Hong Kong Phooey, The Jetsons, Magilla Gorilla, Huckleberry Hound, Scooby-Doo, Top Cat, Wally Gator, Wacky Races, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, Jonny Quest, The Pirates of Dark Water, Space Ghost, Two Stupid Dogs, , The Herculoids etc.)
DC Comics (features Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Watchmen, and many other heroes)
Dualstar (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen)
Mad Magazine
Judge Mathis
GO! (owned by the Nine Entertainment Co. for the deal)
GEM (owned by the Nine Entertainment Co. for the deal)
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
Selena (1987–1995, Warner Bros. produced and distributed a film about her life)
Harry Potter film series
The Matrix Series
Ocean's Eleven (Also Distributed the [[Ocean's Eleven (1960 film)|1960
film]])
Lethal Weapon
The Dukes of Hazzard
Sherlock Holmes
National Lampoon's Vacation
Police Academy
ThunderCats after the takeover of Lorimar-Telepictures
Captain Planet after the takeover of Turner Entertainment
Beetlejuice (film and animated incarnations, co-produced with The Geffen Film Company)
Gremlins
Dirty Harry
The Exorcist
The Lost Boys
The Tyra Banks Show
Terminator (USA and Canada only, franchise is of Sony Pictures Releasing on the rest of the world) (beginning with )
Viz Media (50% only outside of USA)
Sesame Street (on behalf of Sesame Workshop)
Under Siege
Star Wars (on behalf of Lucasfilm, Twentieth Century Fox produced the six Star films, but Warner Bros. produced a 2008 CGI film Star Wars The Clone Wars (film)
Speed Racer (on behalf of Speed Racer Enterprises, but Warner Bros. produced the live-action Speed Racer (film)
(on behalf of Morgan Creek Productions)
The Last Starfighter (on behalf of Warner Bros. Television Distribution due to the television broadcast rights)
Free Willy (on behalf of Regency Enterprises: 1993–1997)
Properties after the takeover of New Line Cinema:
* The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
* Austin Powers
* Harold & Kumar
* A Nightmare on Elm Street
* Friday the 13th (2009 film)
* Rush Hour
* The Mask
* Dumb and Dumber
* Final Destination
* The Guyver
* Critters
* Friday
* Mortal Kombat, on behalf of Midway Games (Warner's Interactive Entertainment division would later co-publish Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe in 2008)
* Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (since 2009, Paramount's Nickelodeon owns the franchise)
* The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
* Blade (film series)
* Deacon Frost
* Poison Ivy
Tomb Raider series after share of SCi/Eidos Interactive, but Paramount Pictures distributed the two live-action films
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (including the 1971 film, which WB acquired from The Quaker Oats Company, and the 2005 film)
The Wizard of Oz (Through Turner Entertainment Co.)
Village Roadshow (Village Cinemas and Village Roadshow Pictures for the deal with the Warner Bros films)
Warner Village Theme Parks
Notes
References
External links
Warner Bros TV
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Category:Organizations awarded an Academy Honorary Award
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Category:San Fernando Valley
Category:Film distributors
Category:Sibling filmmakers
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