Warner Bros. Entertainment

Last updated

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Warner Bros.
Type Subsidiary
Industry Entertainment
Predecessors
FoundedApril 4, 1923;103 years ago (1923-04-04)(earliest predecessor)
December 3, 2002;23 years ago (2002-12-03)(current incorporated entity)
Founders
Headquarters 4000 Warner Boulevard,
Burbank, California
,
US
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Products
Brands
Owner
Number of employees
est. 4,000 (2025)
Parent Skydance Motion Picture Group
Divisions
Subsidiaries
Website warnerbros.com
Footnotes
[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), [b] also commonly known as simply Warner Bros., is an American multinational entertainment corporation owned by Skydance Corporation. Headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, it was formed on December 3, 2002 [10] to incorporate the Warner Bros.-branded film and television assets of then-parent company AOL Time Warner (later the second iteration of Time Warner, WarnerMedia, and Warner Bros. Discovery).

Contents

The main studio houses of Warner Bros. Entertainment are Warner Bros. Pictures, one of the "Big Five" major American film studios and the third oldest film studio in the United States still in operation (after Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures, both founded in 1912), as well as the original flagship Warner Bros. brand holder and its distribution arm. It also includes New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, and Warner Bros. Clockwork.

History

Predecessors

This company is derived from the original Warner Bros. Pictures, which four brothers—Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack L. Warner—founded in 1923. The company established itself as a leader in the American film industry, before diversifying into animation, television and video games. It was acquired by fellow film studio Seven Arts Productions in 1966 to form Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. This was itself acquired two years later in 1969 by Kinney National Company, which eventually became Time Warner.

On June 30, 1992, Time Warner transferred most of its Warner Bros. Inc. subsidiary's assets, including the film, television production and cable businesses, into Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P. (TWEC), a new limited partnership with Toshiba and C. Itoh & Co. where each invested US$500 million for a 6.25% share. The deal was intended to relieve debt pressure from the merger between Time Inc. and Warner Communications two years earlier. [11] [12]

In 1993, US West joined the partnership with a US$2.5 billion investment for a 25% share. [13] By 1996, TWEC was owned 74.49% by Time Warner and the remainder by US West. [14] After the 1996 acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System, its film studio Castle Rock Entertainment was transferred to TWEC in 1997. [15]

Current company incarnation

In March 2003, AOL Time Warner regained full control of the Warner Bros. film and television production assets from TWEC and placed them in the newly formed Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. wholly-owned subsidiary, which had been formed on December 3, 2002. TWEC retained only Time Warner Cable, which was eventually spun off. [10] [16]

WBEI gained Turner Entertainment Co. in 2006 [17] and New Line Cinema in 2008, both of which originated from Turner. [18] After the 2018 acquisition of Time Warner by AT&T, the Turner subsidiary was broken up, with cable television assets like Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Adult Swim and Turner Classic Movies transferred to WBEI on March 4, 2019. [19] [20] [21] After the 2022 merger of Discovery, Inc. and WarnerMedia, Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe were transferred to the Warner Bros. Television Group. [22]

On October 6, 2026, Paramount Skydance acquired Warner Bros. Discovery and renamed itself Skydance Corporation. [23] After the acquisition, Warner Bros. Television Group reported directly to the Skydance TV division along with CBS Studios and Paramount Television Studios. [24]

Divisions

Subsidiaries

Executive management

Chairman of the board

Vice chairman

Presidents

Chief executive officers

Chief operating officers

Notes

  1. ↑ Referred to in copyright and trademark notices simply as Warner Bros.
  2. ↑ Pronounced "Warner Brothers". [7] The abbreviated form is always used in writing, except when referring to the four Warner brothers themselves. [8] It is never read out loud as "Warner Bros" (-⁠BROHZ or similarly); the opening voiceover of The Lego Batman Movie (2017) alludes to this common mistake. [9]

References

  1. ↑ "Motion Picture Association Criticizes Proposed Regs on Income Forecast Depreciation Method". Tax Notes. August 29, 2002. Retrieved May 17, 2026.
  2. ↑ Burgos, Matthew (May 4, 2023). "warner bros. logo gets a thicker, bolder, and sharper look from chermayeff & geismar & haviv". Designboom . Archived from the original on May 4, 2023. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
  3. ↑ "2020 Financial and Operational Trends" (PDF). AT&T. January 27, 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 11, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Company history". Warner Bros. Archived from the original on October 16, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2014.
  5. ↑ Patten, Dominic; Yamato, Jen. "Warner Bros Layoffs Long Planned But "Accelerated" By Failed Fox Bid". Deadline Hollywood . Archived from the original on September 6, 2014. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Warner Archive Collection podcast". Warner Bros. April 8, 2014. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  7. ↑ Thomson, David (2017). Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 1. ISBN   9780300197600 . Retrieved August 17, 2023.
  8. ↑ Gomery, Douglas; Pafort-Overduin, Clara (2011). Movie History: A Survey (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. p. 150. ISBN   9781136835254. Archived from the original on April 9, 2023. Retrieved March 20, 2023– via Google Books.
  9. ↑ "The LEGO Batman Movie review: everything is awesome!". Digital Spy. February 4, 2017. Retrieved May 7, 2026.
  10. 1 2 Kobrin, Janet A. (February 26, 2007). "Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. v. The Kaplan Trust: Declaration of Janet A. Kobrin" (PDF). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office . Retrieved January 1, 2026.
  11. ↑ "Japanese partners close Time Warner deal". United Press International . Retrieved January 2, 2026.
  12. ↑ Willman, David (July 1, 1992). "Time Warner Completes Deal With Japanese". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved January 2, 2026.
  13. ↑ "Time Warner closes U S West deal". United Press International . Retrieved January 2, 2026.
  14. ↑ "TIME WARNER COMPANIES INC (Form: 10-Q)". Edgar Online. November 14, 1996. Retrieved January 2, 2026.
  15. ↑ Cox, Dan (December 7, 1997). "Castle Rock near split-rights deal". Variety .
  16. ↑ "Time Warner Inc.: Annual report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003 (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved January 2, 2026.
  17. ↑ "EX-21 SUBSIDIARIES OF THE REGISTRANT". www.sec.gov. Retrieved January 2, 2026.
  18. ↑ "Dial 'D' for disaster: The fall of New Line Cinema" . The Independent . London. April 16, 2008. Archived from the original on June 18, 2022.
  19. ↑ Lauren Feiner (March 4, 2019). "WarnerMedia reorganizes its leadership team after AT&T acquisition". CNBC . Archived from the original on March 4, 2019. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  20. ↑ Michael Schneider (March 12, 2019). "What the End of the Turner Brand Could Mean for Its Channels". Variety. Archived from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  21. ↑ Littleton, Cynthia (March 4, 2019). "Warner Bros. Wants to Rev Up Kid's Content With Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera". Variety . Archived from the original on March 5, 2019. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
  22. ↑ Schneider, Michael (October 12, 2022). "Warner Bros. TV Group Lays Off 82 Staffers, Consolidates Some Unscripted and Animation Departments in Belt-Tightening Restructure". Variety . Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  23. ↑ Mehraj, Anzar (October 2, 2026). "David Ellison says combined Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery will be named Skydance". Reuters. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
  24. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (October 7, 2026). "Skydance Co-CEO On Prospect Of Company's TV Studios Merging". Deadline. Retrieved October 7, 2026.
  25. ↑ "Swaybox Studios - Products, Competitors, Financials, Employees, Headquarters Locations". CB Insights. Retrieved August 20, 2026.
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