Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI),[b] also commonly known as simply Warner Bros., is an American multinational entertainment corporation and the flagship holder of the Warner Bros. brand owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. 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 and then, WarnerMedia).

Warner Bros. Entertainment is best known for its main studio compositions, the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group for the films/movies and the Warner Bros. Television Group for television. The Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group houses 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. The Motion Picture Group also includes New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, Warner Bros. Clockwork and DC Studios. Similarly, the Warner Bros. Television Group houses Warner Bros. Television Studios, the main Warner Bros.-branded television production and distribution company which holds a 12% ownership interest in the CW broadcast television network co-owned with Paramount Skydance and the Nexstar Media Group and is also the parent company of Alloy Entertainment.

Bugs Bunny, a cartoon character created by Ben Hardaway, Cal Dalton, Charles Thorson, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Bob Givens, and Robert McKimson as part of the Looney Tunes short film series, is the corporation's primary mascot.

History

Predecessors

This company is indirectly derived from the original Warner Bros. Pictures, which was founded in 1923 by four brothers: Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack L. Warner. The company established itself as a leader in the American film industry, before diversifying into animation, television and video games.

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]

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][15]

Over the following 2 decades, Warner Bros. Entertainment gained new assets that had been derived from acquisitions by its then-parent company, including most notably the 1996 acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System (TBS). Turner's acquired film studios Castle Rock Entertainment and New Line Cinema was transferred to WBEI 1997[16] and 2008 respectively,[17]and Turner's own Turner Entertainment Co. in 2006.[18] AT&T acquired Time Warner on June 15, 2018, renamed it WarnerMedia and had TBS broken up, with this cable television assets like Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Adult Swim and Turner Classic Movies also transferred to WBEI on March 4, 2019.[19][20][21] Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe were transferred to the Warner Bros. Television Group division following WarnerMedia's merger with Discovery, Inc. on April 8, 2022.[22]

Organization

This section is an excerpt from List of assets owned by Warner Bros. Discovery § Warner Bros. Entertainment.[]

Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group

Warner Bros. Television Group

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. 1 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.
  2. ↑ "Motion Picture Association Criticizes Proposed Regs on Income Forecast Depreciation Method". Tax Notes. August 29, 2002. Retrieved May 17, 2026.
  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". UPI. 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". UPI. Retrieved January 2, 2026.
  14. ↑ "TIME WARNER COMPANIES INC (Form: 10-Q)". Edgar Online. November 14, 1996. Retrieved January 2, 2026.
  15. ↑ "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.
  16. ↑ Cox, Dan (December 7, 1997). "Castle Rock near split-rights deal". Variety.
  17. ↑ "Dial 'D' for disaster: The fall of New Line Cinema". The Independent. London. April 16, 2008. Archived from the original on June 18, 2022.
  18. ↑ "EX-21 SUBSIDIARIES OF THE REGISTRANT". www.sec.gov. Retrieved January 2, 2026.
  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. ↑ "Warner Bros. forms digital networks division". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
  24. ↑ "Home Entertainment". www.warnerbros.com. Archived from the original on June 30, 2019. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  25. ↑ "WarnerBros.com | Warner Bros. Entertainment Forms Industry's First Dedicated Worldwide Anti-Piracy Unit | Press Releases". www.warnerbros.com.
  26. ↑ Goldsmith, Jill (April 15, 2026). "Warner Bros. Unveils New Specialty Label, Clockwork; Sean Baker's Ti Amo! Is First Pic". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on April 15, 2026. Retrieved April 15, 2026.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bros._Entertainment