warner Bros Pictures

Warner Bros Entertainment Inc is a highly successful and well-known producer of both film and television. Warner Bros was founded by jewish immigrants from Poland in 1918. One of Warner Bros main film studios is headquartered in Burbank, California and New York city and is a subsidiary of Time Warner. Warner Bros has several subsidiary companies such as; New Line Cinema, DC comics, Warner Bros, pictures, studios, animation and Home video and also owns half of the television network CW. Warner Bros is the third oldest American movie studio still in continuous operation, with some of it’s most notable actors being; Clint Eastwood, Doris Day, James Cagney, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart.

The corporate name honours the four founding Warner Brothers. Sam, Albert, Harry and Jack, who where Jews who had emigrated from Poland. In 1903 the brothers opened their first cinema, ‘The Cascade’ in Pennsylvania. Having previously acquired a movie projector with which they used to show films in Ohio and Pennsylvania the mining towns the brother began in the exhibition business. The brothers began distributing films in 1904 when they founded the Amusement and Supply company based in Pittsburgh. Within a period of four years the brothers began distributing across a four state area.

In 1918 the brothers opened the famous Warner Bros studio which is situated on sunset boulevard in Hollywood. The brothers then split their business workload with both Sam and Jack producing the films whilst Harry and Albert handled the finance and distribution aspect of the business in New york city with their auditor Paul Ashley Chase. In 1919 the company, now known as Warner Bros Inc captured their first important deal by their acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwood’s ‘The Gold Diggers’, a broadway play from theatrical impresario David Belasco. However it was a dog named Rin Tin Tin which really boosted Wanrer Bros Inc into the Hollywood filming scene. Rin Tin Tin starred in a short film entitled ’Where the North Begins’ and his debut was so successful that he was signed to star in more short films for $1,000 per week. The success led to the rise in Darryl F. Zanuck’s career, eventually leading with him becoming a top producer for the studio and serving between the years of 1928 and 1933 as Jack Warners right hand man, which entailed the day-to-day production of films. Things where looking good for Warner Bros Inc and more success was soon to follow with the hiring of head director Ernst Lubitsch. The most successful film for the company in 1924 was The marriage circle which was on the New York Times best list for the whole year. However Warner Bros was still unable to achieve star power even with the success of Rin Tin Tin and the hiring of Lubitsch. As a result of this broadway actor John Barrymore was approached by Sam and Jack to play the lead role in their new film Beau Brummell. Due to this films success Brummel was signed to a very lucrative contract by the company. Towards the end of 1924, Warner Bros had established itself as the most successful independent film studio in Hollywood, but it still competed with the Big three studios at the time which where’ Paramount Pictures, MGM and First National. Due to an investment of $500,000 in newspaper advertising Harry saw this as an opportunity to open theatres in New York and Los Angeles. The studio prospered gaining backing from Wall street and purchasing Vita graph a nation-wide distribution system after a loan from Goldman Sachs. Due to the companies high levels of success they then went on to experiment in radio, establishing a successful radio station KFWB Los Angeles.

In 1925 by the urging of Sam Warner Bros agreed to expand their business operations by producing films with synchronized sound, Harry however was opposed to this idea and by February 1926 the studio had reportedly suffered a net loss of $333,413. After a long period of refusing to accept sam’s requests for producing movies with sound, Harry agreed to Sam’s idea as long as the studio’s usages of synchronised sounds was only used for the background music of the films. This led to the signing of Western Electric a sound engineer company and established Vitaphone, which began makin films with music and sound effect tracks in 1926, most notably seen in the John Barrymore film Don Juan. Although still a silent film it featured some vitaphone shorts. Don Juan premiered in the newly acquired Warner theatre in New York on August 6th 1926. Throughout the early history of film distribution, theatre owners had to hire orchestras to provide the sound tracks during film showings, however with Warner Bros Vitaphone provided eight shorts and got many production companies to question the necessity. Whilst Don Juan was a success at the box office, it failed to earn back the production costs and left Warner Bros in financial ruin, leading to Lubsitch leaving the company to work for rival film company MGM. Western Electric did renew their contract with Warner Bros, however with the inclusion of terms that allowed other film companies to test sound.

Due to Warner Bros growing financial problems, they released the movie the jazz singer starring Al Jolson, although having very little dialogue, it featured segments of Jolson singing and signalled the beginning of the talking pictures era and marked the twilight of silent movies.
The brothers where soon hit with more hard times at the death of Sam and this left them unable to attend the premiere of The Jazz Singer, leading to Jack becoming the sole head of production. In the years to come Jack took control and ran the studio with an iron fist firing many employees such as Rin Tin Tin and Douglas Fairbank Jr who had been First Nationals top star since the brothers had acquired the studio in 1928

Due to the success of the Jazz singer and the following successes of The singing Fool, The terror and Lights of New York, Warner Bros become wealthy enabling them to purchase a big studio in Burbank, California. However they didn’t stop there, their newfound wealth provided them with the opportunity to expand by acquiring the Stanley Corporation which are a major theatre chain, giving them a share in rival film studio First National Pictures, of which Stanley owned one third. In a bidding war in 1928 with William fox Warners bought more shares in First National Pictures. 1928 also saw the release of Lights of New York, the first all-talking feature. Due to its huge success the film revolutionised the industry and almost overnight converted films entirely to sound. All of the major studios by the end of 1929 where producing sound films.In 1929 saw the release of the first ever all colour, all talking feature entitled ‘On with the Show’ which was released by the Warners. Following on from this success came Gold Diggers of Broadway which played in theatres until 1939 due to its increasing popularity. The imapct on the success of these two colour features again caused a revolution in the film industry and led to other film companies to try and take on board this idea with their productions.

The success of these two colour pictures caused a colour revolution (just as the first all-talkie had created one for talkies). Warner Bros. released a large number of color films in 1929-1931, 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, and Irving Asher was appointed as the studio's head producer. In 1934, Harry Warner officially purchased the Teddington Studios. In February 1933, however, Warner Bros. produced 42nd Street, a very successful musical 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, and the studio — after the huge profits made by the 1935 film Captain Blood — shifted its focus on producing Errol Flynn swashbucklers.

Following this in 1929 they purchased the St Louis based theatre chain Skouras Brothers. In addition to this, Harry acquired a string of music publishers and in doing so formed Warner Bros Music, despite failing to purchase Brunswick records, Harry obtained radio companies, foreign sound patents and a lithography company. Harry’s son Lewis was then appointed to serves as Warner Bros Music’s head manager. During the year 1929 Mort Blumenstock, a screenwriter for rival film company First National agreed to become a writer at the brothers New York studios.
Also in 1929, the Warner brother took complete control over First National Pictures when Harry Warner purchased the remaining one-third share over from fox. Although at first being ordered by a judge to keep the two companies as separate entities, the warner brother where given permission to merge the companies at the time of the great depression, moving to First National studio lot in Burbank. Although the warner bothers had merged the two companies they where still required to release a few films under the First National name until 1938 and certain Warner productions were identified as A warner Bros - First National Picture.’ Due to the brothers financial success Harry was enabled to acquire more theatres in Atlantic city in 1930 despite the beginning of the great depression, however the situation soon turned as audiences where unable to afford the price of their cinema tickets leading to the studio suffering a net loss of $8 million in the first year, followed by an addition $14 million the following year.
In 1928, the 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, the Warner’s released "On with the Show", the first all-colour 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 colour pictures caused a colour revolution. Warner Bros. released a large number of colour films in 1929-1931, including The Show of Shows (1929), Sally (1929), Bright Lights (1930),Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930), Under A Texas Moon (1930), Bride of the Regiment (1930), Viennese Nights (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 colour 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 colour 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, and Irving Asher was appointed as the studio's head producer. In 1934, Harry Warner officially purchased the Teddington Studios.In February 1933, however, Warner Bros. produced 42nd Street, a very successful musical 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, and the studio — after the huge profits made by the 1935 film Captain Blood — shifted its focus on producing Errol Flynn swashbucklers.

Due to the collapse in the market for musicals, the head of production Darryl F. Zanuck made the decision to make more realistic and gritty storylines, this led to the Warner Bros studios to become known as a gangster studio. The studios first gangster film, Little Caesar, was a huge box office success. The next gangster film from the company The Public Enemy made James Cagney the studio’s top new star and the company decided to make more gangster films. In 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt became the president and stimulated the economy with the new deal, due to this economic rebound, Warner Bros studio’s again became profitable. In the same year head producer Darryl F Zanuck quit due to his strained relationship with Harry Warner and also as a result of the fact that he had to take a pay cut due to the great depression, however when the company began to generate more money Warner Bros refused to raise his salary and he subsequently left the studio to start his own company.
Also in 1933 newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearsts cosmopolitan films was brought into the Warner Bros fold, as hearst had previously been employed by rivals MGM, but ended his contract after a dispute with the companies head producer.
In the year of 1934 as a result of a fire at the Burbank studio the studio suffered a loss of $2.5 million with $500,000 of this being as a direct result of the damages caused by the fire, which destroyed over twenty years worth of early Warner Bros films. During this time, Warner Bros. President Harry Warner and six other movie studio figures were indicted of conspiracy to violate the Sherman Antitrust Act, through an attempt to gain a monopoly over theatres in the St Louis area. In 1935, Harry was put on trial; after a mistrial, Harry sold the company's movie theatres, at least for a short time, and the case was never reopened. 1935 also saw the studio rebound with a net profit of $674,158.00.
Warner Bros studios was one of the most prolific producers of Pre-code pictures and had a great deal of trouble with the censors once they began to clamp down on what they considered to be indecent, in the years of around 1934. As a direct result of this, Warner Bros produced a number of historical pictures from 1935 in order for them 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.
Head producer Hal B. Wallis was brought in to succeed Zanuck in 1933 and the Hays code was enforced in 1935, as a result the studio was then forced to abandon this realistic approach and opt to chose to produce more moralistic and idealized pictures. The studio began to then produce historical dramas which would not cause any problems with the censors. Whilst including other offerings of, melodramas, swashbucklers, and adaptations of best-sellers, with stars like Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Paul Muni, and Errol Flynn. In 1936, Bette Davis, now the studio's top star, was unhappy with the roles Warner was giving her. Leading to her fleeing to England and tried to break her contract with Warners. Davis lost the lawsuit and soon returned to America. Although many of the studio's employees had problems with Jack Warner, they considered Albert and Harry fair.

This period of the companies history saw the disappearance of a huge number of actors and actresses who had characterised the realistic pre-code era, however not suited to the new trend of producing more idealised 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 glamour 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 1937, the studio hired Midwestern radio announcer Ronald Reagan. Although Reagan was initially a small-time B-film actor, Warners were impressed by his performance in the final scene of Knute Rockne, All American, and agreed to pair him with Errol Flynn in their film Santa Fe Trail (1940). Reagan then returned to B-films. After his performance in the studio's 1942 Kings Row, Warner decided to make Reagan a top star and signed him to a new contract, tripling his salary.

1930 saw the birth of Bugs Bunny and Daffy duck who are just some of the characters who became central to the companies image. During the years from 1930 - 1933 Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising produced a series of musical cartoons which introduced the character Bosko who starred in the first ever Loony Tunes cartoon sinkin’. 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 and Bugs Bunny 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. Jack Warner eventually bought Schlesinger's cartoon unit in 1944, and in subsequent decades characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, and Porky Pig became central to the company's image. Bugs in particular remains a mascot to Warner Bros.' various divisions and Six Flags. The studio's 1947 cartoon Tweetie Pie, the first pairing of Sylvester and Tweety, was a phenomenal success, and Tweety would always be paired with Sylvester from that point as a result, because the duo carried a high amount of star power.

Prior to the United States entering World War II, Harry Warner had already produced the successful anti-German film The Life of Emile Zola. After that, Harry supervised the production of several more anti-German films, including Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939),The Sea Hawk, Sergeant York, and You're In The Army Now. After the United States officially entered World War II, Harry Warner decided to focus on producing war films. Also, one-fourth of the studio's employees, including Jack Warner and his son Jack Jr., were drafted. Warner Bros carried on producing a series of films during the war some of which where Casablanca and Yankee Doodle Dandy and the controversial film Mission to Moscow. Towards the middle of 1943, however, it became clear audiences were tired of war films. Despite the growing pressure to abandon production of war films, Warner continued to produce them, losing money in the process. Eventually, in honour of the studio's contributions to the war cause, the United States Government named a Liberty ship after the brothers' father, Benjamin Warner, and Harry Warner was given the honour of christening the ship. By the time the war ended, $20 million in war bonds were purchased through the studio, and 763 of the studio's employees served in the armed forces, including Harry Warner's son-in-law Milton Sperling. 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, revived her career and earned her an Oscar for Best Actress.

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, By 1946, company payroll reached $600,000 a week and net profit $19.4 million. By the end of 1947, the studio reached a record net profit of $22 million. This dropped 50% the following year. On January 5, 1948, Warner offered the first colour newsreel, covering the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game. In 1948, Bette Davis, still the studio's top actress and now fed up with Jack Warner, was a big problem for Harry after she and a number of her fellow colleagues left the studio after completing the film Beyond the Forest. 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-theatre chain combinations restrained competition. The Supreme Court heard the case in 1948, and ruled in favour 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. 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. After an unsuccessful attempt to convince other movie studio bosses to switch their focus to television, Harry abandoned his television efforts. In the early 1950s, the threat of television had grown greatly, and in 1953, Jack Warner decided to take a new approach to compete with the rising threat. In the wake of United Artists' successful 3-D film Bwana Devil, Jack decided to expand into 3-D films with the studio's 1953 film House of Wax. Unfortunately, despite the success of House of Wax, 3-D films soon lost their appeal among moviegoers.
After the downfall of 3-D 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 enabled the studio to show a profit. In 1954, the studio was finally able engage in television, by providing ABC with a weekly show, Warner Bros. Presents; it was not a success. The studio's next effort, Cheyenne however was a success. The studio followed this success up with a series of popular Westerns, such as Maverick, Bronco, and Colt .45. The success of these series helped to make up for the losses on the film side. As a result, Jack Warner decided to focus his emphasis on television production.

By 1956, however, the studio was losing money. In February 1956, Jack Warner sold the rights to all of the studio's pre-1950 films to Associated Artists Productions. 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 to purchase 800,000 shares which worked out at 90% of the company's stock.. After the three brothers sold, Jack through his under-the-table deal joined Semenenko's syndicate and bought back all his stock, 200,000 shares. Shortly after the deal was completed in July, 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."
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). There was also a successful television unit run by William T. Orr, Jack Warner's son-in-law, offering popular series like "Maverick" (1957–62) and 77 Sunset Strip (1958–64). Already the owner of extensive music-publishing holdings, in 1958 the studio launched Warner Bros. Records. Warner paid an unprecedented $5.5 million for the film rights to the Broadway musical My Fair Lady in February 1962. By the mid-1960s, motion picture production was in decline. There were few studio-produced films and many more co-productions and pickups of independently made pictures. In 1963, Jack Warner agreed to merge Warner Bros. Records with Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records. This gave Sinatra part ownership of the merged Warner Bros. In its first eighteen months, Warner Bros. Records lost around $2 million. With the success of the studio's 1965 Broadway play The Great Race, as well as its soundtrack, Warner Bros. Records became a profitable subsidiary. 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. With the success of the studio's 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, Warner Bros was making profits once again.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Warner Communications branched out into other business, such as its acquiring of video game company Atari, Inc in 1976, and later the Six Flags theme parks. The Time Warner merger was almost derailed when Paramount Communications launched a $12.2 billion dollar hostile takeover bid for Time Inc., forcing Time to acquire Warner for $14.9 billion dollar cash/stock offer. Paramount responded with a lawsuit filed in Delaware court to break up the merger. Paramount lost and the merger proceeded.
In 2006, Warner and CBS Paramount Television decided to close The WB and CBS's UPN and jointly launch The CW Television Network. In the late 1990s, Warner obtained rights to the Harry Potter novels, and released feature film adaptations of the first in 2001, the second in 2002, the third in June 2004, the fourth in November 2005, and the fifth on July 11, 2007. The sixth was slated for November 2008, but Warner moved it to July 2009 only three months before the movie was supposed to come out, citing the lack of summer blockbusters in 2009 (due to the Writer's Strike) as the reason. The decision was purely financial, 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, Morgan Creek Productions (now working with Universal Studios), Regency Enterprises (now working with 20th Century Fox), Village Roadshow Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Heyday Films, Virtual Studios, Silver Pictures (including Dark Castle Entertainment), The Ladd Company, and The Geffen Film Company. 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 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. celebrated its 90th anniversary on June 1, 2008 even though the company celebrated for its 85th anniversary for films only. In 2008, Warner Brothers broke the all-time studio record, grossing $1.753 billion breaking the previous record of $1.711 billion set by Sony in 2006. 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, as well as the 2nd highest grossing movie all time, unadjusted for inflation.