Founded: April 4, 1923
WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC. is a global leader in all forms of entertainment and their related businesses across all current and emerging media and platforms. A Time Warner Company, the fully integrated, broad-based Studio is home to one of the most successful collections of brands in the world and stands at the forefront of every aspect of the entertainment industry from feature film, television and home entertainment production and worldwide distribution to DVD, digital distribution, animation, comic books, video games, product and brand licensing, international cinemas and broadcasting.
Warner Bros. is one of the most creative, flexible, innovative, diverse and global entertainment companies in business today and one that knows how to seize opportunities – particularly for growth through new and emerging technologies while maintaining a leadership position in each area of its established businesses.
Warner Bros. Studios began when four brothers, Albert, Sam, Harry and Jack L. Warner, incorporated their fledgling movie company on April 4, 1923. In 1927, the release of the world’s first synchronized-sound feature film “The Jazz Singer” set a character and tone of innovation and influence that would become synonymous with the name Warner Bros.
Since those early days, Warner Bros. Studios has amassed an impressive legacy based on world-class quality entertainment and technological foresight while creating a diversified entertainment company with an unparalleled depth and breadth. The company’s consistency and success are built on a foundation of stable management throughout its history (especially by entertainment industry standards), long-term creative relationships with many of the world’s leading stars and producers and an unwavering dedication to excellence.
Today, the vast Warner Bros. Studios library, one of the most prestigious and prodigious in the world, consists of more than 6,650 feature films, 50,000 television titles and 14,000 animated titles (including over 1,500 classic animated shorts).
In 2010, the Warner Bros. Pictures Group broke the all-time industry worldwide box office record with receipts of $4.814 billion, which surpassed the prior record of $4.010 billion (set by the Studio in 2009). Warner Bros. also established a new industry benchmark for the international box office with a total of $2.93 billion (marking a record third time of crossing the $2 billion threshold) and retained its leading domestic box office ranking with receipts of $1.884 billion. 2010 also marked the 10th consecutive year Warner Bros. Pictures passed the billion dollar mark at both the domestic and international box offices. Warner Home Video was, once again, the industry’s leader, with an overall 20.6 percent marketshare in total DVD and Blu-ray sales. The companies comprising the Warner Bros. Television Group and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group remained category leaders, working across all platforms and outlets, and trendsetters in the digital realm with video-on-demand (transaction and ad-supported), branded channels, original content, anti-piracy technology and broadband and wireless destinations.