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Warner Bros. history
Warner Bros. company history timeline
They established Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc., in 1923.
As the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan.
In 1925, Warners' also experimented in radio, establishing a successful radio station, KFWB, in Los Angeles.
Through Vitaphone, Warner Bros. produced eight shorts (which were played at the beginning of every showing of Don Juan across the country) in 1926.
But on October 6th 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer and changed entertainment forever.
In a bidding war with William Fox, Warner Bros. bought more First National shares on September 13, 1928; Jack also appointed Zanuck as the manager of First National Pictures.
In 1928, Warner Bros. released Lights of New York, the first all-talking feature.
In 1929, Warner Bros. released On with the Show!, the first all-color all-talking feature.
In 1929, Warner Bros. bought the St Louis-based theater chain Skouras Brothers Enterprises.
After the success of the studio's 1929 First National film Noah's Ark, Harry agreed to make Michael Curtiz a major director at the Burbank studio.
In April 1930, Warner Bros. acquired Brunswick Records.
In July 1930, the studio's banker, Motley Flint, was murdered by a disgruntled investor in another company.
By 1931, the studio began to feel the effects of the Great Depression, reportedly losing $8 million, and an additional $14 million the following year.
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.
By January 1933, the film's protagonist Robert Elliot Burns—still imprisoned in New Jersey—and other chain gang prisoners nationwide appealed and were released.
In 1933, relief for the studio came after Franklin D. Roosevelt became president and began the New Deal.
In 1934, Harry officially purchased the Teddington Studios.
In 1934, the studio lost over $2.5 million, of which $500,000 was the result of a 1934 fire at the Burbank studio, destroying 20 years' worth of early Vitagraph, Warner Bros. and First National films.
In 1935, Harry was put on trial; after a mistrial, Harry sold the company's movie theaters and the case was never reopened.
The following year, Hearst's film adaption of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) failed at the box office and the studio's net loss increased.
1935 also saw the studio make a net profit of $674,158.00.
In 1935, Cagney sued Jack Warner for breach of contract.
In 1935, Avery directed Porky Pig cartoons that established the character as the studio's first animated star.
In 1936, following the success of The Petrified Forest, Jack signed Humphrey Bogart to a studio contract.
In 1936, Bette Davis, by now arguably the studio's top star, was unhappy with her roles.
In 1936, Wallis hired Foy as a producer for the studio's low budget B movies leading to his nickname "the keeper of the B's". Foy was able to garnish arguably more profits than any other B-film producer at the time.
German sales head, was murdered by the Nazis in Berlin in 1936.
The studio's 1937 film The Life of Emile Zola gave the studio the first of its seven Best Picture Oscars.
In 1937, the studio hired Midwestern radio announcer Ronald Reagan, who would eventually become the President of the United States.
Though the companies merged, the Justice Department required Warner to release a few films each year under the First National name until 1938.
Although Reagan was initially a B-film actor, Warner Bros. was impressed by his performance in the final scene of Knute Rockne, All American, and agreed to pair him with Flynn in Santa Fe Trail (1940). Reagan then returned to B-films.
After Raft had turned the role down, the studio gave Bogart the role of "Mad Dog" Roy Earle in the 1941 film High Sierra, which helped establish him as a top star.
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.
Eventually, Warner agreed to release Raft from his contract in 1943.
In 1943, Olivia de Havilland (whom Warner frequently loaned to other studios) sued Warner for breach of contract.
Warner Bros. bought Schlesinger's cartoon unit in 1944 and renamed it Warner Bros.
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 and earned her an Oscar for Best Actress.
By 1946, company payroll reached $600,000 a week and net profit topped $19.4 million.
By the end of 1947, the studio reached a record net profit of $22 million.
On January 5, 1948, Warner offered the first color newsreel, covering the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game.
He sold off the unit's pre-August 1948 library for $3,000 each, which proved a shortsighted transaction in light of its eventual value.
In 1948, Bette Davis, still their top actress and now hostile to Jack, was a big problem for Harry after she and others left the studio after completing the film Beyond the Forest.
In 1949, the studio's net profit was only $10 million.
Allied Artists Productions Corp. (a.a.p.) acquired pre-1950 Warner Bros.
In 1952, Warner Bros. made their first film (Carson City) in "Warnercolor", the studio's name for Eastmancolor.
In 1953, Jack decided to copy United Artists successful 3D film Bwana Devil, releasing his own 3D films beginning with House of Wax.
Early in 1953, Warner's 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.
During this period Warner Brothers also expanded into television with the premiere of the western series Cheyenne in 1955.
In May 1956, the brothers announced they were putting Warner Bros. on the market.
In 1958, the studio launched Warner Bros.
While he slowly recovered from a car crash that occurred while vacationing in France in 1958, Jack returned to the studio and made sure his name was featured in studio press releases.
Warner paid an unprecedented $5.5 million for the film rights to the Broadway musical My Fair Lady in February 1962.
In 1963, a court decision forced Warner Bros. to end contracts with their television stars and to cease engaging them for specific series or film roles.
In 1963, Warner agreed to a "rescue takeover" of Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records.
The previous owner, CBS director William S. Paley, set terms including half the distributor's gross profits "plus ownership of the negative at the end of the contract." In 1963, the studio's net profit dropped to $3.7 million.
In 1964, upon seeing the profits record companies made from Warner film music, Warner decided to claim ownership of the studio's film soundtracks.
In November 1966, Jack gave in to advancing age and changing times, selling control of the studio and music business to Seven Arts Productions, run by Canadian investors Elliot and Kenneth Hyman, for $32 million.
In 1967 Elliot and Ken Hyman acquired Warner Brothers and renamed it Warner Bros.-Seven Arts.
With the 1967 success of Bonnie and Clyde, Warner Bros. was again profitable.
Warner remained president until the summer of 1967, when Camelot failed at the box office and Warner gave up his position to his longtime publicity director, Ben Kalmenson; Warner remained on board as an independent producer and vice-president.
In 1972, in a cost-cutting move, Warner and Columbia formed a third company called The Burbank Studios (TBS). They would share the Warner lot in Burbank.
In late 1973, Warner Bros. announced that it had partnered with 20th Century Fox to co-produce a single film: producer Irwin Allen's The Towering Inferno.
The resulting partnership resulted in the second-highest-grossing film of 1974, turning profits for both studios, and influencing future co-productions between major studios.
Robert A. Daly joined Warner Bros. on December 1, 1980, taking over from Ted Ashley.
In 1989, a solution to the situation became evident when Warner Bros. acquired Lorimar-Telepictures and gained control of the former MGM studio lot in Culver City, and that same year, Sony bought Columbia Pictures.
Warner Communications merged in 1989 with white-shoe publishing company Time Inc.
In 1990 Warner Communications merged with Time Inc. to form Time Warner Inc., the largest media and entertainment corporation in the world.
In 1990, TBS ended when Sony bought the MGM lot from Warner and moved Columbia to Culver City.
The WB network was established in 1995.
In addition, Warner joined with Tribune Broadcasting to launch the WB, a broadcast television network, in 1995.
Time, Inc. bought Turner Entertainment Co. in 1996.
In 1996, Turner Pictures was folded into Warner Bros. via the Turner-Time Warner merger and brought Turner projects into development like City of Angels and You've Got Mail into the studio.
In 1998, Time Warner sold Six Flags to Premier Parks.
In 1998, Warner Bros. celebrated its 75th anniversary.
The takeover of Time Warner in 2000 by then-high-flying AOL did not prove a good match, and following the collapse in "dot-com" stocks, the AOL element was banished from the corporate name.
Warner Bros acquires the studio following the financial and critical success of ‘The Jazz Singer’. Two of the most popular backlot sets Brownstone Street (renamed Ashley Boulevard in 2002) and New York Street were built shortly after.
In late 2003, Time Warner reorganized Warner Bros.' assets under Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. was already the owner of extensive music-publishing holdings, whose tunes had appeared in countless cartoons (arranged by Carl Stalling) and television shows (arranged by Max Steiner). In 2004, Time Warner sold the Warner Music Group, along with Warner Bros.
In 2006, Warner and CBS Corporation decided to close The WB and CBS's UPN and jointly launch The CW Television Network.
On January 4, 2008, Warner Bros. announced that they would drop support of HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray Disc.
HD DVDs continued to be released through May 2008, but only following Blu-ray and DVD releases.
With a domestic collection of $2 billion, in 2009, Warner Bros. became the first studio to achieve such a feat.
On October 21, 2014, Warner Bros. created a short form digital unit, Blue Ribbon Content, under Warner Bros.
The gross collection of Warner Bros. has crossed $4.73 billion in 2014 and it was the sixth time, the firm has crossed $4 billion marks, a mark which no other studio can claim.
Digital Networks announced its acquisition of online video company Machinima, Inc. on November 17, 2016.
In June 2018, Warner Bros. parent company Time Warner was acquired by United States telecom company AT&T, and renamed WarnerMedia, the former Time Inc. properties having been sold off to new owners.
On November 13, 2019, Warner Bros. unveiled an updated iteration of its shield logo designed by Pentagram.
Warner Bros and HBO Max announced the Warner Max film label on February 5, 2020, which would produce eight to 10 mid-budget movies per year for the streaming service starting in 2020.
Tom Ascheim resigned as president from Freeform to become the president of the Global Kids, Young Adults, and Classics division on July 1, 2020.
On May 16, 2021, it was reported that AT&T was in talks with Discovery, Inc. (which owned and operated Discovery+ and GolfTV) for it to merge with WarnerMedia, the parent company of Warner Bros., forming a publicly-traded company called Warner Bros.
Like all of Warner's 2021 films, the fourth Matrix film was released on the big screen and HBO Max, tin reaction to the pandemic.
In February 2022, Village Roadshow, a co-financier of The Matrix Resurrections, is suing Warner Bros. over the hybrid release of the sci-fi sequel.
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| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Machinima | 2000 | $25.0M | 6 | - |
| HBO | 1972 | $5.9B | 2,050 | - |
| Sony Pictures | 1987 | $7.1B | 9,500 | 121 |
| NBCUniversal | 1926 | $33.0B | 65,000 | 1,250 |
| CBS Sports Network | 2002 | $73.9M | 230 | - |
| Turner Broadcasting | 1965 | $3.8B | 10,001 | - |
| OCP | 1928 | $213.7M | 3,000 | 1 |
| DreamWorks Animation | 1994 | $915.9M | 2,700 | - |
| American Public Media Group | 1987 | $50.0M | 909 | 37 |
| Inform | 2007 | $21.4M | 2 | - |
Warner Bros. history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Warner Bros., including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Warner Bros.. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Warner Bros.. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Warner Bros.. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Warner Bros. and its employees or that of Zippia.
Warner Bros. may also be known as or be related to Warner Bros, Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Entertainment and Warner Brothers Classics of the Screen (1923–1925) Warner Brothers Productions (1925–1929) Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. (1929–1967) Warner Bros.-Seven Arts (1967–1970) Warner Bros. Inc. (1970–1993).