Warner Bros. Pictures (commonly known as simply Warner Bros.; informally abbreviated as WBP) is an American film studio and the distribution arm of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself a namesake flagship subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, Warner Bros. Pictures is one of the "Big Five" major American film studios and is the third oldest film studio in the United States still in operation, after Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures, both founded in 1912. Animated films produced by Warner Bros. Pictures Animation are also released under the studio banner. Warner Bros. Pictures was founded on April 4, 1923, by the brothers Harry Warner, Albert Warner, Sam Warner, and Jack L. Warner. In addition to producing its own films, the studio handles filmmaking operations, theatrical distribution, marketing and promotion for films produced and released by other Warner Bros. labels. Warner Bros. Pictures' most commercially successful film franchises include the Ocean's trilogy, Superman, Harry Potter, Batman, The Hobbit trilogy, The Matrix, Monsterverse, Mad Max, and Dune. Additionally, the studio's library includes many individual films such as The Exorcist, The Towering Inferno, 300, I Am Legend, Inception, Interstellar, American Sniper, It, Ready Player One, Barbie, and A Minecraft Movie, with five of the eleven films being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and all of them became among the highest grossing films of all time. Warner Bros. Pictures is currently one of three film studios within the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, the others being New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation.
History
Foundation, diversification and establishment (1910–1967)
The studio's predecessor (and the modern Warner Bros. media company and Warner Bros. Entertainment as a whole) was founded in 1910 as the Warner Features Company in New Castle, Pennsylvania, by filmmaker Sam Warner and his business partners and brothers, Harry, Albert, and Jack. They produced their first film, the Peril of the Plains in 1912, which Sam directed for the St. Louis Motion Picture Company. In 1918, during World War I, the four Warner brothers produced an adaptation of the book My Four Years in Germany by James W. Gerard as their first full-scale picture, which was a box office hit and helped the brothers to establish themselves as a prestige studio. On April 4, 1923, Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. was officially established, as the brothers focused entirely on the motion picture industry. In 1927, Warner Bros. Pictures revolutionized the film industry by releasing its first sound film (or "talkie"), The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson. In the aftermath of the 1948 antitrust suit, uncertain times led Warner Bros. to sell most of its pre-1950 films and cartoons to Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.) in 1956. Two years later, a.a.p. was sold to United Artists (UA), which owned the company until 1981, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) acquired UA.
Warner Bros.-Seven Arts (1967–1969)
In November 1966, Jack L. Warner acknowledged advancing age and changing times, selling 32% of control of the studio and music business to Seven Arts Productions for $32 million. (Seven Arts Productions was run by Canadian investors Elliot and Kenneth Hyman.) Eventually the company, including the studio, was renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts on July 14, 1967.
Kinney National / Warner Communications era (1969–1990) Two years later the Hymans accepted a cash-and-stock offer from Kinney National Company for more than $64 million. In 1967, Kinney had previously acquired DC Comics (then officially known as National Periodical Publications), as well as a Hollywood talent agency, Ashley-Famous, whose founder Ted Ashley led Kinney head Steve Ross to purchase Warner Bros. Ashley-Famous was soon spun off due to antitrust laws prohibiting the simultaneous ownership of a film studio and a talent agency. Ashley became the studio head and changed the name to Warner Bros., Inc. once again. Jack Warner was outraged by the Hymans's sale, and decided to move into independent production (most successfully with 1776 at Columbia). He retired in 1973 and eventually died from serious health complications of heart inflammation in September 1978.
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