by Carly Kaplin
Warner Bros. Studios [a]
Contact Information:
Address: 3400 Riverside Drive, Burbank, CA 91522
Phone: (818) 972-8687
Company Executives:
Kevin Tsujihara: Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Warner Bros. [b]
Richard J. Fox: Executive Vice President, International, Warner Bros. Entertainment [c]
Thomas Gewecke: Chief Digital Officer and Executive Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, Warner Bros. Entertainment [d]
Dee Dee Myers: Executive Vice Present, Worldwide Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, Warner Bros. Entertainment [e]
Albert, Sam, Harry and Jack Warner [f]
Company History:
Warner Brother’s was founded on April 4th, 1923 by Albert, Sam, Harry and Jack Warner. The studio released the world’s first “talkie” movie on October 6th, 1927. Before this time, the world had never seen a movie with sound. This was a groundbreaking moment in the film industry. The studio won their first Oscar for best picture in 1937 for a film biography on the life of Émile Zola. In 1955, Warner Brothers started working in television creating the drama series, Cheyenne. [2]
Financials:
Warner Brother’s Studios is one of the global leaders in film production. However, the studio was negatively impacted by a low summer box office. Luckily, video-on-demand revenue contributed and raised revenue 3% to $2.8 billion. The studio made its highest box office numbers ever with the Harry Potter movies and The Dark Knight trilogy. The Dark Knight earned the studio over $530,000,000 domestic, and over $1 billion including international sales in 2008. In 2013, Warner Brothers television programs grossed almost $1.5 billion internationally. In the same year, the international box office for films generated revenue of over $5 billion for the fifth year in a row Warner Brothers made over $4 billion in the worldwide box office. Warner Brothers currently stands at third place in the 2014 studio market share of the box office with 14.3%, behind 20th Century Fox with 17.2% and Buenavista with 16.1%. Warner Brothers has released the most movies this year out of the three top studios, making it’s position at number 3 not ideal. [3] [4]
By the end of this year, Warner Brothers will have released a total of 21 feature films. The highest grossing movie of the year for the studio was The Lego Movie, generating a total domestic revenue of $257 million and $210 million internationally, making it a total of $468 million. [5] [6]
Warner Brother’s movies by release date in 2014 [g]
Gravity [h]
Recent History
In early 2014, Warner Brother’s films won 10 Academy Awards, the most of any other studio. 7 of these awards were taken by Gravity, two for The Great Gatsby and one for Her. Gravity took home the oscar for best director for Alfonso Cuarón, visual effects, cinematography, film editing, original score, sound editing and sound mixing. [7]
What’s Happening Now?
Warner Brother’s Studios has recently announced that they will be cutting 1,000 jobs from a total of around 8,000 companywide in an attempt to decrease costs since the low box office and television results this year. After 10 years at number one in the domestic box office, it is currently at number 3. Some divisions of the company are expected to be impacted more by these layoffs than others. The finance and information technology will be cut down more than film and television production groups. [8]
The Judge [i]
Warner Brother’s recently released The Judge on October 10th, 2014. The Judge made only $45.5 million in the domestic box office, which is not the success the studio would have hoped for the movie with a $50 million production budget. It did bring in $29 million international, bringing the total gross up to $74.5 million. The movie opened at number 5 its opening weekend, competing with the new releases of Dracula Untold and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, which opened at 2, and 3 respectively. [9]
Annabelle [j]
Annabelle, the prequel to last year’s The Conjuring, was the studio’s highest grossing movie this season. With a domestic total of $84 million but was widely popular overseas with an international total of over $186 million, it took the number one place in the international box office its opening weekend. The production budget was only $6.5 million so Annabelle was a huge success for Warner Brothers. Annabelle was released on October 3rd, opening at the number two spot in the box office, just barely beaten out by $400,000 by the highly anticipated Gone Girl. [10]
Horrible Bosses 2 [k]
Horrible Bosses 2 is the studio’s next movie to hit theaters, opening on November 26th, 2014. The first Horrible Bosses movie, released in July of 2011 made $60 million during its opening weekend. The budget was $35 million, meaning the movie made back almost twice its budget in the first weekend. This sequel is definitely one that didn’t do as well as the first movie. This past weekend was opening weekend for Horrible Bosses 2 and opening at the number 5 spot, they made a mere $15 million domestically. Having opened on a Wednesday, they did generate some more money before the “weekend” bringing the domestic total to $23 million. But this opening weekend was a tough one in terms of competition. Horrible Bosses was competing with the second weekend of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 which brought in the majority of audiences for this Thanksgiving weekend. Warner Brothers expected Horrible Bosses 2 to make around $35 million opening weekend, but the production budget was relatively low, at $42 million. Warner Brothers executives are hopeful that Horrible Bosses 2 will perform better next weekend as the excitement of The Hunger Games slows down as it enters its third week. [11] [12] [13]
Excitement continues to grow for fans of The Hobbit series as the trilogy comes to an end this year with The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. It will be released on December 17th, 2014 by Warner Brothers. The most talked about aspect of the movie so far is the 45 minute battle scene which ends the movie, the biggest fight scene director Peter Jackson has ever done. [5] [14]
Warner Brothers will be releasing two more movies before the end of the year. Inherent Vice on December 12th, featuring Owen Wilson and Reese Witherspoon, and American Sniper on December 25th, with Bradley Cooper, directed by Clint Eastwood. Inherent Vice has already won the Robert Altman award, which is given to “one film’s director, casting director, and ensemble cast.” [5] [15]
Sources:
1. Warner Bros. Company Overview – warnerbros.com RT: 11/15/2014
2. Warner Bros. Company History – warnerbros.com RT: 11/16/2014
3. Time Warner Q3 Earnings Results – money.cnn.com RT: 11/17/2014
4. Time Warner Annual Reports – TimeWarner.com RT: 11/15/2014
5. Warner Bros. Future Releases – boxofficemojo.com RT: 11/21/2014
6. The Lego Movie – boxofficemojo.com RT: 11/18/2014
7. Warner Bros. Oscar Results – hollywoodreporter.com RT: 11/17/2014
8. Warner Bros. Layoffs – nytimes.com RT: 11/19/2014
9. The Judge Box Office Mojo – boxofficemojo.com RT: 11/16/2014
10. Annabelle Box Office Mojo – boxofficemojo.com RT: 11/17/2014
11. Horrible Bosses Opening Weekend – boxofficemojo.com RT: 11/20/2014
12. Horrible Bosses 2 Opening Weekend – boxofficemojo.com RT: 11/30/2014
13. Variety Horrible Bosses 2 Article – variety.com RT: 11/30/2014
14. FansShare The Hobbit Article – fansshare.com RT: 11/21/2014
15. NoneSuch Inherent Vice Article – nonesuch.com RT: 12/1/2014
Multimedia Sources
a. http://corporate.kabam.com/company/ RT: 11/14/2014
b. Warner Bros. Company Executives – Kevin Tsujihara RT: 11/15/2014
c. Warner Bros. Company Executives – Richard J. Fox RT: 11/15/2014
d. Warner Bros. Company Executives -Thomas Gewecke RT: 11/15/2014
e. Warner Bros. Company Executives – Dee Dee Myers RT: 11/15/2014
f. PBS Gallery RT: 11/16/2014
g. Box Office Mojo RT: 12/1/2014
h. IMDB Gravity RT: 11/20/2014
i. IMDB The Judge RT: 11/21/2014
j. IMDB Annabelle RT: 12/1/2014
k. Collider.com RT: 11/17/2014
l. Youtube.com RT: 12/1/2014