ENJOY THE MOVIES
It's Official - New Line Cinema is Dead!
by Alex Billington
February 28, 2008
New Line Cinema has gone the way of Orion Pictures and United Artists before it – it’s dead, officially. Back in December when The Golden Compass bombed terribly at the box office, I predicted New Line might be kicking the bucket sooner than later. And now today, February 28th, we can pronounce New Line Cinema officially dead. The studio will be falling in under Time Warner and will become part of Warner Brothers, one of the few studios that actually knows what they’re doing these days. For the official e-mail released by New Line chairmen Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne and more information on the merger, read onwards.
This e-mail was sent earlier today to all of New Line Cinema. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes later officially announced the merger.
This afternoon, Time Warner is announcing that New Line will become a unit of Warner Bros. This is, of course, a very difficult and emotional time for all of us who have worked at New Line. While there is not much we can say that can lessen the impact of this announcement, we did want you to know about the decision before you read about it in the press.
New Line will maintain its own identity and will continue to produce, market, and distribute movies. But New Line will now do so as part of Warner Bros. and will probably be a much smaller operation than in the past. Time Warner hopes that operating New Line as a unit of Warner Bros. will allow New Line to focus on the creative side of movie-making, while reducing costs and taking advantage of Warner Bros.’ distribution systems. The company will be holding group meeting with New Line employees tomorrow in Los Angeles and New York to discuss this announcement, and is committed to letting employees know as soon as possible about how this change affects them individually.
For our part, we will be stepping down as Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOS of New Line. This was a painful decision, because we love New Line and the people who work here have been like our second families. But we will be leaving the company with enormous pride in what all of us at New Line have accomplished together. From its humble beginnings 40 years ago, our studio has created some of the most popular and successful movies of all time. Those movies are a tribute to the amazing creative energy and entrepreneurial abilities of the talented people at New Line. They are a legacy that will endure forever.
Although we are stepping out of New Line, we intend to remain actively involved in the industry in an entrepreneurial capacity, and will keep you advised of developments.
We thank all of you who have worked so hard to make New Line such a success. We are very proud of every one of you.
Bob & Michael
New Line Cinema will now be operated by Warner Brothers, but will maintain separate development, production, marketing, distribution and business affairs operations. It will closely integrate and coordinate all of those functions with Warner Brothers in order to maximize the performance of their films and operating efficiencies. New Line Cinema was founded 41 years ago by Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne as an independent studio under Time Warner. Orion Pictures lasted 19 years before it kicked the bucket and United Artists lasted 86 years.
This is actually probably a great day for Warner Brothers, because they’ll be picking up a number of New Line’s 2008 movies that were already on their way to hitting big – specifically Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and Sex and the City: The Movie at least. New Line’s other 2008 movies include the upcoming Semi-Pro, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, The Time Traveler’s Wife, and Four Christmases.
More details are pending – stay tuned for more updates on FS.net!
12 Comments
2
Wow... I'd heard about their troubles. Sounds like a fire sale. 🙂 And Good Lord yeah... how DID they burn through all that LOTR money and where does that leave the Tolkein family? Vic
ScreenRant.com on Feb 28, 2008
3
They must have made a killing with the Lord of the Rings what did they do with all the money it made and so fast? Leave it up to the real companies that actually know how to market well.
Curtis on Feb 28, 2008
4
Time to see WHEN the Tolkeins will be suing Warner for the back royalties... Not much surprise here.. but still an unfortunate event. The more they merge and lose control(just cause they maintain seperate development, production, etc. DON'T think that Warner is not in control), the more we can expect similar branding concepts and market introductions, hmmm.. Speed Racer, THe Bucket List, I am Legend.... nope.. NOTHING has surprised me a single bit in any of the marketing campaigns.. no matter how wonderful or terrible the movies have been or will be. The last one I can remember that had an interesting marketing campaign was V for Vendetta, (and I can't even remember why I was so embraced by such an unknown story) The rest... well.. I am a Marketing Manager for a technologies company and I could have pulled off ANYTHING with the budgets they spent on them. Then again.. I love Warner Brothers... I just want some new takes in how you will bring the products to market.
Dusty on Feb 28, 2008
6
You say they would be hitting big with "Sex and the City: The Movie". Come on smells of Box Office failure. I can't see why anyone would want to go to the movies to see this. Especially since there are several show on network television which are pretty much the same thing.
Scorpio on Feb 29, 2008
7
hey, hey, hey, when we see the results for harold & kumar we would see if new line is dead.
Darrin on Feb 29, 2008
8
“The studio will be falling in under Time Warner and will become part of Warner Brothers, one of the few studios that actually knows what they're doing these days.” Are you talking about the same Warner Bros. that is still trying to do that miserable Justice League movie project??? I would wait and see just how smart they really are before making such a statement…but, who knows???? Stranger things have happened…
cornholio_by_the_sea on Feb 29, 2008
9
"Are you talking about the same Warner Bros. that is still trying to do that miserable Justice League movie project??? " Heh, and the same Warner Bros. bigtime movie studio that has its own comic book company to take decades of ideas, characters, and stories from, and when they bother to actually do that the result is often lackluster. New Line has made plenty of solid and outright huge movies. The Lord of the Rings trilogy alone made three BILLION dollars at the box office worldwide, and that doesn't even count DVD sales. What the heck.
Wes on Mar 15, 2008
10
"So, will they still use the New Line logo or will it be under the WB logo?" To answer that question, I have seen a poster of the recently released New Line film, Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantonomo (sorry if not spelled correctly) Bay, and it still had the New Line Cinema logo on it. I also saw the New Line Cinema logo appear on two internet released posters of Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D (opening this summer on July 11th). Therfore, I rekon that they will still use the New Line Cinema logo.
Ben Tracey on May 11, 2008
11
We are the authors of 'Ring of Skeletons' and ask how we can submit our book to become a movie? Ring of Skeletons This is truly a strange tale. It is professionally written and is fast moving and very unpredictable. From the beginning you step back in time. The language, people and places of the British Empire are authentic except for the main characters. Suddenly you are back in time. Professor Benjamin T. Ogg in 1840, begins his quest to find the truth about a heinous gargoyle attack in Brighton. In the dead of night authorities were summoned to an old stone house in the south of England. The man had been chased by a gargoyle out his front door, the neighbor lady had witnessed the end of the encounter. His robe lay shredded between he and the door. The door itself had been broken in half and his cellar door was found smashed. A hole in the cellar wall revealed a cave and a mysterious black stone. The Professor along with two others go on a voyage to India, but it is not until he returns home to Wales that the skeletons come to life through a strange phenomenon. From there circumstances get hectic as they go on another adventure where one thing leads to another and eventually through the gates of Hell itself. The name of the book could have been 'the Gate of Hell', but the 'Skeletons' do make an unforgettable entrance. Throughout it all the humor and fascinating encounters keep the reader glued to the pages. The authors use reports of real encounters and descriptions of the beasts. As for romance, it certainly surprises the reader. There is love but no sex and is recommended for those eight to one hundred and eight. All would surely enjoy this run from the beasts in the past and strangely enough their future as well. It would make a great movie. Available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Nobel.com
David & Larry Fernandez on Jul 23, 2010
12
Yeah this site probably hasn't been used since 2008 but damnit hurry up and make Fridsy The 13th already!
Lunchbox129 on Mar 13, 2012
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