New Line Cinema

From founding to 1984

New Line Cinema was established in 1967 by the then 27-year-old Robert Shaye as a film distribution company, supplying foreign and art films for college campuses in the United States. Shaye operated New Line Cinema's offices out of his apartment at 14th Street and Second Avenue in New York City. One of the company's early successes was its distribution of the 1936 anti-cannabis propaganda film Reefer Madness, which became a cult hit on American college campuses in the early 1970s. New Line also released many classic foreign-language films, like Stay As You Are, Immoral Tales and Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (which became the first New Line film to win an Oscar).^[7] The studio has also released many of the films of John Waters.

In 1976, New Line Cinema secured funding to produce its first full-length feature, Stunts (1977), directed by Mark L. Lester. Although not considered a critical success, the film performed well commercially on the international market and on television.^[8]

In 1980, Shaye's law school classmate Michael Lynne became outside counsel and adviser to the company and renegotiated its debt.^[7][9]

In 1983, Bryanston Distributing Company, the company that first distributed the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, lost the rights to that film, and the rights reverted to the original owners. New Line Cinema bought the rights and re-released the film to theatres that same year. It became very successful for the studio.^[10]

New Line Cinema expanded its film production in the early 1980s, producing or co-producing films including Polyester, directed by John Waters, and the horror film Alone in the Dark. Polyester was one of the first films to introduce a novelty cinema experience named Odorama, where members of the audience were provided with a set of "scratch and sniff" cards to be scratched and sniffed at specific times during the film, which provided an additional sensory connection to the viewed image.^[8] In 1983, Lynne joined the board.^[7] In 1984, Dawn Altyn and Jeff Youngs joined New Line Cinema, respectively as sales manager, eastern and southern divisions of New Line Distribution, and national print controller of the studio, to distribute new projects.^[11]

1980s: Beginning success with A Nightmare on Elm Street

A Nightmare on Elm Street was produced and released by New Line Cinema in 1984. The resulting franchise was New Line Cinema's first commercially successful series, leading the company to be nicknamed "The House that Freddy Built".^[6] The film was made on a budget of $1.8 million and grossed over $57 million.^[12] A year later, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge was released, and grossed $3.3 million in its first three days of release and over $30 million at the US box office. In 1986, the company went public, and held 1,613,000 shares of common stock.^[7][13]

With the success of the Elm Street franchise, New Line Cinema made moves to expand their business. This included a revamping of their distribution network,^[14] the sale of their films into broadcast syndication and pay-television (via Embassy Communications and Universal Pay Television, respectively),^[15][16] and the creation of an international distribution arm.^[17]

The third film in the series, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, was released in 1987, the studio's first national release,^[18] and opened at number one, grossing $8.9 million for the weekend, a record for an independent film at the time,^[19] and went on to gross almost $45 million at the US box office. A further six films have been made. The first six grossed $500 million worldwide^[12] and the next three $250 million, for a total of $750 million. In 1986, the film Critters was released, which led to another long-running horror film franchise for the studio.^[20] In 1988, New Line released a heavy metal-focused sequel to the acclaimed 1981 punk rock documentary The Decline of Western Civilization, titled The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years.^[21]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and expansion (1990–1994)

In 1990, Lynne became president and chief operating officer, with Shaye as chairman and chief executive officer.^[7] The same year, New Line Cinema released Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which became the highest-grossing independent film of all-time with a gross of $135 million in the United States and Canada, until it was surpassed by The Blair Witch Project (1999).^[22][23][24] It was followed by a sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991) which was the second highest-grossing^[25] with a gross of $78 million in the United States and Canada.^[26] A third, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III followed in 1993. In 1990, New Line released the popular comedy House Party, which led to a long running film series.^[27] In 1992, New Line released the Drew Barrymore erotic thriller Poison Ivy, which helped launch another film series, as it spawned two direct-to-video sequels in 1996 and 1997, as well as a made for television sequel in 2008.^[28][29] In 1992, New Line also acquired the rights to the Friday the 13th horror franchise, with the franchise having previously had seven films released by Paramount Pictures in the 1980s. The franchise had started generating declining box office returns, and New Line's ultimate goal in acquiring the rights was to eventually have a film focusing on both Jason Vorhees (the antagonist of the franchise) and Freddy Krueger (the antagonist of the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise). This planned film received several delays and wasn't released until 2003, with two Friday the 13th films without Freddy Krueger being released by New Line in 1993 and 2001.^[30][31]

In July 1990, Carolco Pictures entered into a joint venture with New Line Cinema to start Seven Arts, a distribution company which primarily released much of Carolco's low-budget output as opposed to their high-budget films which were released by TriStar Pictures.^[32] In November, New Line Cinema purchased a 52% stake in the television production company RHI Entertainment (now Halcyon Studios), which would later be sold to Hallmark Cards in 1994.

In early 1991, Fine Line Features was set up as a wholly owned subsidiary headed by Ira Deutchman and released films including Jane Campion's An Angel at My Table and Gus van Sant's My Own Private Idaho.^[33] That May, New Line Cinema purchased the home video and foreign rights to 600 films held by Sultan Entertainment Holdings (a.k.a. Nelson Entertainment). The deal also included an 11-film distribution deal with Castle Rock Entertainment. On November 27, New Line Cinema purchased Sultan outright.^[34][35]

In 1992, Michael De Luca became executive vice-president and chief executive officer of the production unit.^[36]

Turner purchase and Time Warner era (1994–2008)

On January 28, 1994, New Line Cinema was acquired by the Turner Broadcasting System for $500 million,^[37][38] Under Turner, New Line experienced box office success in 1994 with the Jim Carrey comedies Dumb and Dumber and The Mask. Shortly after their releases, both of these films spawned animated programs which were handled by New Line's television division and other partners. Other successful releases under the Turner ownership include the psychological thriller Seven (1995), and the black stoner comedy Friday (1995). The latter film received two sequels in 2000 and 2002, as well as a 2007 animated series produced in conjunction with New Line Television and MTV.^[39] Turner Broadcasting System later merged with Time Warner Entertainment in October 1996. New Line Cinema was kept as its own separate entity for over a decade, while fellow Turner-owned studios Hanna-Barbera Productions and Castle Rock Entertainment quickly became units of Warner Bros. Even though the merger closed in October 1996, New Line's opening logo continued to have the byline "A Turner Company" until mid-1997, with the last film to have this byline being Trial and Error. A few months before the merger closed, it was announced that Time Warner would sell both New Line and Castle Rock if it received high enough offers. Both studios were purchased by Turner Broadcasting System in 1993–94, to strengthen the company's production capabilities, but at Time Warner they were seen as duplicative or redundant assets with little strategic value.^[40] The sale of either studio never eventuated.

During its time as an entity separate from Warner Bros., New Line Cinema continued to operate several divisions, including theatrical distribution, marketing and home video. Direct-to-video films released by New Line Home Entertainment in the latter 1990s included the action films Excessive Force II: Force on Force (1995) and Raven (1996), the romantic comedy Overnight Delivery (1998), the Poison Ivy sequels Poison Ivy II: Lily (1996) and Poison Ivy: The New Seduction (1997). and the 1997 horror film Campfire Tales (which was originally in negotiations to be released theatrically by either Warner Bros. Pictures or Paramount Pictures).^[29][41][42]

The company's fortunes took a downturn in 1996 after financial losses on The Island of Dr. Moreau and The Long Kiss Goodnight.^[9] Although, in 1997, Shine received the studio's first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture^[7] and their second film to win an Academy Award with Geoffrey Rush's win for Academy Award for Best Actor.^[43] The following year, New Line's pornography industry drama Boogie Nights was also nominated for several Academy Awards.^[44] In 1997, the studio released a poorly received live-action film adaptation of the Spawn comic. That same year, a much better received adult animation series based on the comic was also released, with this series being produced by the studio's new Time Warner sister company HBO.^[45] One of New Line's more financially successful projects towards the end of the 1990s was Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), which spawned two even more successful sequels in 1999 and 2002.^[46] The 1998 Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker buddy film Rush Hour was another big hit for New Line, spawning two sequels in 2001 and 2007. In 1995 and 1997, New Line released two films based on the Mortal Kombat video game series. These films were co-handled by Larry Kasanoff's recently created Threshold Entertainment, and performed moderately well at the box office despite lackluster reviews.^[47] In 1998, Threshold and New Line Television released a live-action television series based on Mortal Kombat, titled Mortal Kombat: Conquest.^[48]

In 1996, New Line acquired the film rights to the Marvel character Blade, releasing a successful trilogy of films between 1998 and 2004. Around this time, Marvel also sold off the film rights for the rest of their characters to other studios, including 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Lionsgate and Universal Pictures, with these studios having a contractual clause which would let the rights to the characters revert to Marvel if they failed produce a new film every few years. After New Line failed to produce a sequel to the third Blade film in 2004, the rights reverted to Marvel, which itself was purchased by The Walt Disney Company in 2009.^[49] To date, these three Blade films remain some of the only pieces of Marvel media owned by Warner (which since 1969 has been part of the same corporate family as rival comic publisher DC). One of the few others is the 1967 Fantastic Four animated series, which was co-produced by Hanna-Barbera, and whose rights were partially inherited by Warner in 1996 through the Turner Broadcasting System acquisition.^[50]

Warner Bros. era (2008–present)

On February 28, 2008, Time Warner's CEO at the time, Jeff Bewkes, announced that New Line Cinema would be shut down as a separately operated studio. Shaye and Lynne said that they would step down with a letter to their employees. They promised, however, along with Time Warner and Jeffery Bewkes, that the company would continue to operate its financing, producing, marketing and distributing operations of its own films, but would do so as a part of Warner Bros. and be a smaller studio, releasing a smaller number of films than in past years.^[2] The box office disappointment of The Golden Compass (2007) was largely blamed for the decision, in which New Line Cinema spent $180 million on its development, yet it only grossed $70 million in the United States market.^[54] In March, Emmerich became president and chief operating officer, whilst both founders Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne had left the company.

On May 8, 2008, it was announced that Picturehouse would shut down in the fall.^[55] Berney later bought the Picturehouse trademarks from Warner Bros. and relaunched the company in 2013.^[56]

New Line Cinema moved from its long-time headquarters on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles in June 2014 to Warner Bros.' lot Building 76, formerly used by Legendary Entertainment, a former Warner Bros. film co-financier.^[57] The last film released by New Line Cinema as a free-standing company was the Will Ferrell film Semi-Pro.

Since 2016, New Line Cinema had been producing its own television series (New Line Television had been folded into Warner Bros. Television in 2008).

As for the company's future, Alan Horn, the Warner Bros. president at the time of the consolidation, stated, "There's no budget number required. They'll be doing about six per year, though the number may go from four to seven; it's not going to be 10." As to content, "New Line will not just be doing genre [...] There's no mandate to make a particular kind of movie."^[58]

Film series

Highest-grossing films

‡ Includes theatrical reissue(s)