 | |
| Warner Bros. Home Entertainment | |
| Formerly |
|
| Company type | Division |
| Industry | Home entertainment |
| Predecessors | List
|
| Founded | 1978; 47 years ago (1978) |
| Headquarters | 4000 Warner Boulevard,, U.S. |
Key people | David Decker (president) |
| Products | Home video releases |
| Services | Digital distribution Physical distribution |
| Parent | Warner Bros. Entertainment (Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming & Studios) |
| Subsidiaries | Studio Distribution Services (joint venture withUniversal Pictures Home Entertainment) |
| Website | warnerbros |
Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc.[1] (doing business asWarner Bros. Home Entertainment;[2] formerly known asWarner Home Video andWCI Home Video and sometimes credited asWarner Home Entertainment) is the Americanhome video distribution division ofWarner Bros. Discovery. It was founded in 1978 asWCI Home Video (as a division ofWarner Communications, Inc.). It is responsible for distributing the film and television library ofWarner Bros. Discovery and other companies on various home media formats, such asDVD,Blu-ray,Ultra HD Blu-ray, digital, and streaming platforms.
The company launched in the United States with twenty films onBetamax andVHS videocassettes in late 1979. The company later expanded its line to include additional titles throughout 1979 and 1980.[3]
Some of the companies that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment distributes includeWarner Bros. (Warner Bros. Pictures,Warner Bros. Pictures Animation,Warner Bros. Television Studios,Warner Bros. Animation),New Line Cinema,DC Entertainment,DC Studios,Viz Media,HBO (HBO Max,Cinemax andTime-Life Films),CNN,Cartoon Network (Cartoon Network Studios,Williams Street),Adult Swim,TBS,TNT,TruTV,Turner Classic Movies,Rooster Teeth (until its closure in May 2024 and purchase by co-founderBurnie Burns's company Box Canyon Productions in February 2025),Discovery Channel,Animal Planet,TLC,HGTV,Food Network, andAmazon MGM Studios/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (viaMGM Home Entertainment) among others.
Their releases are currently distributed in the United States and Canada byStudio Distribution Services, a joint venture between WBDHE andUniversal Pictures Home Entertainment, with select titles distributed through itsManufacture-on-demand (MOD) solutions by Allied Vaughn.
WCI Home Video was founded in 1978 and launched in the United States with twenty films onBetamax andVHS videocassettes in late 1979. The company later expanded its line to include additional titles throughout 1979 and 1980.
Warner Bros. began to branch out into the videodisc market, licensing titles to MCADiscoVision and RCA'sSelectaVisionvideodisc formats, allowing both companies to market and distribute the films under their labels.[4][5] By 1985, Warner Bros. was releasing material under their own label in both formats. Titles from Warner Home Video are distributed and manufactured byRoadshow Home Video in Australia and New Zealand because of its film counterpart's films released byVillage Roadshow.[6]
Warner Home Video also experimented with the "rental-only" market for videos, a method also used by20th Century Fox for their first release ofStar Wars in 1982. Two known films released in this manner wereSuperman II andExcalibur. Other films released for rental use includeDirty Harry,The Enforcer,Prince of the City, andSharky's Machine. In 1990, Warner Home Video acquired the worldwide home video rights to theMGM/UA catalog. The $125 million purchase was used to finance MGM/UA's acquisition by thePathé Communications Corporation.[7] The intended 12½-year-long deal was cut short in February 2000, with MGM paying Warner Home Video $225 million to regain video rights to a number of its films. In exchange, Warner Home Video gained full control over the video rights to MGM's pre-May 1986 library, an asset the studio had acquired outright fromTurner Entertainment Co., but due to a pre-existing licensing deal with MGM, was originally expected to expire in 2003.[8]
On December 20, 1996, Warner Home Video was one of the first major American distributors for the then-newDVD format, by releasing the filmsAssassins,Blade Runner: Director's Cut,Eraser, andThe Fugitive on DVD in Japan and on March 24, 1997, in the United States withTwister also being a launch title for the region there.[9] Warner Bros. executiveWarren Lieberfarb is often seen as "the father of DVD". Lieberfarb's successor, Warner Bros. executiveJames F. Cardwell was recognized in paving the way for Warner Home Video's strategic positioning in next generation technologies such as High Definition DVD (HD DVD), electronic sell-through and portable video. In 2003, Warner Home Video became the first home video releasing company to release movies only on DVD with no VHS equivalent.
In 2009, Warner Home Video introduced theWarner Archive Collection, which allows the public to order custom-made DVDs of rarely seen films and television series from the Warner and Turner libraries. The films are also available as digital downloads. Warner Archive DVDs and downloads can be ordered online on Warner's website, onAmazon.com or one-timeTurner Classic Movies-affiliated DVD website MoviesUnlimited.com.[10]
On June 30, 2020, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment regained the home video rights to the post-May 1986MGM catalog after 21 years, although pre-May 1986 titles continue to lack MGM logos on packaging.
Starting in 2022, due to the finalization of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment started distributing the television libraries of Discovery-owned networks including the flagshipDiscovery Channel andAnimal Planet.
On January 14, 2020, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment andUniversal Pictures Home Entertainment announced that they would partner on a 10-year multinational joint-venture. In North America, their physical distribution operations were merged into a company named Studio Distribution Services, LLC.[11] Internationally, Universal distributes Warner Bros.' titles in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan; while Warner distributes Universal's titles in the United Kingdom (until 2025), Italy (until 2024) and Benelux.[12] On April 7, 2020, the European Commission approved the merger.[13] Since June 1, 2021,[14][15][16] SDS' logo took the WBHE logo's place on the back covers of the home releases; while there have been several exceptions, mainlymanufactured on demand titles including4K[17][18] (also steelbooks)[19][20][21][22][23][24][25] andBlu-ray releases.[26][27][28][29][30]
On June 24, 2024, it was reported thatSony Pictures Home Entertainment had entered into a distribution deal with SDS to handle the physical distribution of their titles.[31]
| Motion Picture Group | .svg) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Television Group | ||||
| Other properties | ||||
| Former/defunct | ||||
| Key people | ||||
| Related | ||||
| ||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
