New Line Cinema

New Line Productions, Inc., doing business as New Line Cinema, is an American film and television production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Since 2008, it has been operating as a unit of Warner Bros. Pictures.
It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after acquired by Turner Broadcasting System in 1994; Turner later merged with Time Warner Entertainment (later known as WarnerMedia from 2018 to 2022, and Warner Bros. Discovery since 2022) in 1996, and New Line was merged with Warner Bros. Pictures in 2008. The studio has been nicknamed "The House that Freddy Built" due to the success of the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. However, their most successful property was their film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien with considerable commercial success and numerous Academy Awards.
==History==
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'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). The studio has also released many of the films of John Waters.
In 1976, New Line 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.
In 1980, Shaye's law school classmate Michael Lynne became outside counsel and adviser to the company and renegotiated its debt.
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 bought the rights and re-released the film to theatres that same year. It became very successful for the studio.
New Line expanded its film production in the early 1980s, producing or co-producing films including Polyester, directed by John Waters, and 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. In 1983, Lynne joined the board. In 1984, Dawn Altyn and Jeff Youngs joined New Line, respectively as sales manager, eastern and southern divisions of New Line Distribution, and national print controller of the studio, to distribute new projects.
===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". The film was made on a budget of $1.8 million and grossed over $57 million. 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. 
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, the sale of their films into broadcast syndication and pay-TV (via Embassy Communications and Universal Pay Television, respectively), and the creation of an international distribution arm.
The third film in the series, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, was released in 1987, the studio's first national release, and opened at number one, grossing $8.9 million for the weekend, a record for an independent film at the time, 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 and the next three $250 million, for a total of $750 million.
===Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles===
In 1990, Lynne became president and chief operating officer, with Shaye as chairman and chief executive officer. The same year, New Line 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). It was followed by a sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991) which was the second highest-grossing with a gross of $78 million in the United States and Canada. A third, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III followed in 1993.
===Expansion===
In November 1990, 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. Halfway through the year, 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. In 1997, Shine received the studio's first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture and their second film to win an Academy Award with Geoffrey Rush's win for Academy Award for Best Actor.
In May 1991, 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, 1991, New Line Cinema purchased Sultan outright.
In 1992, Michael De Luca became executive vice-president and chief executive officer of the production unit.
===Acquisition by Turner and Time Warner===
On January 28, 1994, New Line Cinema was acquired by the Turner Broadcasting System for $500 million, which later merged with Time Warner Entertainment in 1996. New Line Cinema was kept as its own separate entity, while fellow Turner-owned studios Hanna-Barbera Productions and Castle Rock Entertainment eventually became units of Warner Bros.
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.
The company's fortunes took a downturn in 1996 after losses on The Island of Dr. Moreau and The Long Kiss Goodnight. 
===The Lord of the Rings===
New Line Cinema produced The Lord of the Rings film trilogy which became their most successful films to date, grossing over $2.9 billion worldwide. The films were nominated for 30 Academy Awards, including nominations for the Academy Award for Best Picture for each film, and won 17, with the final picture, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) winning a (joint) record eleven, including Best Picture, as well as being the second highest-grossing film of all time at the time of its release.
Despite the success of The Lord of the Rings films, Town and Country (2001) generated a loss of $100 million and De Luca left as production head to be replaced by Toby Emmerich. In 2001, Shaye and Lynne became co-chairmen and co-CEO.
The studio was also a partner in founding a new distribution company named Picturehouse in 2005. Specializing in independent film, Picturehouse was formed by Bob Berney, who left distributor Newmarket Films, New Line Cinema, who folded their Fine Line division into Picturehouse, and HBO Films, a division of HBO and a subsidiary of Time Warner, who was interested in getting into the theatrical film business.
===Merger with Warner Bros.===
On February 28, 2008, Time Warner's CEO at the time, Jeffrey 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. 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. 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. Berney later bought the Picturehouse trademarks from Warner Bros. and relaunched the company in 2013.
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. 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."
==Films==
=== Film series ===
Title 	Release date 	No. Films	Notes
Evil Dead 	1981–2023 	2 	Co-production with Warner Bros.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 	1984–2010 	9 	Co-production with Warner Bros.
Critters 	1986–92 (2019)	4 (5) 	
House Party 	1990–present 	6 	
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	1990–93 	3 	Co-production with 20th Century Fox (1991–93)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 	1990–2006 	3 	
Friday the 13th 	1993–2009 	4 	
Dumb and Dumber 	1994–2003 (14)	2 (3) 	Co-production with Universal Pictures (2014)
The Mask 	1994–2005 	2 	Co-production with Dark Horse Entertainment
Friday 	1995–2002 	3 	
Mortal Kombat 	1995–present 	3 	
Austin Powers 	1997–2002 	3 	
Blade 	1998–2004 	3 	Co-production with Marvel Entertainment
Rush Hour 	1998–2007 	3 	
Final Destination 	2000–present 	5 	
The Cell 	2000–09 	2 	
The Lord of the Rings 	2001–03 	3 	
Harold & Kumar 	2004–11 	3 	
Sex and the City 	2008–10 	2 	co-production with Warner Bros. Pictures and HBO Films
Horrible Bosses 	2011–14 	2 	co-production with Warner Bros. Pictures
The Hobbit 	2012–14 	3 	co-production with Warner Bros. Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
The Conjuring Universe 	2013–present 	8 	co-production with Warner Bros. Pictures
Rocky 	2015–18 	2 	co-production with Warner Bros. Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
It 	2017–19 	2 	
Shazam! 	2019–23 	3 	Co-production with DC StudiosPart of the DC Extended Universe
===Highest-grossing films===
Rank	Title 	Year	Worldwide gross	Notes
1 	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King* 	2003	$1,142,456,987 	
2 	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 	2012	$1,017,003,568 	Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures; co-production with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures
3 	The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug 	2013	$958,366,855 	Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures; co-production with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures
4 	The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 	2014	$956,019,788 	Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures; co-production with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures
5 	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers* 	2002	$943,396,133 	
6 	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring*	2001	$888,159,092 	
7 	It 	2017	$701,796,444 	Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures; co-production with Vertigo Entertainment, Lin Pictures and KatzSmith Productions
8 	San Andreas 	2015	$473,990,832 	Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures; co-production with Village Roadshow Pictures
9 	It Chapter Two 	2019	$473,093,228 	Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures; co-production with Double Dream, Vertigo Entertainment, and Rideback
10 	Sex and the City 	2008	$418,765,321 	Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures; co-production with HBO Films
11 	Shazam! 	2019	$365,971,656 	Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures; co-production with DC Films
12 	The Nun 	2018	$365,550,119 	Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures; co-production with Atomic Monster and The Safran Company
13 	The Mask 	1994	$351,583,407 	
14 	Rush Hour 2 	2001	$347,325,802 	
15 	The Conjuring 2 	2016	$321,788,219 	
16 	The Conjuring 	2013	$319,494,638 	Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
17 	Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me 	1999	$312,016,928 	
18 	Annabelle: Creation 	2017	$306,515,884 	Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
19 	Austin Powers in Goldmember 	2002	$296,938,801 	
20 	Wedding Crashers 	2005	$288,467,645 	
16 	We're the Millers 	2013	$269,994,119 	Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
18 	Rush Hour 3 	2007	$258,097,122 	
19 	Annabelle 	2014	$257,579,282 	Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
20 	Dumb and Dumber 	1994	$247,275,374 	
21 	Rush Hour 	1998	$244,386,864 	
22 	Annabelle Comes Home 	2019	$231,252,591 	Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
23 	Elf 	2003	$221,845,341 	
24 	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 	1990	$201,965,915 	
25 	Straight Outta Compton 	2015	$201,634,991 	Distributed by Universal Pictures; co-production with Legendary Pictures
*Includes theatrical reissue(s).
==See also==
* Fine Line Features
* New Line Home Entertainment
* New Line Television
* Picturehouse (with HBO)
==References==
==External links==
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Category:New Line Cinema
Category:1967 establishments in New York City
Category:1994 mergers and acquisitions
Category:1996 mergers and acquisitions
Category:2008 mergers and acquisitions
Category:American companies established in 1967
Category:American independent film studios
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Category:Entertainment companies based in California
Category:Film distributors of the United States
Category:Film production companies of the United States
Category:Mass media companies established in 1967
Category:Warner Bros. divisions
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