It’s an important year for Warner Bros., the film and entertainment studio that introduced the Looney Tunes characters to the world and produced some of the greatest films of all time, including the Harry Potter and the Matrix series. Founded on 4 April 1923 in Hollywood, California, this year the studio is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an epic line-up of events.
Making history
Warner Bros. was founded by four brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner. The siblings began their careers by travelling through Ohio and Pennsylvania showing movies to people. They then began acquiring movie theatres and moved on to work in film distribution and in production of their own films. In 1918 they relocated to California, making history just five years later by founding Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., better known as Warner Bros. and often abbreviated to WB. Warner Bros. was a pioneer in the use of synchronised sound in films and in what were known as ‘talkies’: films with sound as opposed to silent films. Today, the studio is a subsidiary of the American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery. Based in Burbank, California, this is one of the Big Five American film studios. It distributes hundreds of films a year and commands up to 85 per cent of US box office revenue.
Celebrating Every Story
To celebrate its 100th anniversary, Warner Bros. has announced a campaign called Celebrating Every Story. Throughout 2023, the studio will show a selection of material from its immense library, which has more than 145,000 hours of programming. It will also organise special events across the world, including a series of concerts under the name Candlelight that will be held in Los Angeles, New York, London and other major cities. The concerts will feature music from the studio’s most iconic productions. Commenting on the anniversary, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav promised that the studio will continue to make films and TV shows “that entertain, inform and inspire” for another hundred years!