Turner Entertainment Co.[1] is an American multimedia company founded by Ted Turner on August 4, 1986. It was largely responsible for holding the copyrights of, and overseeing, the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) library for worldwide distribution. Since the dissolution of TBS in 2019,[1][2] it has operated as a subsidiary of Warner Bros.
History
On March 25, 1986, Ted Turner and his Turner Broadcasting System purchased Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) from Kirk Kerkorian for $1.5 billion, and renamed it MGM Entertainment Company, Inc. However, due to concerns in the financial community over the debt-load of his companies, on August 26, 1986, he was forced to sell the MGM name, all of United Artists, and the MGM Culver City studio lot back to Kerkorian for approximately $300 million after just five months of ownership.[3] But in order to still pursue his plans to broadcast the MGM/UA assets as "originals" on his TBS and upcoming TNT channels, Turner struck a deal with Kerkorian: Turner kept the studio's film, television and cartoon library, as well as a small portion of the United Artists library, forming Turner Entertainment Company during the process of this exchange.[4][5] The new company was headed up by Roger Mayer, who was a former executive of MGM, and formed a development division aimed at making movies and television shows.[6] The library also included most of the pre-1950 Warner Bros. library (including all color Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons released before August 1948), the Fleischer Studios/Famous StudiosPopeye cartoons originally released by Paramount Pictures, the US/Canadian/Latin American/Australian distribution rights to the RKO Radio Pictures library (not including any films produced by Walt Disney and Samuel Goldwyn), and most of the Gilligan's Island television franchise (excluding the television movie sequels owned by other companies), all of which were owned by United Artists.[7]
In order to save funds, Turner instituted a policy that they would pass up on making sequels to properties now owned by Turner, in favor of colorization of old black-and-white movies.[8] On December 2, 1987, Turner Entertainment had entered into an agreement with American Film Technologies (AFT) to computer-colorize three films from the MGM library that were originally in black-and-white: Boom Town, They Were Expendable and Catered Affair, with Turner having the option for AFT to colorize an additional 22 films, and a second option to do another 24 films by 1992.[9] On December 10, 1987, Turner acquired the worldwide licensing rights to 800 of RKO's films from its then-parent company Wesray Capital Corporation.[10]
On October 3, 1988, Turner Broadcasting System launched the TNT network. This was followed by the April 14, 1994 launch of Turner Classic Movies, which was to air films from the Turner Entertainment libraries (among others), uncut and without commercial interruptions or colorization.[11][12] In doing so, Turner played a major part in film preservation and restoration. By broadcasting such classic films as King Kong, The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Meet Me in St. Louis, Singin' in the Rain and the original The Jazz Singer on numerous Turner-affiliated cable channels, as well as in showing them in revival movie houses and on home video worldwide, Turner introduced a new generation to these films.
Turner Entertainment self-distributed much of its library for the first decade of its existence, but on October 10, 1996, Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner, with the latter doing a large integration of its distribution functions into Warner Bros. As a result, Turner Entertainment is now an in-name-only subsidiary of Warner Bros., serving merely as a copyright holder for a portion of their library. Hanna-Barbera's current purpose as the in-name only unit of Warner Bros. Animation is to serve as the copyright holder for its creations such as The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo and Yogi Bear while Warner Bros. handles sales and merchandising.
Turner Pictures was a film production company and distribution company founded by Ted Turner on November 29, 1989. As a production company, Turner Entertainment also created original in-house programming, such as documentaries about the films it owns, new animated material based on Tom & Jerry and other related cartoon properties, and once produced made-for-television films, miniseries, and theatrical films such as Gettysburg, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, Fallen, and The Pagemaster under the Turner Pictures banner. In 1995, the Turner Pictures production company developed a film slate.[18] Turner also had an international distribution sales unit, accordingly named Turner Pictures Worldwide Distribution, Inc. Turner Pictures was folded into Warner Bros. Pictures on November 14, 1996, after the Turner-Time Warner merger, and currently holds the distribution rights to the films made by the production division. Time Warner transferred some of Turner's leftover projects like City of Angels and You've Got Mail into Warner Bros.[19]
In the first decade of its existence, Turner released most of its own catalogue on home video through Turner Home Entertainment (THE). However, the MGM and Warner Bros. film libraries which Turner owned were still distributed by MGM/UA Home Video along with THE until their rights expired in 1999, while THE handled the home video distribution of titles from the RKO library. THE released films produced by Turner Pictures on home video with their distributors and independently released the Hanna-Barbera cartoon library on home video.
THE also released World Championship Wrestling (WCW) pay-per-view (PPV) events, wrestler profiles, and "Best Of" packages on video until the demise of WCW in 2001; the WCW video library, along with the rights to the WCW name and certain talent contracts, were sold to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE) in March 2001.[21][22][23] In 1987, THE had signed a distribution deal with the Video Institute of the Soviet Union to release 10 titles from the pre-May 1986 MGM library in Russian videocassette rental shops, and the deal with Turner would be a first for the Soviet home video market, where officials indicate that there are 660,000 VCR recordings, and films include Zabriskie Point, and other titles, none of them were colorized.[24]
From early 1995 to early 1997, THE also distributed home video releases from New Line Home Video, taking over from Columbia TriStar Home Video as well as distributing PBS programs on home video the year before (taking over from the defunct Pacific Arts). NLHE distributed New Line films on video by itself from 1997 until New Line Cinema merged with Warner Bros. in 2008.[25][26][27] PBS shows are now distributed on video and DVD by PBS's own distribution company, PBS Distribution.
In 1995, THE entered a distribution deal with Columbia TriStar Home Video in France, Britain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland,[28] the deal expired in 1997 (although some films released on VHS by THE are distributed in the United Kingdom by First Independent Films).
Upon the Turner-Time Warner merger, THE was absorbed into Warner Home Video as an in-name-only unit in December 1996.[29] However, Turner Classic Movies does release special edition DVD boxsets of films from both the Turner and Warner catalogs under the TCM label. (Some magazines, most notably Starlog, when listing upcoming releases from Warner related to Cartoon Network programming listed it as being released by THE, likely to differentiate it from other, adult-oriented titles.)[30]
The US and Canadian distribution rights to the RKO Radio Pictures library, excluding franchises and films owned by third-party companies or fallen in the public domain[31][32]
Most of the Gilligan's Island franchise (the original series and animated sequels and spin-offs), co-owned with the estate of Phil Silvers
Warner Bros.' library of films released prior to January 1, 1950, excluding films that are either in the public domain or owned by third-party companies[33][34]
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