History Creator / WarnerBros

In 1967, the company was bought by Seven Arts Productions, a relatively-small film production firm that at the time was distributing WB's post-1949 library on television, and became known as Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. In 1969, W7 would be sold (with the Warner family now completely out of the picture), this time to Kinney National, a diversified conglomerate which had its roots in New York/New Jersey-area parking lots and funeral homes (including, naturally, [[TheMafia mob involvement]]). Under Kinney the studio (once again known as Warner Bros.) began cranking out hit after hit, with both hard-hitting films such as ''Film/AClockworkOrange'' and blockbusters like the ''Film/DirtyHarry'' series. By the mid 1970s, Kinney had rid itself of its original service-oriented businesses and renamed itself to ''Warner Communications''. Under forward-thinking chairman Steve Ross, WCI expanded into publishing (books and magazines, as well as comics), cable television (with the groundbreaking ''QUBE'' interactive service, which, as a joint venture with American Express, would spawn Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}, Creator/{{MTV}} and Creator/TheMovieChannel[[note]]all now owned by [[Creator/{{Viacom}} [=ViacomCBS=]]] [[/note]]), home video (via Warner Home Video) and video gaming (via Creator/{{Atari}}, acquired in 1976 and sold off in 1984 after UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983). WCI merged with Time, Inc. in 1990 forming Time Warner.

In May of 2021, AT&T and Discovery announced an agreement, which would see [=WarnerMedia=] merge with Discovery, with the resulting company being separate from AT&T. AT&T shareholders, however, still held a 71% interest in the new company's stock and appointed seven board members, with Discovery shareholders holding a 29% interest and appointing six board members. The merger was named Warner Bros. Discovery in June 2021. [=ViacomCBS=] (now Creator/{{Paramount|Global}}) considered selling it's stock in The CW, with top bidder being Nexstar Media Group. On February 1, 2022, it was reported that AT&T had finalized the structure of the merger: [=WarnerMedia=] would be spun off, in proportion, to AT&T's shareholders, and then merged into Discovery Inc. to form the new company. The merger was officially completed on April 8, 2022.

In 2016, Telecommunications conglomerate and corporate giant AT&T announced plans to acquire [=TimeWarner=] for $108 billion, a deal which was met with ''intense'' scrutiny from the United States Department of Justice, who argued that such an acquisition would make the industry anti-competitive. Due to a lawsuit from the federal government, the merger was delayed significantly until a verdict could be reached (possibly helped by the fact that the acquisition of [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios 20th Century Fox]] by Creator/{{Disney}} was greenlit in the meantime). AT&T and [=TimeWarner=] ultimately prevailed in the legal battle. The decision in the landmark case ultimately paved the way for other pending mergers, showing how Hollywood's landscape would be drastically altered by the rise of streaming services. The merger was complete in 2018, and not long after that, [=TimeWarner=] rebranded as Creator/WarnerMedia, causing the original name to be retired once and for all.

In March of 2019, following a massive company re-organization effort (primarily intended to increase corporate synergy and image, and decrease the issues of RightHandVsLeftHand that had plagued [=TimeWarner=] since its' formation), the Turner networks (CNN, TBS, TNT, [=TruTV=], among other owned-and-operated assets such as Bleacher Report) were dispersed among [=WarnerMedia=]'s three new divisions, including Warner Bros. itself. In that same month, it was reported that Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara had promised auditions and/or acting jobs to an actress named Charlotte Kirk and had wanted to have sex with her in return. He apologized to his colleagues at [=WarnerMedia=] for this and resigned from the studio twelve days later.

In May of 2021, AT&T and Discovery announced an agreement, which would see [=WarnerMedia=] merge with Discovery, with the resulting company being separate from AT&T. AT&T shareholders, however, still held a 71% interest in the new company's stock and appointed seven board members, with Discovery shareholders holding a 29% interest and appointing six board members. The merger was named Warner Bros. Discovery in June 2021. [=ViacomCBS=] (now Paramount Global) considered selling it's stock in The CW, with top bidder being Nexstar Media Group. On February 1, 2022, it was reported that AT&T had finalized the structure of the merger: [=WarnerMedia=] would be spun off, in proportion, to AT&T's shareholders, and then merged into Discovery Inc. to form the new company. The merger was officially completed on April 8, 2022.

[[https://www.warnerbros.com Warner Bros.]] (pronounced "Warner Brothers", and frequently abbreviated as "WB") is one of the world's largest and best-known producers of film, television, and video game entertainment. It is owned by the Creator/WarnerBrosDiscovery conglomerate, which also owns cable networks like Creator/{{CNN}}, Creator/CartoonNetwork[=/=]Creator/AdultSwim, Creator/{{HBO}} and the Creator/DiscoveryChannel among others. At one point Warner Bros. was even larger than that in the past, with operations in books, magazines, cable systems and music (see below) as well as ownership of America Online, although that would be another entire page.

[[caption-width-right:265:Entertaining the world since 1923.]]

* ''Animation/LaurasStar'' (2004)

* ''Film/{{Girlfriends}}'' (1978)

* ''Film/AScannerDarkly'' (2006)

* ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'' (1984; with Creator/AmblinEntertainment)

* ''Film/{{Slash}}'' (2002; Netherlands only)

* ''Film/{{Paddington}}'' (2014; Spain only)

* ''Film/SeventeenAgain'' (2009)

* ''LightNovel/{{Campione}}''

* ''LightNovel/HarukaNogizakasSecret: Finale''
* ''LightNovel/HeavensMemoPad''