- Eric Schmidt on Government Scrutiny and Economic Recovery
- Schmidt on Social Media, Ads and Hulu
- Sun Valley on Social Media
- Eric Schmidt + Larry Page on Revolutionizing Computing
- WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell on the Ad Recession
- Twitter in the Sun Valley Spotlight
- Sun Valley Dealmaking Confab Kicks Off
- Making Money on Michael Jackson's Memorial
- Court Ruling Could Mean Trouble for TiVo
- Another Music Lawsuit, but with an Unexpected Target
More Videos
- Eric Schmidt on Government Scrutiny and Economic Recovery
- Schmidt on Social Media, Ads and Hulu
- Sun Valley on Social Media
- Eric Schmidt + Larry Page on Revolutionizing Computing
- WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell on the Ad Recession
- Twitter in the Sun Valley Spotlight
- Sun Valley Dealmaking Confab Kicks Off
- Making Money on Michael Jackson's Memorial
- Court Ruling Could Mean Trouble for TiVo
- Another Music Lawsuit, but with an Unexpected Target
|
CNBC'S MOST SHARED
- Unemployed? Bored? Make Money Playing Beer Pong
- Social Networking's 'Naked' Truth
- The Highest Grossing (Inflation Adjusted) Movies of All Time
- WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell on the Ad Recession
- Merrill's McCann Seen as UBS Wealth Frontrunner
- Geek Squad V. Gizmodo
- Warren Buffett's Top Three Investment Rules for the Average American
- Why You Should Watch Fund Flows
- Roginsky: No More Mr. Nice Guy
- Eric Schmidt on Government Scrutiny and Economic Recovery
- Market 360: The Week's Best & Worst
- Geek Squad V. Gizmodo
- Brandt: Google Chrome OS in the Post-PC Age
- Other People Are Weirder Than We Are
- Bank Failures: Is The Nightmare Over? (Video)
- California Here I Go? No.
- Roginsky: No More Mr. Nice Guy
- Commercial Conundrum
- Stimulus Will Kick in Later this Year: President Obama
- Lender CIT Group Hires Premier Bankruptcy Adviser
- Government Selling Bank Stakes for Too Cheap: Panel
- Buffett's Top 3 Investment Rules for Average Americans
- Market Insider: Earnings Loom in the Week Ahead
- Bulls Get Summertime Blues, But It's Hot Fun for Bears
- As Banks Fail, Strong Institutions Become More Visible
- GM IPO in Second Quarter 2010 at the Earliest: CFO
- Merrill's McCann Seen as UBS Wealth Frontrunner
RSS FEED
Text Size 
 |
Jeffrey Bewkes |
This move will make New York-based New Line, responsible for the "Lord of the Rings" and "Austin Powers" trilogies, a division of Burbank-based Warner Bros.
Bewkes said, "New Line has built a strong franchise of cutting-edge entertainment," referring to its combination of more independent-style films, like "Be Kind Rewind," now in theaters, and big franchises like "Rush Hour" and now the upcoming two Hobbit films.
"We can enhance its value by combining it with Warner Bros. Given the trend toward fewer movie releases, New Line and Warner Bros. will now have more complementary release slates, with New Line focusing on genres that have been its strength,'' the CEO added.
This certainly means some layoffs, as well as millions of dollars of cost savings. Now Warner Bros. will handle the marketing for New Line films. And because New Line didn't have a significant foreign distribution business, now, instead of having to sell off the non-U.S. rights to its films, it'll distribute internationally through Warner Bros.
Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne, New Line's co-CEOs and co-chairman, have "elected to leave the studio" according to a Time Warner [TWX
Loading...
()
] statement. You can guess what that means. But they apparently haven't left on bad terms: they're in talks for some sort of a deal.
I'm waiting to hear some estimates of how many millions this will save Time Warner. And now that Bewkes has shown how fast he can move, what's next? Untangling Time Warner's cable assets? Fixing AOL, or selling off parts of it?
A Bit of Crowing
Id like to point out that I predicted that this would happen in my Eight Predictions for '08. I knew it! See prediction number 3.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes