New Line Home Entertainment
Formerly called | New Line Home Video |
|---|---|
| Industry | home video |
| Fate | Folded into Warner Home Video |
| Successor | Warner Home Video |
| Founded | 1990 |
| Defunct | 2010 |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
| Products |
Laserdisc Videodisc VHS DVD HD DVD Blu-ray |
| Owner | Time Warner |
| Parent | New Line Cinema |
New Line Home Entertainment (formerly known as New Line Home Video) is the home entertainment distribution arm of New Line Cinema, founded in 1990. According to New Line's website, Misery was the first New Line Home Video release.[1]
It was responsible for the distribution of all New Line Cinema theatrical films for release on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
The company also distributed some feature films from the specialty studio Picturehouse - formerly a New Line/HBO joint venture - as well as films or non-theatrical programs produced or acquired by New Line Home Entertainment and New Line Television.
History
In May 1991, New Line purchased the home video and foreign rights to films held by Nelson Entertainment (whose library included films inherited from Embassy Pictures) for $15 million, and thus obtained roughly 600 films,[2] including The Graduate and Escape From New York, as well as Castle Rock Entertainment films such as City Slickers, Mr. Saturday Night, Honeymoon in Vegas, and the aforementioned Misery. All of these films have passed on to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Before New Line formed its own video division, many of the company's films were released on video by various distributors. Initial offerings of New Line product came from MGM/CBS Home Video (for The Street Fighter and Return of the Street Fighter), Magnetic Video (for Leonor and Sympathy for the Devil, both through Viacom), and Wizard Video (for Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, Sister Street Fighter, and The Street Fighter's Last Revenge).
Later offerings came from RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video and its successor, Columbia TriStar Home Video, Media Home Entertainment (for the first five Nightmare on Elm Street films, and The Hidden among others), and LIVE Entertainment (for Drop Dead Fred, Glengarry Glen Ross and the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, through Family Home Entertainment). When New Line formed the video division, RCA/Columbia and Columbia TriStar distributed VHS releases, while Image Entertainment released the films on Laserdisc.
The New Line-Sony partnership stopped in early 1995, when Ted Turner bought New Line and its next videos from 1995 to 1997 were distributed by Turner's video division.
One New Line film the company merely distributed, The Swan Princess, was released solely on video on August 3, 1995 by Turner Home Entertainment.
From 1997 to 2010, New Line releases have been distributed by Warner Home Video, although still under the New Line banner.
On January 5, 2008, New Line Cinema announced, as did its parent company's own film studio, Warner Bros., they would exclusively support Blu-ray for their films and drop support of HD DVD. The only New Line Home Entertainment HD DVD ever released was Pan's Labyrinth.[3]
Although New Line had its own independence from its parent company, it pursued a policy of regional lockout with its Blu-ray titles.
This was in direct contrast to its corporate sibling Warner Home Video which left its Blu-ray titles region-free.
With the studio being folded into Warner Bros., Warner has decided to discontinue this lockout policy with future titles.
New Line Home Entertainment ceased to exist in 2010, and was folded into Warner Home Video.
In the process, they parted ways with Canadian film distributor Alliance Films and the last New Line title to use the NLHE logo was The Time Traveler's Wife.