New Line to wind down after Rewind
By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 4/4/2008
APRIL 4 | New Line Home Entertainment titles will begin to be marketed by Warner Home Video beginning with April 25 theatrical release Harold and Kumar Escape to Guantanamo Bay, according to sources, as parent Time Warner folds the DVD unit and its theatrical sister division into the Warner Bros. Entertainment infrastructure.
Going forward, Warner Home Video will take the reins of production, marketing, selling and distributing New Line DVDs to retail. Previously, New Line did its own production, sales and marketing, with Warner handling physical distribution.
Virtually all of New Line’s home entertainment staff, spanning 50 to 60 employees, are expected to lose their jobs by early summer, depending on when current projects are completed.
New Line executives did not comment.
The last DVD release handled completely by New Line will be Be Kind, Rewind, whose street date hasn’t been specified. Starring Jack Black, the comedy premiered theatrically in February.
For Harold and Kumar, New Line is expected to handle DVD production, with Warner taking over sales and marketing. From that point, forthcoming New Line DVDs, such as May 30 theatrical Sex and the City: The Movie, will be entirely driven by Warner.
There is some chance a few of New Line’s DVD staff will score jobs within Warner. New Line Cinema production chief Toby Emmerich was appointed to president and chief operating officer of the scaled-down studio by Warner last month.
However, Warner is thought to be under much of a hiring freeze of its own, as it moves to cut expenses.
With the shuttering of New Line, the DVD industry will have to say goodbye to one of its major pioneers. The studio’s Lord of the Rings series is among the best-selling DVD franchises of all time, generating more than $1 billion in revenue in the U.S. alone.
New Line is considered the first studio to advocate for DVD bonus features, when it offered the first ‘Easter egg’ in 1997 release The Lawnmower Man. Similarly, 1997 title The Player is thought to be the first DVD to feature an animated menu.
