The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the intention of putting previously unreleased catalog films on DVD for the first time. In November 2012, Warner expanded the Archive Collection to include

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

releases, Some Warner Archive releases, such as '' Wise Guys'', previously had a pressed DVD release but have lapsed out of print and have since been re-released as part of the Warner Archive collection. DVD-R recordable media are manufactured on-demand for the consumer and authorized distributors for online resale, rather than the traditional business model of pressing large batches of discs that ship to "brick and mortar" retailers. This saves on the costs of storing unsold stock in a warehouse and mitigates the risk of a retailer holding unsold merchandise, especially since the majority of the films in the archive do not have widespread public demand. These discs are indistinguishable in quality compared to their mass produced counterparts. In addition, Warner Archive also sells films and television shows as downloadable

Windows Media Windows Media is a discontinued multimedia framework for media creation and distribution for Microsoft Windows. It consists of a software development kit (SDK) with several application programming interfaces (API) and a number of prebuilt techn ...

files, and formerly operated a subscription-based streaming video service, Warner Archive Instant, which allowed members to stream many of the Warner Archive properties in a format similar to

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

. In 2018, Warner Archive Instant merged with its sister service FilmStruck. The combined FilmStruck / Warner Archive streaming service was discontinued on November 29, 2018, and was replaced by

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

Collection and operations

The collection consists of theatrical films, television shows, and television films from the libraries of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment Co. (including pre-May 1986 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Associated Artists Productions, RKO Radio Pictures,

Brut Productions Brut Productions was a film production company that was an offshoot of Fabergé cosmetics under George Barrie. History Barrie began thinking about becoming involved in movie production when producer Mike Frankovich asked Fabergé to make a mock a ...

Hanna-Barbera Productions Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

, and pre-1991 Ruby-Spears Enterprises), HBO,

Lorimar Productions Lorimar Productions, Inc., later known as Lorimar Television and Lorimar Distribution, was an American production company that was later a subsidiary of Warner Bros., active from 1969 until 1993, when it was folded into Warner Bros. Televisi ...

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

, post-August 1946 Allied Artists Pictures, post-1946 Monogram Pictures,

Largo Entertainment Largo Entertainment was a production company founded in 1989. It was run by film producer Lawrence Gordon and was backed by electronics firm Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (JVC) in an investment that cost more than $100 million. The production c ...

, New Line Cinema and

Castle Rock Entertainment Castle Rock Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded in 1987 by Martin Shafer, director Rob Reiner, Andrew Scheinman, Glenn Padnick and Alan Horn. It is a label of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself a subsidia ...

. Sony Pictures (including

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

titles), Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

, Walt Disney Studios, and 20th Century Studios have also started MOD services after the success of Warner Archive. Their services are named Sony Pictures Choice Collection (formerly Screen Classics By Request), MGM Limited Edition Collection, Universal Vault Series, Disney Generations Collection, and Fox Cinema Archives, respectively. Including Warner, major film studios and including

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, MTV, and

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

have also started to offer MOD discs of catalog titles through Amazon CreateSpace. On April 13, 2011, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that Warner Archive will offer on-demand titles from Sony.WARNER ARCHIVE COLLECTION TO OFFER TITLES FROM SONY PICTURES' "SCREEN CLASSICS BY REQUEST"
sonypictures.com MGM Limited Edition titles are also sold through Warner Archive. In 2013, as part of Paramount's agreement with Warner Bros., select Paramount titles were released under the Warner Archive moniker.

Blu-ray

In November 2012, the Archive collection began releasing titles on

, with the first two releases being '' Deathtrap'' and ''Gypsy''. Unlike their DVDs all Warner Archive Blu-Rays use pressed discs. Over the years, Warner Archive's Blu-ray releases expanded to include season sets of current television series, such as '' iZombie'', ''

The 100 The 100 may refer to: Arts and entertainment * 100 (DC Comics), fictional organized crime groups appearing in DC Comics * ''The 100'' (novel series), a 2013–2016 science fiction novel series written by Kass Morgan * ''The 100'' (TV series), 20 ...

'', '' Longmire'', '' The Originals'', ''

Lucifer Lucifer is one of various figures in folklore associated with the planet Venus. The entity's name was subsequently absorbed into Christianity as a name for the devil. Modern scholarship generally translates the term in the relevant Bible passa ...

'', ''

Lethal Weapon ''Lethal Weapon'' is a 1987 American buddy cop action comedy film directed and co-produced by Richard Donner, written by Shane Black, and co-produced by Joel Silver. It stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover alongside Gary Busey, Tom Atkins, D ...

'', ''

Ballers ''Ballers'' is an American sports comedy drama television series created by Stephen Levinson and starring Dwayne Johnson as Spencer Strasmore, a retired NFL player who must navigate his new career of choice as the financial manager of other NF ...

'' and '' Final Space''.

Streaming

Expanding their films' availability to Internet streaming, in July 2014, Warner Archive introduced the Warner Archive Instant service. Similar to

, Warner Archive Instant allows its members access to various Warner Archive library titles via their website, in addition to apps for

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. They offer access to streaming media content from online services. The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduced ...

and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

-based devices. As of June 2015, the service was presently limited to serving customers who are located in the United States. In February 2018, Warner Archive retired its online streaming service, transferring several of its films to FilmStruck. It was discontinued as of November 29, 2018, and was replaced by

in 2020.

Licensors

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...

* Mill Creek Entertainment (television series and movies library) * Shout! Factory (television series and movies library)

References

External links

* {{Region 1 home video Home video lines Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Discovery brands