New Line Home Entertainment (formerly known as New Line Home Video) was the home entertainment distribution arm of the film production studio of the same name, founded in 1990. It was responsible for the distribution of all New Line Cinema theatrical films for release on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

. The company also distributed some feature films from the specialty studio Picturehouse – formerly a New Line/

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

joint venture – as well as films or non-theatrical programs produced or acquired by New Line Home Entertainment and New Line Television. According to New Line's website, ''Misery'' was the first New Line Home Video release. In 2008, its parent company became a unit of

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

New Line Home Entertainment was eventually folded into

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment; formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the American home video distribution ...

in 2010.

History

In May 1991, New Line Cinema purchased the home video and foreign rights to films held by Nelson Entertainment (whose library included films inherited from

Embassy Pictures Embassy Pictures Corporation (also and later known as Avco Embassy Pictures as well as Embassy Films Associates) was an American independent film production and distribution company, which was active from 1942 to 1986. Embassy was responsible ...

) for $15 million, and thus obtained roughly 600 films. Shortly afterwards, New Line Cinema acquired the home video rights to the '' Nightmare on Elm Street'' franchise from

Media Home Entertainment Media Home Entertainment Inc. was a home video company headquartered in Culver City, California, originally established in 1978 by filmmaker Charles Band. Media Home Entertainment also distributed video product under additional labels — The N ...

. Before New Line Cinema formed its own video division, many of the company's films were released on home video by various distributors: *

(for ''Gizmo!'', ''Fighting Black Kings'' and '' Betty Boop for President'') * MGM/CBS Home Video (for '' The Street Fighter'' and '' Return of the Street Fighter'') *

Magnetic Video Magnetic Video Corporation was a home video/home audio duplication service that operated between 1968 and 1982. History Magnetic Video Corporation was established by the co-founder Andre Blay, an American film producer in 1968 with Leon Nic ...

(for ''

Léonor ''Léonor'' (also known as ''Mistress of the Devil'') is a 1975 French-Italian-Spanish horror film written and directed by Juan Luis Buñuel (the son of Luis Buñuel) and starring Michel Piccoli, Liv Ullmann and Ornella Muti. Plot Cast * ...

'' and ''

Sympathy for the Devil "Sympathy for the Devil" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones. The song was written by Mick Jagger and credited to the Jagger–Richards partnership. It is the opening track on the band's 1968 Studio album, album ''Beggars Banquet ...

'', both through Viacom) * Wizard Video (for ''

Pink Flamingos ''Pink Flamingos'' is a 1972 American surrealist independent black comedy film by John Waters. It is part of what Waters has labelled the "Trash Trilogy", which also includes '' Female Trouble'' (1974) and '' Desperate Living'' (1977). The f ...

'', '' Female Trouble'', '' Sister Street Fighter'', and '' The Street Fighter's Last Revenge'') * HBO/Cannon Video (for '' Xtro'', ''

The Evil Dead ''The Evil Dead'' is a 1981 American independent film, independent supernatural horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi (in his feature directorial debut). The film stars Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker ...

'', ''The First Time'', ''The Exterminators of the Year 3000'', '' Warriors of the Wasteland'', '' Stunts'' and ''

Polyester Polyester is a category of polymers that contain one or two ester linkages in every repeat unit of their main chain. As a specific material, it most commonly refers to a type called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Polyesters include some natura ...

''). *

(for the first five '' Nightmare on Elm Street'' films, and '' The Hidden'' among others), *

LIVE Entertainment Artisan Entertainment (formerly known as U.S.A. Home Video, International Video Entertainment (IVE) and LIVE Entertainment) was an American film studio and Home video, home video company. It was considered one of the largest Major film studio#Min ...

(for the first ''

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' (''TMNT'') is an American media franchise created by comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Leonardo, Donatello (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), D ...

'' film (under the Family Home Entertainment label), '' Drop Dead Fred'' and '' Glengarry Glen Ross''). Later offerings came from RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video and its successor, Columbia TriStar Home Video. When New Line Cinema formed their video division, RCA/Columbia and Columbia TriStar distributed

releases, while

Image Entertainment RLJ Entertainment (formerly Image Entertainment) is an American film production company and home video distributor, distributing film and television productions in North America, with approximately 3,200 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 34 ...

released the films on

Laserdisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

. The New Line-Sony partnership ended in early 1995, when

Turner Broadcasting System Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. was an American television and media conglomerate founded by Ted Turner in 1965. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (later WarnerMedia) on October 10, 1996. As of April 2022, all of its asse ...

bought New Line Cinema and from 1995 to 1996, New Line Cinema's home video releases were distributed by Turner's video division, before eventually being turned over to

in 1996. Due to this arrangement, New Line Cinema's releases would advertise certain releases from Warner Bros. and vice versa. On January 5, 2008, New Line Cinema announced, as did

, that it would exclusively support

for their films and drop support of

HD DVD HD DVD (short for High Density Digital Versatile Disc) is an obsolete high-density optical disc format for storing data and playback of high-definition video.

. The only HD DVD ever released by New Line Home Entertainment was '' Pan's Labyrinth''. New Line Cinema pursued a policy of

regional lockout A regional lockout (or region coding) is a class of digital rights management preventing the use of a certain product or service, such as multimedia or a hardware device, outside a certain region or territory. A regional lockout may be enforced t ...

with its Blu-ray titles, which was in direct contrast to its corporate sibling

which left its Blu-ray titles region-free. After the studio was folded into Warner Bros., Warner discontinued this lockout policy with future New Line releases. In 2008, after New Line Cinema was folded into Warner Bros., they parted ways with Canadian film distributor

Alliance Films Alliance Films (formerly Alliance Entertainment, Alliance Communications, Alliance Atlantis Releasing Ltd, Motion Picture Distribution LP; and also known as Alliance Vivafilm in Quebec; or simply Alliance) was a Canadian motion picture distributi ...

. Warner Home Video continued to use the New Line Home Entertainment logo for some time on Blu-ray and DVD releases of titles until the release of ''

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyrs, martyr named Saint Valentine, Valentine, and ...

'' in 2010, after which New Line Home Entertainment was folded into Warner Home Video. Afterwards, new releases of future and catalog New Line Cinema titles would be released under the

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment; formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the American home video distribution ...

name.

References

{{Authority control Home video companies of the United States Entertainment companies based in California Companies based in Los Angeles Entertainment companies established in 1990 Mass media companies disestablished in 2010 1990 establishments in California 2010 disestablishments in California New Line Cinema American companies established in 1990

History

See also

References