Turner purchase, Time Warner ownership and absorption into Warner Bros.
In August 1993, Turner Broadcasting System agreed to acquire Castle Rock Entertainment, along with co-financing partner (and eventual Castle Rock Entertainment corporate sibling) New Line Cinema.[13] The sale was completed on December 22, 1993.[14][15] The motivation behind the purchase was to allow a stronger company to handle the overhead.[5]
By 1994, Castle Rock Entertainment launched a foreign sales operation, Castle Rock International, and planned to produce 12 to 15 films annually.[16] Castle Rock Entertainment also had aspirations to distribute its own films once its deal with Columbia Pictures expired in 1998.[16][17] It was long rumored that Castle Rock Entertainment's film projects could go to New Line Cinema when the deal expired.[18]
Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner Entertainment in 1996. After a failed attempt to divest the company, Time Warner Entertainment integrated Castle Rock Entertainment into Warner Bros., and cut its production slate to five films per year.[17] On June 27, 1997, Castle Rock Entertainment's staff was reduced to 60 employees and Castle Rock International was folded into Warner Bros.[19]
In January 1998, Warner Bros. and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment formed a deal to co-finance and co-distribute Castle Rock Entertainment films;[20] that deal was taken over by Universal Pictures after the studio's parent company Seagram merged with PolyGram later that year.[21] The Warner Bros./Universal deal expired in 2000.[22] On June 19, 2000, after the expiration of the Universal deal, Spanish player Telefónica Media took over its take in the Castle Rock production company. Castle Rock Entertainment also set up projects with Village Roadshow Pictures and Bel-Air Entertainment, two of Warner Bros.' key production affiliates.[23]
On July 20, 1998, Castle Rock Television took over production of The WB's midseason show Movie Stars, which was set to be in development at Studios USA.[24] In 2001, Castle Rock Television had set up Mission Hill writers Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein with an overall deal, producing several projects, like an unsold family concept pitch at ABC.[25]
In April 2002, Warner Bros. reduced Castle Rock Entertainment's budget following a string of box office bombs. Castle Rock Entertainment fired 16 of its 46 employees, and Castle Rock Entertainment's physical production and public relations departments, back-office duties, and remaining employees were absorbed into Warner Bros.[26]
