What is Netflix buying? A visual history of 100 years of Warner Bros.

By Auzinea Bacon, CNN

(CNN) — Netflix announced Friday that it has agreed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s film studio and HBO assets, including the streaming service, for $82.7 billion, including debt.

Netflix outbid media conglomerates Paramount and Comcast in a bidding war that began after Warner Bros. Discovery announced in June that it would split into two companies in mid-2026.

Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent company of CNN.

Netflix expects the acquisition will close in 12-18 months.

Warner Bros. Pictures is one of the five big Hollywood studios, which include Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures and Walt Disney Studios.

Warner Bros. Pictures was founded in 1923 by brothers Harry, Albert, Samuel and Jack Warner. It now operates on a 110-acre lot in Burbank, California.

Here’s a brief look at Warner Bros.’ 102-year history.

1920s

The studio’s first official release was a silent drama, “Main Street,” in 1923.

The brothers eventually invested in sound using the vitaphone, starting with “Don Juan” (1926) with a synchronized score, and eventually “The Jazz Singer” (1927), the first film with synchronized dialogue.

The 1929 musical “On With the Show!” was the first all-talking color feature, and the second color movie released by Warner Bros.

1930s

Warner Bros. produced about 100 motion pictures annually by the 1930s and controlled 360 theatres in the United States.

In 1930, the short, animated “Looney Tunes” films were created to compete with Walt Disney. And Warner Bros. became well-known for releasing gangster films, including 1931’s “The Public Enemy” and “Little Caesar.”

Warner Bros. also owns the rights to MGM classics, like 1939’s “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone with the Wind.”

Warner classics

World War II served as a backdrop for many films during the 1940s, which included the acclaimed romantic war drama, “Casablanca.” Its wide release kicked off in January 1943 and was one of the highest-grossing movies of the year.

Warner Bros. continued to release hits, like “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951), “East of Eden” (1955), “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955), “My Fair Lady” (1964) and “Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf” (1966).

And in 1955, Warner Bros. expanded into television with rotating shows, including the westerns “Cheyenne” (1955-1962) and “Maverick” (1957-1962), and the detective drama “77 Sunset Strip” (1958-1964).

Crime, horror and drama adaptations

In 1967, the company was acquired by Elliot and Ken Hyman, becoming Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. That same year, it released the gangster classic “Bonnie and Clyde.”

The studio would later release “The Exorcist” (1973), “Blade Runner” (1982) and “The Color Purple” (1985).

Warner Bros. also kicked off various film series, such as “Dirty Harry” in 1971, which ended in 1988 with its fifth film, “The Dead Pool.”

Owning the DC Universe

Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was bought by Kinney National Company in 1969, and was renamed Warner Communications Inc. Kinney also owned National Periodical Publications, which is now known as DC Comics.

Warner Bros. released “Superman” in 1978 and then “Batman” 11 years later. Sequels followed, as would revivals decades later.

Director James Gunn is leading a reboot of the DC Universe, most recently with the July remake of “Superman.” A sequel to “The Batman” (2022) is expected to be released in 2027.

Into the 2000s

In 1980, Warner Bros. released the psychological horror film “The Shining,” and in 1981, it released the Olympic sport drama, “Chariots of Fire.” Warner Bros.’ diversified slate in the 1980s included “National Lampoon’s Vacation” (1983), “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984), “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” (1985) and “The Lost Boys” (1987).

Warner Bros. movie and television studio merged with Time Inc. in 1989 to form Time Warner. Some of the company’s television networks included HBO, CNN, TBS, TNT, the Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies. In 2000, America Online merged with Time Warner in a $350 billion deal — the largest merger in American business history and one that ultimately proved to be a failure.

In 1999, the studio released “The Matrix,” which was followed by three sequels, and “Pokemon: The First Movie,” which included two sequels from Warner Bros.

Meanwhile, upstart Netflix entered the scene in 1997 as a DVD-rental service. In 2007, Netflix developed a streaming service and in 2012 launched its first original series, “Lilyhammer.”

In 2001, Warner Bros released “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” the highest-grossing movie of the year, and released seven more “Harry Potter” movies, wrapping up the franchise in 2011 with “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2.”

“Sex and the City” (1998-2004), “The Sopranos” (1999-2007), “Game of Thrones,” (2011-2019), and “Succession” (2018-2023) were just some of HBO’s hit programs.

In 2018, AT&T completed an $85-billion acquisition of Time Warner, and four years later, Warner Bros. Discovery was formed with the merger of AT&T’s WarnerMedia unit and Discovery.

Along with the over 100-year library of films, Netflix also stands to gain from some of the Warner Bros. films released this year, including “A Minecraft Movie,” the top-grossing domestic movie of the year, and the surprise hit “Sinners.”

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