Turner Entertainment Company is an American entertainment company currently serving as the copyright and trademark holder for most pre-May 1986 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer content. New releases of this content are handled by Warner Bros.
History[]
On March 25, 1986, the company purchased Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. However, due to financial concerns, he was forced to sell it back on August 26, 1986. However, Turner was allowed to keep MGM's film and television library, as well as some United Artists films, thus forming Turner Entertainment Company, but MGM still held the home video rights to them until March 1999.
On October 10, 1996, Warner Bros. purchased Turner Entertainment. Warner Bros. has handled new releases of Turner-owned content since March 1999 when MGM's video rights eventually expired.
Library[]
Turner Entertainment's current library includes:
- Nearly all of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's film, television and cartoon library released prior to May 23, 1986
- Material from MGM's predecessors (Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures) (post-1915) that did not enter the public domain
- The Our Gang comedy short films from 1938 to 1944
- Some material from United Artists, including:
- The US and Canadian distribution rights to the RKO Radio Pictures library
- Most of the Gilligan's Island franchise (the original series and animated spin-offs)
- The former Associated Artists Productions catalog, which includes:
- Warner Bros.' library of films released prior to January 1, 1950
- The First National Pictures library of films
- Distribution rights to the pre-August 1948 Warner Bros. Cartoons library (color cartoons only)
- Distribution rights to the Harman and Ising-produced Merrie Melodies cartoons (excluding Lady, Play Your Mandolin!)
- The Fleischer Studios/Famous Studios Popeye the Sailor cartoons, originally released by Paramount Pictures between 1933 and 1957
- Warner Bros.' library of films released prior to January 1, 1950
- The majority of the Hanna-Barbera library
- Almost all of the pre-1991 Ruby-Spears Enterprises library
- The Brut Productions library
- The Practical Crowd library prior to 2023