Castle Rock Entertainment is an American film production company founded in 1987 by actor and director Rob Reiner, Martin Shafer, Andy Scheinman, Glenn Padnick, and Alan Horn, with
Columbia Pictures as their original strategic partner. Early in the studio's history,
Nelson Entertainment co-financed their films until 1991, when
New Line Cinema took over their duties (after Nelson was sold to New Line). On December 22, 1993, Castle Rock was acquired by
Turner Broadcasting System and would become a part of Time Warner when the two along with New Line Cinema merged with them on October 10, 1996. In 1999,
Warner Bros. Pictures gained distribution rights from Sony Pictures Entertainment/Columbia Pictures. Castle Rock's first release was
Winter People in 1989, but no logo was used until
When Harry Met Sally. The Castle Rock production label was a subsidiary of
Warner Bros. Entertainment until numerous box office failures caused the folding of the label's physical production and public relations departments, back-office duties, and remaining employees into Warner Bros. in 2002. Several movies produced afterward used the Castle Rock name with special permission, specifically, movies made by Rob Reiner himself (i.e.
LBJ and
Shock And Awe). The home media rights to the pre-1994 Castle Rock library (which was part of Nelson's library) were sold to
Epic Productions, which incorporated it into its Gamma library, and then to
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment;
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired these rights in January 1999 after purchasing the pre-March 31, 1996 PolyGram library (including their back library) (exceptions are
A Few Good Men,
In the Line of Fire, and
North, co-productions with Columbia Pictures that remained with the studio and
The Spirit of '76, which Castle Rock produced and has a copyright holder alongside Black Diamond Productions, owned by Warner Bros.).
Warner Bros. Television Studios does own the television rights to most Castle Rock films. The post-1994 library is owned by Warner Bros. (except for distribution rights of
The Story of Us,
The Last Days of Disco, and international rights to
The Green Mile and
The American President, all of which are owned by
Universal Studios, the original distributor). Castle Rock retains the copyright to nearly all of its films. The company was revived on October 19, 2021, and will produce films in a first-look deal with Warner Bros.
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