Warner Independent Pictures

Warner Independent Pictures was an independent film division of the American film studio Warner Bros., itself a division of WarnerMedia, which then was known as Time Warner. Established in August 2003, its first release was 2004's Before Sunset. The division financed, produced, acquired and distributed feature films largely budgeted under $20 million.

Warner Independent Pictures

Type	Division
Industry	Film
Fate	Closed
Successor	New Line Cinema
Founded	August 7, 2003
Founder	Polly Cohen Johnsen
Defunct	November 12, 2008
Headquarters	Burbank, California , United States
Parent	Warner Bros. (WarnerMedia)
Website	wip.warnerbros.com

The use of "independent" in its name was not literal, as it was a division of Warner Bros., itself a division of media conglomerate Time Warner. Mark Gill was the division's first president. After a controversial departure, Gill was replaced by former Warner Bros. production executive Polly Cohen, who served as president of this division until fall 2008, when the division was officially shut down. While well versed in big-budget motion picture production, it was widely believed Cohen did not have strong enough backgrounds in independent film, or in the marketing/publicity aspects of film distribution, to hold that role. This led to a lackluster slate and output, after a successful initial run under Gill.

In February 2008, Time Warner announced that it would merge New Line Cinema into Warner Bros. New Line's "independent" group Picturehouse was expected to be merged into Warner Independent as part of this process. On May 8, 2008, however, it was announced that both of these specialty divisions would be shut down. In 2013 however, Picturehouse was relaunched under separate ownership.