Warner Bros Home Entertainment Buys Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes
Posted on Wednesday, May 4th, 2011 by Russ Fischer
Now a movie studio owns the most popular review aggregation website. Is that strange? It might be strange.
A press release went out this morning announcing that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group (which “brings together Warner Bros. Entertainment’s home video, digital distribution, interactive entertainment, technical operations and anti-piracy businesses in order to maximize current and next-generation distribution scenarios”) has purchased the movie-ranking website Flixster and, consequently, Rotten Tomatoes. (Which was bought by Flixster in January 2010.)
The move is part of a bid on WB’s part to engage digital distribution platforms. The company has already offered app editions of movies like The Dark Knight, and has begun distributing films directly through Facebook. WBHEG insists that Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes will continue to operate independently — in other words, we shouldn’t see much difference in the operation of either site, and ideally RT’s review presentation won’t be compromised. The press release is after the break. Read More »
