Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group announced Wednesday it will purchase Flixster, an acquisition that includes Rotten Tomatoes, vowing that both sites would remain completely independent.
The purchase of the Flixster, the film-centric social media site, had been under discussion since at least March. It gives Warner Bros. access to an audience of more than 25 million worldwide monthly users as it seeks new online promotion and distribution of its vast library of movies.
The purchase price was not disclosed.
"Driving the growth of digital ownership is a central, strategic focus for Warner Bros.," said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group. "The acquisition of Flixster will allow us to advance that strategy and promote initiatives that will help grow digital ownership."
Last year, Flixtster purchased a majority stake in the popular film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes from News Corp. It boasts more than 12 million unique visitors per month.
Warner Bros. said both sites would remain completely independent, with the Flixster team staying in San Francisco and the Rotten Tomatoes team staying in Los Angeles, working "autonomously."
Warner Bros. said it will use Flixster brand to promote initiatives including the consumer application "Digital Everywhere," which it promotes as a studio-agnostic application allowing users to organize and access their entire digital library from anywhere on the devices of their choice.
"We’re thrilled that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group shares our vision for how 'anytime, anywhere' digital entertainment can become an amazing user experience,” said Flixster co-founder and CEO Joe Greenstein. "We’re excited that Warner was willing to make this kind of commitment to a leading independent consumer platform."
