Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Warner Bros. Pictures Group unit, and is based at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California. Animated films produced by the Warner Animation Group are also released under the studio banner. Warner Bros. Pictures is currently one of five live-action film studios within the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, the others being New Line Cinema, DC Studios, Castle Rock Entertainment, and Spyglass Media Group. The final installment of the Harry Potter film series is the studio's highest-grossing film worldwide with $1.3 billion. Founded in 1923 by brothers Harry Warner, Albert Warner, Sam Warner, and Jack L. Warner, in addition to producing its own films, it handles filmmaking operations, theatrical distribution, marketing and promotion for films produced and released by other Warner Bros. labels, including Warner Animation Group, New Line Cinema, DC Studios, and Castle Rock Entertainment. as well as various third-party producers. History The studio's predecessor (and the modern-day Warner Bros Entertainment as a whole) was founded as the Warner Features Company in New Castle, Pennsylvania, by filmmaker Sam Warner and his business partners and brothers, Harry, Albert, and Jack, in 1911. They produced their first film, the Peril of the Plains in 1912, which Sam directed for the St. Louis Motion Picture Company. In 1915, Sam and Jack moved to California to establish their production studio, while Albert and Harry on July 8, 1915, set up the New York-based Warner Brothers Distributing Corporation to release the films. In 1918, the four Warner Brothers produced their first full-scale picture: My Four Years in Germany. The war film was a box office hit and helped the brothers establish themselves as a prestige studio. On April 4, 1923, Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. was officially established as their main focus was entirely on the motion picture industry. In 1927, Warner Bros. Pictures revolutionized the film industry when the American-Jewish Warner brothers released their first pictures "talkie" The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson. However, founding member Sam Warner died prior to the premiere of the film. When the company diversified over the years, it was eventually rebranded to its current umbrella name, but Warner Bros. Pictures continued to be used as the name