Warner Bros. Studio Store was a chain of retail stores selling Looney Tunes, DC Comics, and other merchandise based on Warner Bros. films, similar in style to The Disney Store. They first opened in 1991. In 1996, Warner Bros. owner Time Warner merged with Turner Broadcasting, which owned Hanna-Barbera and the pre-1986 MGM library, and merchandise based on Turner properties were added to the product lines. In 2001, all Warner Bros. Studio Stores went out of business, although some independently owned locations in Australia continued to operate until 2008. In 2006, Warner Bros. Consumer Products partnered with PMW Retail and reopened the stores in China. Hutchinson’s Habour Ring's subsidiary the PMW Retail Group Ltd., owned an operated the Chinese store locations from 2006 to 2014.
History[]
The first Warner Bros. Studio Store was opened on Friday, September 20, 1991 at the Beverly Center in Los Angeles California, by Time Warner. The store peak out at 130 locations. In October 1993 a location opened at the corner of 57th St and 5th Ave. in New York City, the first ever Studio Store in the city. Some of the store's attractions included: a glass elevator carried by Superman and the 4D experience Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension, the first ever 3D computer animated movie produced in the world. In 1996, the chain signed a long-term lease for 1 Times Square three story building and six of its billboards and opened a store on all three floors in 1997.
International locations[]
From 1997 to 2008 several stores operated in Australia with the flagship location being in Crown Casino Melbourne. These stores, however, were owned by now defunct Paradise Retail Holdings and were run completely independently from stores of the same name internationally.
In January 2004, Warner Bros. announced they were opening the first Chinese Studio Store location, after agreeing on a licensing deal with Hutchison Habour Ring. On March 25, 2006, a grand opening celebration was held for the grand opening of the first Studio Store location in China. In October 2006, the second Chinese Warner Bros. Studio Store location opened in Macau.
In 2016, Warner Bros., with the Thinkwell Group opened a new entertainment center in Macau, which featured a new Warner Bros. Studio Store location.