The Movie Blog (http://www.themovieblog.com) posted an e-mail from New Line co-Chairmen/CEOs Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne stating that New Line Cinemas will officially be folded into parent company Warner Bros..

The e-mail says that “New Line will maintain its own identity and will continue to produce, market, and distribute movies. But New Line will now do so as part of Warner Bros. and will probably be a much smaller operation than in the past. Time Warner hopes that operating New Line as a unit of Warner Bros. will allow New Line to focus on the creative side of movie-making, while reducing costs and taking advantage of Warner Bros.’ distribution systems.”

According to a Wall Street Journal report, for a decade New Line has fought to maintain its autonomy, but that Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, still in the inaugural days of his leadership, has already started vying for cost-cuts. Apparently, the problem is that in recent years, New Line has looked like another Warner Bros. with all of the large budgets and monetary risks that are inherent to gigantic studios—something that Time Warner cannot afford.

New Line was once the lower budget firm but that changed over time when it began producing larger budget products. New Line is famous for being the studio behind The Lord of Rings Trilogy, which grossed $2.8 billion at the box office worldwide. Since then, however, New Line has not had such a repeat success, The Last Mimzy and The Golden Compass failing to catch the magic and fantasy The Rings Trilogy capitalized upon.