Warner Bros. Keeps Your Favorite Film Props Preserved for 100th Anniversary

It might as well be the real-life Batcave. The only place in the real world with more bat-suits and Batmobiles than Bruce Wayne has in The Dark Knight is an unassuming warehouse north of the Warner Bros. Studio Lot. While hundreds of tourists each day travel through the studio’s gates to see the standing sets, the costumes, cars, and props used on those sets are located at the Warner Bros. studio archive. Because the studio is celebrating its 100th anniversary, PopCulture.com was invited to take a look inside this unique warehouse ahead of the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival.

The warehouse has George Clooney’s spacesuit from Gravity around the corner from giant statues of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Nearby, you can spot the chair Neo sat in when he was asked to pick between a red pill and a blue pill in The Matrix. It’s a little less showy compared to the question mark-shaped chairs Jim Carrey sat on in Batman Forever. On one wall, you can spot the LEGO sets used in the stop-motion end credits to The LEGO Movie. Scroll on to see photos from our trip through the archive.

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Batmobiles

Although Warner Bros. has existed for a century, the studio didn’t start its archive until the early 1990s. So the majority of the props and costumes are from the past 30 years. Anything before that has been acquired or just discovered on the lot. There are thousands of documents in boxes, everything from Jack Warner’s notes to a letter from Spike Lee demanding more money to finish Malcolm X. These highlight the lost art of letter-writing. In the future, the studio will have to figure out how to catalog text messages between executives and talent.

‘Rebel Without a Cause’ Costumes

One part of the warehouse is dedicated to costumes. You’ll find tags with names like Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Bette Davis, Olivia De Havilland, Errol Flynn, and so many more. Unfortunately, men’s costumes are difficult to find because sometimes they would often be reused and tailored to fit different actors. That’s why there aren’t many costumes for Humphrey Bogart in the collections. While some dresses were tweaked for multiple actresses, most are specialized, which makes them easier to catalog. There aren’t many dresses embellished with pumpkin seeds like the one Vanessa Redgrave wore in Camelot.

‘The Iron Giant’ Concept Art

Sadly, time hasn’t been kind to every part of Warner Bros.’ history. For many, the studio is as synonymous with the art of animation as Disney is. Unlike Disney though, much of the studio’s animation cels were destroyed. The archive only has pieces donated by animators’ families, as well as some backgrounds and drawings. Surprisingly, there’s more Hanna-Barbera work. Seeing a piece of original pitch art for Space Ghost is astonishing. That adjective can also be used to describe the concept artwork from The Iron Giant.

‘Elvis’ Cadillac

While most of the vehicles in the warehouse are Batmobiles (some of which actually drive!), there are some fascinating older cars as well. A pink Cadillac seen in Elvis sits nearby some ’30s cars recently used for HBO’s Perry Mason. A hearse used in Six Feet Under changed the mood of the tour for a moment.

John Wayne’s director’s chair

It was ironic that while we toured this monument to the studio’s past at the same time another parent company was outlining its future. Owners come and go, but the legacy of great films Warner Bros. has made is invaluable. The studio’s position as an American cultural institution is as assured as the Road Runner’s escape from Wile E. Coyote. Thankfully, the Batmobiles, the Corpse Bride figures, the letter from Jack Warner about how he thought Bonnie & Clyde was terrible, Christopher Reeves’ Superman cape, and so many more will all survive thanks to archivists. We can say for certain that no one from Acme is working there.