Orion Pictures

''Logo descriptions by James Fabiano, Jeffrey Gray, and Matt Williams Logo captures by Eric S., Juniorfan88, Shadeed A. Kelly, Logophile, Derrick Anderson, and indycar Editions by V of Doom, codyfinke, Shadeed A. Kelly, Lee Cremeans, and indycar Video captures courtesy of Eric S. and John Pratt''

Background: Orion was first known as the "Orion Pictures Company", that was first started in March 1978 as a joint between Warner Bros. Pictures and three former executives of United Artists: Arthur B. Krim, Eric Pleskow, and Robert S. Benjamin. Orion's theatrical distribution business was initially ran through Warner Bros. Pictures under Warner Communications (now "Time Warner") for a while. In 1982, Orion boughtFilmways, Inc., after Orion was unhappy with distribution agreements with Warner Communications in the end of 1981. In June 1982, Filmways announced that its name would reincorporate as "Orion Pictures Corporation". In 1983, Orion introduced "Orion Classics" as Orion's art-house division. Orion did very well as far as making big blockbuster hits and scoring numerous awards, but everything went sour in the mid-1990s when Orion was losing money and went bankrupt by the time the new decade rolled. In 1996, Orion Pictures under Metromedia acquired Samuel Goldwyn Entertainment. On April 11, 1997, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. acquired Orion/Goldwyn, and the Motion Picture Corporation of America and the deal was closed in July. A year later, Orion was folded into MGM and MPCA broke apart from MGM becoming independent. However, Orion still survived as an in-name-only unit of MGM during that era. In 2013, MGM relaunched the Orion Pictures brand, which will run theatrical/multiplatform campaigns. Currently, most of the old films made by Orion are held by MGM, except all the 1979-1982 and some post-1982 releases, which are owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment.

1st Logo (1979-1981)

Nicknames: "Red/Blue Split", "Splitting Rectangles", "The Orion/WB Combo"

Logo: On a black screen, two rectangles, one blue and one orange, each one tilted forward at a 45 degree angle (making them appear like the floor and ceiling of a tunnel), shoot out towards the center of the screen. When they both connect at the center of the screen, they tilt back 45 degrees, so that they are facing the viewer completely, and enlarge to fill the screen. In the blue rectangle, which is on the top, we see the \\'logo and the words "WARNER BROS." in orange. In the orange rectangle, which is on the bottom, we see the words "ORION (in the same font as in logo #2) PICTURES COMPANY (in a more plain font)" in blue. After a while, the blue and orange rectangles move to each others spot, briefly overlapping. "A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY" and "presents" fade-in under "WARNER BROS".

Variant: On the trailer for Zelig, the blue sections of the logo appear as black.

Closing Variants:

·        At the end of the credits, we see the text "AN ORION PICTURES/WARNER BROS RELEASE" with "ORION" in its trademark logo font and "WARNER BROS" in its 1972 font from the theatrical logo. We see the byline, "Thru WARNER BROS, A Warner Communications Company", with Warner Bros.' \\' logo in between the name and the company byline.

·        Another variant looks close to the opening logo, but has a red stripe on a blue background, inside which it has "WARNER BROS. ORION PICTURES COMPANY"; below which is "Thru", with the "\\'" to the right, and the Warner Communications byline below (all company names are in their trademark fonts as with the regular closing variant).

FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor: The tilting and sliding, all cheap cel animation. The colors used also don't go together very well.

Music/Sounds: Usually silent, or the opening theme of the movie.

Availability: Near extinction, due to chronic plastering by the Warner Communications variation of the next logo below. Seen on old VHS releases of ''Monty Python's Life of Brian, Time After Time, Prince of the City,Sharky's Machine, Arthur, Wolfen, The Great Santini, and Caddyshack''; along with a TV Land airing of the latter, and AMC airings of former. It is impossible to find on most DVD and Blu-ray releases, except for that of Prince of the City and the Warner Archive DVD-R of ''The Great Santini. ''The second closing variant is available on early home video prints of Arthur.

Scare Factor: Low, because the rectangles reversing may hurt your eyes.

2nd Logo (March 26, 1980-1996, October 4, 2013- )

Nicknames: "The Constellation", "Starry Sky"

Logo: We first see a starry sky, then a constellation of stars in the middle shine brighter than the rest. It moves to the left, forms a circle, and spins around until, in a small, but bright flash, it forms a letter "O." Then the letters "RION" appear (by a sliding effect) to complete the logo, which is stylized when a line is drawn across it. The traces of the line remain on the left side of each letter except the "I," which has the line across the word. "An" and "PICTURES RELEASE" all in light blue appear above and below the logo accordingly.

Trivia: This logo was parodied in the Family Guy S8 episode "April in Quahog".

Variants:

·        On films from 1980-1982, under the logo itself, there was a byline that said "Thru WARNER BROS., A Warner Communications Company", with a little \\' next to the company name and the Warner byline underneath. Sometimes centered or off-centered. After Orion purchased Filmways, the logo was freeze-framed to hide the WB references.

·        In 1984, there is a registered trademark symbol "®" that appears next to the Orion name.

·        Another version reads "PICTURES INTERNATIONAL" below the logo; "INTERNATIONAL" replaces "RELEASE".

·        Starting in 1984 on trailers, the logo is close up and begins from the stars spinning to form the "O", but, instead of the words "An" and "PICTURES RELEASE" fading in, the words "COMING FROM" (in a larger font) and "PICTURES CORPORATION" fade in above and below the logo respectively.

·        Starting in 1986, an updated version with the words in blue and smaller size was used.

·        On some trailers (Bull Durham for example), the Orion logo fades out and the words "PREVIEW" and "COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU" fade in.

·        On the trailer for Gorky Park, right before the announcer states the actors in the movie, a screen is shown with "ORION PICTURES PRESENTS" with the announcer reading the words.

·        Some Italian films distributed by Orion use a special variant in that language where "CDI" replaces "Orion" and "COMPAGNIA DISTRIBUZIONE INTERNAZIONALE" appears underneath.

·        Closing: The end of each film would say just the same as the opening logo, but on a black background of the end credits. From 1980-1982, the text and byline were in bold and in all caps in the same font used on the 1972 Warner Bros. Pictures logo. Some pictures show the entire text in one line without the byline.

FX/SFX: The constellation and "Orion" forming.

Cheesy Factor: The way the whole Orion logo appears after the constellation appears is just tacky, and the stars forming a solid "O" is also pretty cheesy. Still, the logo looks impressive after over 30 years, and is a nostalgic classic among many. On some trailers, the way the "Coming Soon" was chryoned in would look poorly inserted via a VHS text generator.

Music/Sounds: A futuristic sound effect, followed by a horn fanfare. Sometimes it is silent or the opening theme of the film is heard. The DVD release of UHF, if you listen to the commentary, has "Weird" Al Yankovic singing lyrics to the jingle ("Orion, Orion, Orion is bankrupt now!").

Availability: Common. Can be found on the majority of their output including popular films such as The Slience of the Lambs, ''The Terminator, Madhouse, Bull Durham, and the Robocop ''franchise among others. The earlier variant with the WB byline first appeared on the WCI Home Video release of 10 to plaster the first logo, and was also seen on theatrical releases of the era. This also plasters the 1st logo on current releases of 1979-1981 films such as Caddyshack, ''The Wanderers, The Great Santini, Sharky's Machine, and Wolfen'' among others. On most 1982-1996 releases, the MGM logos precede it, except for films not owned by the latter such as First Blood, and ''Split Image'' (which was the very first movie to feature this logo without the Warner Bros. byline). The R-rated Directors Cut version of Amadeus plasters this logo with the 2001 AOL variant of the Warner Bros. logo, since Orion only handled U.S. theatrical distribution and The Saul Zaentz Company holds current distribution rights through WB. However, it is intact on some releases of the PG theatrical cut such as the widescreen edition Laserdisc and WB 1997 Region 1 DVD. Some recent TV airings of No Way Out (1987) have this replaced with the next logo below (of course, with MGM's lion preceding it). The trailer variant scan be found on some theatrical or teaser trailers on DVDs, such as onThe Terminator and UHF (the latter is only on the widescreen side). The International and Italian variants are extremely rare, due to most current releases using domestic prints. The latter however, can be seen on the IVE release of Domino. A shortened version could be seen at the end of Green Acres reruns as late as the mid-2000s. Starting in 2013, it made it's debut on ''Grace Unplugged ''(which was co-produced with Lionsgate and Roadshow Attractions). Later, it appeared on the Brazilian film'' Vestido pra Casar (translated as Dressed to Marry), The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) (first film released under their banner), Telland We'll Never Have Paris''.

Scare Factor: Low. The appearance of the "O" might scare a few and the music may startle people, but other than that it's very popular and very famous.

3rd Logo (1996-1999)

Nicknames: "The CGI Constellation", "CGI Starry Sky"

Logo: Very much the same as the Starry Sky logo, but updated for the 1990's with computer effects. The starfield behind the logo no longer zooms-out as the logo forms, but shoots out towards the screen. The animation is the same, but the stars now have a "trail" that forms the "O", and the forming of the actual logo--including a laser light, forming the line in the logo--is different. The logo itself is now silvery and 3D, and only "PICTURES" appears below the logo in the same font as last time. Inside the "Orion" text has an animated landscape.

Variant: There is a B&W variant of this logo for classic AIP movies in B&W.

FX/SFX: This is how you update a logo. The same thing as the popular "Starry Sky" logo, but the nice computer animation and similar to the original have made this a favorite of those who have seen it, and looks good even today.

Music/Sounds: An ascending cycle of strings that repeats alongside a horn tune. As the logo begins to form, it gets faster and faster, culminating in a majestic hit and a 3-note sounder. Composed by John Pratt. Otherwise, it's none or the opening theme of the film is heard.

Availability: Uncommon. Can be found on its (rather low) output of films from this period until its demise in 1999. Like the above logo, the MGM lions precede it on most current releases. It can also be seen on DVD releases and TV airings of a few AIP films, such as Coffy, Hell Up In Harlem and Bucktown. Also plasters the 1981 Filmways Pictures logo on the MGM DVD release of Blow Out, and it is seen on most current prints of the James Bond spin-off Never Say Never Again, including the 2001 UK VHS. Some prints of Orion films distributed by MGM plaster the '81 logo with the '96 logo, such as No Way Out and ''The Amityville Horror II''. Also seen on international prints of the 1999 movie ''One Man's Hero''.

Scare Factor: None.