Background: Cinerama Releasing Corporation was founded in 1967 as a subsidiary of Cinerama Inc., creator of the titular wide-screen format (invented by Fred Waller). It distributed its own films (some of which were actually not filmed in Cinerama, but in Super Panavision, Ultra Panavision, Todd-AO and sometimes standard 35mm Panavision, and converted to be played on the curved Cinerama screen), foreign films and films produced by ABC Pictures Corporation and BCP. The company closed down in 1975.
Alongside National General Corporation and Commonwealth United Entertainment, Cinerama Releasing Corporation was considered one of Hollywood's "instant major" studios.
(1968-1975)[]
Nicknames: "The Spinning C", "Rainbow C"
Logo: In the center of a black screen, we see some multicolored layers in an arc wiping onto the screen and spinning around. As this happens, a thick blue arc fitted with the layers wipes on forming a "C" shaped logo. The logo zooms out to the left and stops spinning. Finally, the words "CINERAMA RELEASING CORPORATION" zoom up within the opening of the "C", and spread outside towards the right. The word "FROM" fades in to the left of the "C".
Variants:
- A black and white variant exists.
- In later years, the word "CORPORATION" is omitted from the company name.
- There's a variation of this logo where the words in a thicker font and are italicized.
- Another one has the word FROM or "DISTRIBUTED BY" placed above (or next to) the company name.
- An airing of the movie Terror at the Wax Museum has part of the "C" and the company name out of frame.
- One variant features the logo against a yellow background.
FX/SFX: The forming of the "C", which is cel animation.
Music/Sounds: Usually silent. In other cases, it uses a bombastic brass fanfare. The fanfare is also used in the Derann Video logo, which most likely means that it is stock music.
Music/Sounds Variants:
- On one Spanish dubbed print of Straw Dogs, the last half of the ABC Pictures International jingle was heard over it.
- On the Amazon Video print of Harrad Summer, this logo is seen at the end of the film with the Lorimar-Telpictures jingle strangely tacked on. This occurrence is possibly due to the film using a 35mm print while sourcing audio from a Warner/Lorimar owned master with the L-T logo at the end.
- A different fanfare was heard on Arnold.
Availability: Uncommon.
- ABC Pictures and BCP Productions films such as Charley and Willard were seen with this logo, but is sometimes plastered with the 2001 MGM logo as seen on their DVDs of ABC films.
- It is intact on the 1982 20th Century-Fox Video VHS of The Grissom Gang, the MGM Blu-ray and 2017 Criterion Blu-ray and DVD releases of Straw Dogs, the 2003 and 2015 Criterion DVD and Blu-ray releases of The Honeymoon Killers, and the 2023 Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray of Arnold.
- It is also seen on the Scream Factory Blu-rays of Willard and Ben, as well as the 1980 Magnetic Video Corporation VHS of Take the Money and Run (although some printings have the logo removed; it's unknown if it appears on the 2017 Kino Lorber DVD/Blu-ray).
- It has also reappeared on the Kino Lorber Blu-ray of Hell in the Pacific, and likely appears on more of their releases of ABC material, such as Custer of the West and Charly.
- The version with the fanfare can be found on the Magnetic Video releases of Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? and For Love of Ivy.