Orion Pictures/Summary

Logo descriptions by James Fabiano, Jeffrey Gray, Matt Williams,indycar, and TubaMan2015

Logo captures by Eric S., Juniorfan88, Shadeed A. Kelly, Logophile, Derrick Anderson, indycar ,TrickyMario7654, and thestudioghibifan2001

Editions by V of Doom, codyfinke, Shadeed A. Kelly, Lee Cremeans, indycar, and DabigLogoCollector

Video captures courtesy of BreadCrustCouncil, Eric S., Logo Archive (OZ_Paramount87), Edifice5151, DudeThatLogo, and indycar

Background[]

Orion Pictures is an American genre film studio and division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was originally formed as the "Orion Pictures Company" in March 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. Pictures and three former executives of United Artists: Arthur B. Krim, Eric Pleskow and Robert S. Benjamin. When the studio was formed, they produced films that would be released by Warner Bros. In 1982, Orion bought Filmways, Inc., after Orion was unhappy with distribution agreements with Warner Bros. In June 1982, Filmways Pictures was reincorporated as "Orion Pictures Corporation". In 1983, Orion introduced Orion Classics as an art-house division. On May 22, 1986, Metromedia purchased a minor stake in the studio and later purchased 67% of the studio on May 20, 1988. In the late 1980s, Orion began to struggle financially due to several major box office bombs and would declare bankruptcy on December 11, 1991.

In 1996, Orion Pictures under Metromedia acquired Samuel Goldwyn Entertainment. On April 11, 1997, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. acquired Metromedia's film studios (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 the Motion Picture Corporation of America separated from MGM to become independent. Orion survived as an in-name-only unit of MGM during that time frame. In 2013, MGM relaunched the Orion Pictures brand for use on genre films, which runs theatrical and multi-platform campaigns, and became a standalone division with the same purpose in late 2017.

Currently, most of Orion's post-1982 films are owned by MGM (with Orion retaining the copyright). Warner Bros. continues to own all pre-1982 films, select films that they released afterwards (although MGM/Orion does own two Orion films they released after the initial deal, Woody Allen's A Midsummer's Night Sex Comedy and Zelig) and films produced by The Saul Zaentz Company, StudioCanal owns First Blood through producer Carolco Pictures, HBO Films owns North American distribution rights to Three Amigos (MGM retains TV and foreign rights, however), Paramount Pictures owns North American distribution rights to The Addams Family and Lionsgate Films owns films produced by LIVE Entertainment. Films produced by Nelson Entertainment and Hemdale Film Corporation were originally distributed by Orion and became owned by MGM (with Orion holding the copyright) after MGM purchased the pre-March 31, 1996 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment library.

1st Logo (April 27, 1979-December 18, 1981; July 15, 1983)[]

Nicknames: "Red/Blue Split", "Splitting Rectangles", "The Orion/Warner Bros. Combo"

Logo: On a black screen, two rectangles, one blue and one red, 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 top blue rectangle, the Warner Bros. "Big W" logo and the words "WARNER BROS" in red appear. In the bottom red rectangle, the words "ORION (in their trademark font) PICTURES COMPANY (in an ITC Avant Garde Gothic font)" in blue appear. After a second, the blue and red rectangles swap spots, briefly overlapping. "A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY" and "present" fade-in under "WARNER BROS".

Variants:

On the 1983 Warner Home Video VHS release of Time After Time, the color scheme is brighter and the logo is zoomed in.
On the trailer for Zelig, the blue portions appear in black rather than blue.

Closing Variants:

Similar to the opening logo, but it has a red stripe in the middle of a blue background. Inside the stripe is blue text that reads "A WARNER BROS./ORION PICTURES RELEASE"; "ORION" is in its logo font. Below that is "thru WARNER BROS. (\\')" and a smaller "A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY" byline.
The in-credit variant has text appear reading "AN ORION PICTURES/WARNER BROS RELEASE" with "ORION" in its trademark logo font and "WARNER BROS" in its corporate font. The byline "Thru WARNER BROS (\\') A Warner Communications Company" appears underneath.

FX/SFX: The tilting and sliding.

Music/Sounds: None or the opening theme of the film.

Availability: Extremely rare.

It was seen on the original WCI/Warner Home Video VHS and Betamax releases of Monty Python's Life of Brian, Time After Time, Prince of the City, Sharky's Machine, Arthur (retail copies only; the rental versions plaster it with the next logo), Wolfen (also intact on a 1992 HBO broadcast), The Great Santini, and Caddyshack, along with a TV Land airing of the latter and AMC airings of former. With the exception of Prince of the City, all current prints of these films plaster this logo with the next one or, in some cases, the 1973 Warner Bros. logo.
This logo is still retained on most prints of Prince of the City, including its Warner Archive DVD and Blu-ray releases.
The closing variant is available on early home video prints of Arthur and current prints of Prince of the City.

Editor's Note: As this logo was only seen on select early Orion releases, some may be surprised to find out that this exists.

2nd Logo (July 4, 1979-March 19, 1997; October 4, 2013-July 22, 2022)[]

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

Logo: In an outer-space galaxy, a constellation of stars (in the shape of Orion, appropriately) in the middle shine brighter than the rest. It moves to the left, forms a circle, and spins around until a small-yet-bright flash 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 respectfully.

Trivia:

This logo was parodied in the Family Guy season 8 episode "April in Quahog", where Adam West (best known for playing Batman in the 1966 TV series) punches the constellation ("Take that Orion!") to form the logo without the additional text and with a little synth jingle. Adam responds "That's right, all you are is a failed production company!"
On the DVD and Blu-ray releases of UHF, if the commentary track is turned on, "Weird Al" Yankovic makes up his own humorous lyrics to the jingle ("Orion, Orion, is bankrupt now!"). This references how Orion nearly killed themselves by releasing the film the same year that many popular franchises were releasing new films, eventually becoming a major factor in their bankruptcy.

Bylines:

1980-1982: "Thru WARNER BROS (\\') A Warner Communications Company", either centered or off-centered to the right.
1982-1997, 2013-2018: Bylineless
2018-2022: "AN MGM COMPANY"

Variants:

During the Warner Bros. era, the logo would continue to zoom out until fading to black. After Orion purchased Filmways, the logo would freeze-frame after its formation to hide the Warner Bros. references, and would appear this way from here on out.
Beginning with Desperately Seeking Susan, there is a registered trademark symbol "®" that appears next to the Orion name.
Starting in 1986, an updated version with the words in blue and smaller size was used.
On Three Amigos, the logo fades out, but the background remains. "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" (in the same style as "An" and "PICTURES RELEASE" on the standard logo) and "HOME BOX OFFICE" (in a larger bold, white font) fade in.
On international releases, "INTERNATIONAL" replaces "RELEASE", and the "An" above "ORION" is removed.
On some Italian-distributed films, a special variant is used where "CDI", appearing letter-by-letter, replaces "Orion" and "COMPAGNIA DISTRIBUZIONE INTERNAZIONALE" fades in underneath. The background freeze-frames as soon as "CDI" begins to form.
Orion Home Video releases would have either of its logos seamlessly segue into this one.
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.
- On some trailers (Bull Durham for example), the Orion logo fades out and the words "PREVIEW" and "COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU" fades in.
- On the trailer for Gorky Park, right before the announcer (Hal Douglas) states the actors in the movie, a screen is shown with "ORION PICTURES PRESENTS" with the announcer reading the words.
On a VHS of First Blood, the logo has a green tint and appears to be compressed (stretched to fill 4:3). In the case of the latter, it was most likely due to the anamorphic widescreen ratio of the film not being uncompressed.
On 1980s syndication prints of Green Acres, a shortened version of this logo is seen that starts with the "O" forming "RION".
On current prints of The Arrival, in one of the sloppiest plasters ever, when the full text appears, it cuts to the 2006 Lionsgate logo, covering up any reference to the LIVE Entertainment logo.
Starting in 2018, the logo was slightly updated. Here, the "Pictures Release" text is just replaced with "Pictures" and there is now an MGM byline. The freeze-frame still remains on this version.

Closing Variants:

Most of the time, it appears in-credit in the same style as the opening variant.
During the Warner Bros. era, the text and byline were in bold, capital letters, and in the Warner Bros. company font.
Beginning in 1983, the entire text is in one line without the byline.
At the end of The Purple Rose of Cairo, the text is stacked.
At the end of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the text is in yellow instead of in white, to match the rest of the credits.

FX/SFX: The constellation and "Orion" forming. The animation looks really good more than 40 years later.

Music/Sounds: A futuristic-sounding series of chimes and quiet strings combined with a majestic horn fanfare after the stars merge. This fanfare was composed by Leland Bond, and was heard on a few films such as The Terminator, Dances With Wolves and UHF. In most cases, however, it is silent or uses the opening theme of the film.

Availability: Common.

The bylineless version is preserved on most 1982 to 1995 films (usually with any of MGM's logos preceding it), such as The Silence of the Lambs, The Terminator (although the 1991 Hemdale Home Video VHS and 1995 Image Entertainment Laserdisc releases plaster this logo with the Hemdale Film Corporation logo), Madhouse, Bull Durham, the original Robocop trilogy, Hoosiers, Mississippi Burning, Platoon, UHF, Three Amigos, Breathless (1983), Harry and Son, Dances with Wolves (US prints only), both Bill & Ted films (though the 2001 DVD release of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey inexplicably cuts the logo, going from the MGM logo straight to the opening credits), among others.
The earlier variant with the Warner Bros. byline first appeared on the 1980 WCI Home Video VHS and Betamax release of 10 to plaster the previous logo, and was also seen on theatrical releases of the time frame in tandem with the previous logo. This version plasters the previous logo on current releases of 1979-81 films such as Caddyshack, The Great Santini, Arthur (1981), Sharky's Machine and Wolfen. On First Blood, it was preserved on the 1983 Thorn EMI Video VHS release, appearing on the film all the way up to the 1995 Avid Home Entertainment release, and also appears on the widescreen laserdisc release from Live Home Video; oddly enough, though the film itself is letterboxed, the logo is still anamorphically squeezed into a 4:3 frame.
The original closing variant appeared from 1979 to 1982, only appearing without the Warner Bros. byline towards the end of its run. The last film to feature it was Split Image, whose home video releases remove it; currently, the only known sources for the bylineless variant are old video copies of Amityville II: The Possession, the first film to use this logo without the WB byline. Beginning with Lone Wolf McQuade, which doesn’t have “Orion” in its usual stylized font, the closing logo was on a single line of text and usually appeared during the closing credits sequences instead of after.
This logo is usually removed from current prints of Split Image (one of the first films to feature this logo without the Warner Bros. byline) and instead goes straight to the PolyGram logo. Out of the original Amityville films, this is retained only on Amityville 3-D, where the MGM logo does not appear at all on the Blu-ray, even at the end. The R-rated Director's Cut version of Amadeus plasters this logo with the 2001 Warner Bros. logo, since Orion only handled theatrical distribution in the United States and Warner Bros. owns the film via The Saul Zaentz Company. It is intact on some releases of the original Theatrical Cut, such as the Pioneer Entertainment Widescreen Laserdisc release and the 1997 WB R1 DVD release. Recent TV airings and the 2016 Shout! Factory Blu-ray of No Way Out plaster this with the next logo, although it is retained on the R1 DVD release and also on the 2000s MGM VHS reissue.
The trailer variants can be found on some theatrical or teaser trailers on DVD releases, such as on The Terminator and UHF (the latter is only on the widescreen side of the original 2002 MGM DVD). The International and Italian variants are extremely rare, due to most current releases using domestic prints. The latter can be seen on the 1989 IVE VHS release of Domino. The shortened version could be seen at the end of Green Acres reruns as late as the mid-2000s. The studio produced several films in 1991 that were not released until 1993 and 1994, such as The Dark Half, RoboCop 3, Car 54, Where Are You?, There Goes My Baby, Clifford and China Moon.
The Orion Home Video variant was seen on VHS releases of the studio's own material, but not on material licensed to the company.
The first film to use this logo following Orion's 2013 relaunch was Grace Unplugged (which was co-released by Lionsgate Films and Roadside Attractions). Later, it appeared on the Brazilian film Vestido pra Casar (translated as Dressed to Marry), and other newer films. The last film to use this logo was Anything's Possible.
It was also seen on international VHS prints of The Addams Family, but the DVD release weirdly enough has the Paramount logo instead just like on the domestic release. It was seen on international prints of Crimes of Passion (1984) and Iron Warrior, though the Arrow Video release of the former goes straight to the opening title screen, while the latter was plastered with the 2001 MGM lion. It also appears on the screener VHS of The Arrival from Live Entertainment, followed by a shortened version of Live's logo. This logo is also seen on Behind Enemy Lines (1997).

Editor's Note: This is a very popular logo, to the point where it was brought back when Orion was revived in 2013.

3rd Logo (January 1, 1997-September 24, 1999)[]

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

Logo: Same basic concept as the previous logo, but now updated with CGI effects. The animation is pretty much similar, but the stars now have a "trail" that forms the "O", and a laser light etches the line in the logo. The starfield background now shoots out towards the screen. The logo itself is now silvery, reflective and 3D, and only "PICTURES" appears below the logo in the same font as last time.

Variant: A black and white variant exists on late-1990s reprints of American International Pictures films in black and white.

FX/SFX: Similar to the 2nd logo, but with redone CGI effects.

Music/Sounds: An ascending cycle of strings that repeats alongside a horn tune. As the logo begins to form, it picks up tempo, culminating in a majestic hit and a 3-note sounder, ending with a whoosh and sparkling sounds. This theme was composed by John Pratt. In other cases, it is silent or uses the opening theme of the film.

Availability: Uncommon.

Can be found on the studio's limited output of films from this period until its original demise in 1999, such as The Locusts, City of Industry, 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, Gang Related, and Ulee's Gold. Like the previous logo, any of MGM's logos precede this one on most current prints.
It can also be seen on DVD releases and television airings of a few American International Pictures films, such as Coffy, Hell Up in Harlem, and Bucktown.
This also plasters the Filmways Pictures logo on the MGM DVD release of Blow Out, and the Hemdale Film Corporation logo on MGM+'s print of Body Slam. It is also seen on current prints of the unofficial James Bond film Never Say Never Again (meaning it was not produced by Eon Productions, the production company of the series), by plastering the Warner Bros. "Big W" logo, including the 2001 MGM/UA United Kingdom VHS release, MGM DVD releases, and streaming prints.
Some prints of Orion films distributed by MGM plastered the previous logo with this one, such as No Way Out and The Falcon and the Snowman.
Also seen on international prints of One Man's Hero (Orion's final film during their original era).
The Stargate television movie pilot also had this logo.

Editor's Note: A suitable successor to the previous logo; the computer animation looks very good, even today.

4th Logo (July 20, 2022-)[]

Logo: It starts similarly to the second logo with the stars of Orion fading into view and forming a circle, but it stays at the center instead of shifting to the left. Additionally, the space background is now more detailed and continues to rotate along with the Orion stars. As the stars form the circle, a purple-blue cloud appears, which quickly turns into a constantly shifting spectrum of color. After a few seconds, the word "ORION" (now in a completely different font and straight up) emerges from the cloud on a different, far darker space background, lacking the holes in the letters. The dazzling colors then die down and form a backdrop within the letters, as a line slashes through the letters like the second logo and a byline fades in underneath the second "O".

Trivia: The new, colorful design of this logo is intended to correspond with Orion's current focus on underserved minority audiences for films (a "wide spectrum of stories waiting to be told", per an Adweek article).

Bylines:

2022-2023: "AN MGM COMPANY", which is far smaller than usual. "MGM" is in the 2021 corporate font.
2023-present: "AMAZON MGM STUDIOS", in Amazon Ember Light and Metro-Mayer Serif Bold.

Closing Variant: Just the finished product on a black background.

FX/SFX: Mind-blowing CGI by Gravillis Inc.

Music/Sounds: An ethereal choir accompanied by some howling, a timpani hit and then a three-note tune as the line appears. Composed by electro-pop musician Kid Moxie. In other cases, the opening theme of the film is used instead.

Availability: Current. It debuted on the company's YouTube channel on July 20, 2022, later appearing on the trailer for Till. It made its theatrical debut on the film itself.

Editor's Note: A well-made modern look of the brand.