Background: Triumph Films (also known as "Triumph Releasing Corporation") was originally formed in 1982 as a joint venture between Columbia Pictures and the legendary French studio Gaumont Film Company to distribute Gaumont content and some independent films in the US. This partnership lasted until 1985, when Gaumont was looking to set up their own Stateside operations. However, Columbia (through Sony Pictures Entertainment) retained the Triumph branding rights and all films distributed during the venture. In 1988, it was revived as a specialty label to handle independent, low-budget, and direct-to-video film releases as well as distributing Epic Productions releases theatrically. The label went dormant again in 1998 and was reactivated in 2003 to release independent and DTV fare such as Steamboy and the infamous Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2. Triumph Films has been in dormancy again since 2008 and has only been revived once as a one-off label in September 2014.
1st Logo
(1982-85)[]
Nicknames: "Torch Lady", "Zooming-Out Arch of Triumph"
Logo: We have the 1981-1993 Columbia Pictures logo. The torch then shines into a bright abstract shape, like the sunburst effect on the 1976 logo, then a 2D drawing of this. The words "Triumph Films" in the same Souvenir bold font from the 1975 logo fades and flashing in underneath the logo. Her torch continues to shine and the entire logo turns outlined. The byline "A Columbia Pictures/Gaumont Company" later fades in under the logo.
FX/SFX: The torch shining, the arch zooming-out.
Music/Sounds: Silent.
Availability: Very rare. It appeared on select titles released from 1982-85, such as older prints of Das Boot, Querelle, Le Dernier Combat, Bizet's Carmen, and Parsifal, to name it a few. The latter retains it on its U.S Image Entertainment DVD and Laserdisc releases.
2nd Logo
(1989-95)[]
Nickname: "The Blue Light Flower"
Logo: On a black background, a blue light appears at the bottom in the middle of the screen. The light later splits into nine rays that almost looks like the sunburst effect on the 1976 Columbia Pictures logo, which later zooms-out from screen bottom, revealing the outline of the word "TRIUMPH", which then lights up "I" to turn white and later spreads out to fill in the other words. Above the "I" in "TRIUMPH", there is a blue flower, but we reveal the text "RELEASING CORPORATION" with lines in between, then the byline "A unit of Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc." fades in at the bottom of the screen.
Variants:
- From 1991-94, with the formation of Sony Pictures Entertainment, this logo became bylineless.
- On some films at the end, there is no byline and the text.
- On some trailers of films, the text "RELEASING CORPORATION" and the Columbia Pictures Entertainment byline wipes in from the left at the same time.
- On some TV commercials of 1991-1994 films, the logo is in B&W and the byline reads "A Sony Pictures Entertainment Company".
FX/SFX: The "TRIUMPH" text appearing, the flower rising up.
Music/Sounds: A fantasy-oriented fanfare, none, or the film's opening theme.
Availability: Uncommon. Seen on films such as Brainscan, Zebrahead, and Homicide, among others.
3rd Logo (1995-2014)[]
Nickname: "The Sunburst"
Logo: On a black background, we see a bright orange light rising from the lower right-hand corner to the upper-left hand corner of the screen bringing along the 3-D word "TRIUMPH" rising from the bottom to the center. As the light starts to dim down to make a sunburst effect, the orange light turns white revealing a light blue line lighting up the flower while the word "TRIUMPH" later turns white and zooming-in a little while the word "FILMS" with lines in between zooming-in and fading in slowly at the same time with the word above. The byline "a Sony Pictures Entertainment company" or "a Sony company" later fades in underneath the logo.
Closing: There is a text at the end credits that reads: "A TRIUMPH RELEASE, A SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT Company".
FX/SFX: The CGI name rising, which is surprisingly clean animation for 1994.
Music/Sounds: Same as the previous logo.
Availability: Uncommon. Seen on many Triumph releases such as Magic in the Water, Jury Duty, Solo, SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2, and the North American release of Steamboy, among others. This may have appeared on theatrical prints of Zombie Strippers and The Remaining, but home media releases respectively have the Stage 6 and Affirm Films logos instead.