Sony Pictures Entertainment

This article is about the American film company. For the Japanese division, see Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan.

In the midst of and following a global recession in the mid-1980s, Sony developed the compact disc and acquired The CBS Records Group as its music division and, on November 8, 1989, Columbia Pictures Entertainment, founded on December 21, 1987, as a spinoff from The Coca-Cola Company, which Columbia's entertainment businesses were acquired by TriStar Pictures (which Coca-Cola owned 39.6% of), as its film and television division, which would be renamed as Sony Pictures Entertainment on August 7, 1991. Sony also acquired The Guber-Peters Entertainment Company on November 9, 1989 after hiring Peter Guber and Jon Peters to run CPE.

Sony Pictures Entertainment consists of various film and television studios. The company currently includes the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group: Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures, 3000 Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, Sony Pictures Animation, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Sony Pictures International Productions, and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (Triumph Films, Destination Films, Stage 6 Films, and Affirm Films) for film production and distribution. The motion picture group also includes its home entertainment division, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment for home media distribution. SPE also owns its television division Sony Pictures Television for television production and distribution and with other television companies under its umbrella such as Embassy Row, Left Bank Pictures, Starling and Huaso, among others. SPE also owns Sony Pictures Experiences, the parent company of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain. Also included are Sony Pictures Studios, Sony Pictures Worldwide Fulfillment, Madison Gate Records, and more. Today, SPE is a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment, and is one of the "Big Five" Hollywood studios, alongside Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, and The Walt Disney Studios.

Production LogosModified Screens

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1st Logo (September 23, 1988)

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Visuals: Over a black background, the logo starts with "SONY PICTURES" fading in. After a couple of seconds, "presents" fades in below "SONY PICTURES".

Technique: Fading effects and a still graphic.

Audio: Mostly silent.

Audio Variant: The French dub of Tiger Warsaw has an alternative fanfare from the 1986 Omega Entertainment logo.

Availability

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Media Title	Date of Release	Additional Notes
Tiger Warsaw OSCA	September 23, 1988	Only appearance

2nd Logo (1992)

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Visuals: On a black background, there is a blue segmented parallelogram with a blue line below. The right side of the parallelogram thickens and fill up with orange-white glare. From the blue line below, "SONY" and "PICTURES" emerge from the top and the bottom of it respectively. The line then disappears.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: "Tokyo Exchange" by Nick Glennie-Smith.

Availability

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Media Title	Date of Release	Additional Notes
Sony Pictures' Plans for Culver City OSCA	1992	Debut on-screen appearance

3rd Logo (2009-Early 2010s)

ImageVideos

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Visuals: The screen pans down from a 3D model of the SPE bars, until it stops on a comfortable distance to reveal the text "SONY PICTURES" set in its corporate font, with a tiny registered symbol next to it. The white part of the logo shines.

Variants:

• Other reels include personalized variants like one with the Pink Panther. In this version, the logo animates as usual. However, the bars gain a pink color as the Pink Panther walks in from the right, and picks up a pink light behind the logo, dimming the logo, and the Pink Panther walks away.
• A Terminator variant also exists whereas when the animation finishes, the logo becomes black and white and static-shocked. Another variant has one bar in the logo become red, replicating the Terminator's red eye.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio: A deep one-note synth pad, similar to the start of the 1987 United Artists logo.

Audio Variants:

• The Pink Panther variant uses the opening theme of the reel - a hip-hop/techno remix of the iconic Pink Panther theme song.
• The Terminator variant has loud drum beats from the Terminator theme mixed in with the fanfare. Near the end, an airy noise that rises in volume which stutters when the logo is static-shocked is heard.

Availability

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Media Title	Date of Release	Additional Notes
Unknown Brazilian reel OSCA	2009	Variants seen on other Brazilian reels

4th Logo (August 6, 2021-)

ImagesVideos

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  2021 opening variant
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  2022 opening variant
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  Closing variant, with 12 bars
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  The Man from Toronto trailer variant, introducing the 2022 logo

Visuals: The sequence starts with the 2021 Sony logo. Then, the logo transitions to the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment logo, but without the "HOME ENTERTAINMENT" text and line. It is also positioned upwards.

Closing Variant: The superimposed closing variant features a print version of the SPE logo in white. There is also an added bar, extending the logo.

Variants:

• During the early usage of this logo, the 2014 Sony logo was used instead, the transition is faster and the logo was sped-up and is over-saturated.
• The logo's first regular appearance on streaming-related releases was in the trailer for Fatherhood (2021), where the logo (notably saturated regularly as opposed to the logo's appearance in Cinderella that same year) can be seen next to the Netflix logo in its last few seconds. The film itself features the logo for and credits Columbia Pictures, both in the opening and closing.
  • On the trailer for The Man from Toronto (2022), the logo is beside the Netflix and BRON logos, starting when the logo stops shining. Also, starting with this variant, the logo is saturated normally.
• At the end of Amazon prints of Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, a closing variant with 12 bars is used. The logo scrolls up and cross-fades into "The End" text, which later gets covered by Griffin's (voiced by David Spade) butt. The digital, home media, and TV airings have the logo scrolling up properly and the post-credits scene is removed, with the Sony Pictures Television logo following the TV prints.
• The logo also appears at the end of the 2026 reboot of the Australian version of Millionaire Hot Seat on 10.

Technique: CGI animation by Brian Castleforte and Sean Koriakin for Imaginary Forces.

Audio: The music from the SPHE logo composed by Lee Sanders, sometimes shortened and sped-up.

Availability

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Media Title	Date of Release	Additional Notes
Vivo OSCA	August 6, 2021	Closing variant
Cinderella OSCA	August 30, 2021	Early version
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania OSCA	January 14, 2022	Closing variant
The Man from Toronto OSCA	June 24, 2022	Later variant
Thrash OSCA	April 10, 2026

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1st Screen (June 29, 1994-December 12, 1995; 1999; November 19, 2002-December 26, 2005)

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Visuals: Same as Paramount and Universal's modified screen.

Variants:

• On the 1997 VHS of Masterminds, the text is in a different font and split into two lines.
• On the 1999 VHS of Marie Baie des Anges, the text is in a rounder font.
• On the 2002 VHS of Sunshine State, the screen is squeezed.
• On the 2005 VHS of Little Black Book, "this" is replaced with "your TV."
• On the 2005 VHS of Lords of Dogtown, the text is in all-caps and somewhat rearranged.

Technique: Fading effects.

Audio: None.

Availability:

• It debuted on the 1994 VHS release of Philadelphia.
• It also appears on some 1994-95 Sony tapes such as My Girl 2, I'll Do Anything, Legends of the Fall, Princess Caraboo, The Road to Wellville, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and First Knight.
• The screen reappeared on the 1999 releases of Cat Ballou and Marie Baie des Anges, and a decent number of 2002-05 tapes such as Sunshine State, Trapped, Auto Focus, Maid in Manhattan, Basic, Spider-Man 2, The Forgotten, Christmas with the Kranks, Stealth, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo and Into the Blue (the last overall tape to use it).
• This also appeared on prints of Sony movies offered for free via Comcast On Demand in the early-2000s.

2nd Screen (January 17, 1995-October 9, 2007; 2009-2010)

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Visuals: A black screen fades in reading: "This film has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit this screen." It fades out after a few seconds.

Variant: DVDs use a "frozen" version of the screen.

Technique: Fading effects.

Audio: None.

Availability:

• This can be found on a large variety of Sony Pictures VHS tapes from the 1995 VHS of Wolf until their second-last release, Zathura, in 2006 (specifically most Columbia and TriStar movies, as features released outside of them use no modified screen), and many full-screen DVD releases (including titles that were solely available in the full-screen format, such as The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, 84 Charing Cross Road, The Trouble with Angels, both the 1997 and 2005 DVD editions of Matilda, the 2002 Deluxe Edition of Stuart Little, and a 2005 one-sided reprint of Air Force One, among many others).
• While prints of Panic Room that feature opening previews contain the screen, for unknown reasons, it doesn't appear on prints without them.
• It makes appearances on Paramount's 2001 VHS of Enemy at the Gates, FXM's print of April Love (a 1957 20th Century Fox film) and the UMD Video for PSP release of The Karate Kid (2010), also bundled with LittleBigPlanet.
• It also appears on the fullscreen disc of Anchor Bay's DVD of Last Chance Harvey.
• This also appeared on prints of Sony movies offered for free via Comcast On Demand in the mid-2000s, likely because of VHS-based transfers being used.
• While the screen does appear on side B of the 2000 DVD of All About My Mother, the version on that side is matted to 1.66:1, which is still a form of widescreen.

3rd Screen (April 1-July 22, 1997)

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Visuals: Same as the Warner Bros. modified screen.

Technique: Fading effects.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen on the 1997 VHS releases of Hamlet, Lone Star and The Spitfire Grill, all of which were Castle Rock Entertainment releases co-distributed by Turner Home Entertainment (by then folded into Warner Home Video).

4th Screen (October 14, 1997)

Visuals: Same as the New Line Home Entertainment modified screen.

Technique: Fading effects.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen on the 1997 VHS release of The Whole Wide World, a film which Fine Line Features distributed (hence why this modified screen is used).

5th Screen (February 21, 2006-)

Visuals: On a black background is the following text in Times New Roman Bold font: "The following film has been modified from its original version. It has been..."

• "...formatted to fit this screen."
• "...formatted to fit this screen and edited for content."
• "...formatted to fit this screen, to run in the time allotted, and edited for content."
• "...edited to run in the time allotted and for content."
• "...edited to run in the time allotted."
• "...edited for content."

Technique: Fading effects.

Audio: None.

Availability:

• It debuted on the DVD of Rent and the VHS and DVD releases of Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild.
• It appears on some full-screen DVDs of the era (without the fade in and fade out). The other variants appear on syndicated and network prints of Sony movies as well as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Trifecta Entertainment & Media-owned Starz movies.
• It was also seen at the start of a 2009 Disney Channel airing of Lionsgate's Akeelah and the Bee.
• This also appeared on prints of Sony movies offered for free via Comcast On Demand starting in the late-2000s.

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Sony Pictures Entertainment