Warner Bros. Pictures: Difference between revisions

* It premiered on ''The Train Robbers'' and made its final regular appearance on ''Lassiter'', subsequently appearing on ''Finders Keepers'' and ''Irreconcilable Differences'' (as seen on the [[Vestron Video]] release and the 2009 [[Lionsgate Home Entertainment|Lionsgate]] DVD, as it uses the same VHS master).

* Warner Bros.' editing bug in the '80s and early '90s meant that Warner Communications and Time Warner shield logos were seen over this logo and, ironically enough, that this did some plastering of its own back when it was the current logo, as seen on early WCI/Warner VHS and Betamax releases of ''The Green Berets'' (originally had the 6th logo) and ''The Candidate'' (originally had the 9th logo).

'''Legacy:''' This logo was noted as being "drastically simpler" than the studio's previous logos, mainly due to the absence of the shield, and was even considered to be a touch "Nazi-like" by ''Fast Company'' magazine. Nonetheless, it's still a favorite of many, including those in the movie industry, including Ben Affleck, Steven Soderbergh, Todd Phillips, and Clay Kaytis, who opted to use it on their respective movies ''Argo'', the ''Magic Mike'' movies, ''Joker'', and ''A Christmas Story Christmas''.

* 1984-1998: The closing logo, seen at the end of most movies, features a simple superimposed WB shield (without a banner), much akin to the logo Warner briefly used before the introduction of the "Big W" logo in 1972. The phrase "DISTRIBUTED BY WARNER BROS." appears above the shield with the owner byline at the bottom. Beginning with ''The Perfect Storm'' on June 30, 2000, the above text is changed to "DISTRIBUTED BY WARNER BROS. PICTURES", and a URL is added below the byline.

** A German variant exists where the text reads "{{font|Impact|Im Verleih der WARNER BROS. FILM GMBH}}", which translates to "A Film of Warner Bros. GmBH". The shield is also redrawn.

* December 8, 1988-March 22, 2000: Another ending variation features the movie logo, but with the words "{{font|Times New Roman|'''DISTRIBUTED BY WARNER BROS.'''}}" above the shield. This was also used at the beginning of ''Freejack''.

** A 16:9 stretched to 4:3 variant also exists.

'''Availability:''' Ultra common. In fact, the 1992 version is usually the one that plasters older logos, and it's probably the most common movie logo ever. Fortunately, WB has eased up on this somewhat, and older logos have been seen more often in recent years on newer prints/masters.

* This logo made its first appearance on the aforementioned ''Gremlins'' (released on June 8, 1984) and made its final regular appearance on ''True Crime'' (released on March 19, 1999). The closing version made its final appearance on ''Valentine'' (released on February 2, 2001).

* The Warner Communications byline version can be found on the 1997 DVD and the 2022 4K UHD Blu-ray releases of ''National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation'' (1989) (the 2003 DVD release has the 1998 logo with the AOL Time Warner byline), current DVD and Blu-ray prints of ''The Dead Pool'', TCM prints of ''The Goodbye Girl'', and the Blu-ray release of ''Full Metal Jacket'' (1987).

** However, it's not as easy to spot as the 1992 variant, as many DVDs and Encore/Starz prints replace it with the Time Warner Entertainment byline variant, such as on the DVD release of ''Pee-wee's Big Adventure'' or even with the next logo below (occurs on the ''Police Academy'' films and ''Moving'').

* Even the 1990 Time Warner byline variant has been plastered with the next logo on most of Encore's prints of films released from 1990 to 1992, but it is intact on the Blu-ray of ''Goodfellas'', the 1999 DVD and 2017 Warner Archive Blu-ray releases of ''My Blue Heaven'', and the 2000 Director's Cut DVD release of ''Lethal Weapon 3''.

** One instance where this logo does some plastering of its own was on ''The Ballad of Cable Hogue'', where it plastered the Kinney Shield.

* The 1984 Warner Communications "Distributed by" variant can also be found at the end of the 1999 DVD release of ''The American President'' (1995) of all places, likely due to a printing error when editing out the [[Columbia Pictures]] in-credit closing logo.

* The 1984 Warner Communications opening variant also strangely plasters the [[New Line Cinema]] logo on the 2018 Criterion Collection DVD releases of ''Female Trouble'' and ''Polyester''.

** It also makes an even stranger appearance on the ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' version of ''Catalina Caper'', a [[Crown International Pictures|Crown International]] film (it appears to have been sourced from a television print from around 1987); it appears as Joel and the Bots are entering the theater.

'''Legacy:''' This is considered by many to be a throwback to the 1948 shield. However, the 1992 variant is disliked by many people for its large-scale plastering, giving it the nickname "Shield of Staleness".