American International Pictures: Difference between revisions

'''American International Pictures''' was formed in 1954 by James H. Nicholson and entertainment lawyer Samuel Z. Arkoff originally as "[[American Releasing Corporation]]", dedicated to releasing independently produced, low-budget and genre films (such as horror, sci-fi, and African-American), primarily of interest to the teenagers from the 1950s to late 1970s. In April 1956, ARC merged with global production company International Productions (not to be confused with "[[International Pictures]]", who already merged with [[Universal Pictures]] and formed "Universal-International" in 1946) to form AIP. In 1979, AIP was acquired by Filmways, Inc. for $4.3 million, and in 1980, AIP was folded into Filmways becoming "[[Filmways Pictures]]". Today, most of the AIP library is owned by [[MGM]], via their acquisition of [[Orion Pictures]], which acquired Filmways in 1982 (later reincorporated itself as "Orion Pictures Corporation" in June), except for a select few of AIP's early releases. Some of these (like ''The Fast and the Furious)'' went into the public domain, and some were retained by Samuel Z. Arkoff's estate, while 11 others were retained by James H. Nicholson's estate; these early releases are rarely seen now, as the estate effectively refuses to license them, but when they were still available in the early 1990s (and were featured on ''Mystery Science Theater 3000''), they, along with the still-available Arkoff-owned films (currently licensed to AMC and Lionsgate for distribution), were distributed by [[Teleworld, Inc.]]

On October 7, 2020, MGM announced that they would bring back AIP to distribute films that would get a limited release in cinemas. Their first film after being revived was ''Breaking News in Yuba County'', released on February 12, 2021.

*June 22, 1960-September 25, 1963: On a {{color|skyblue|blue}} sky background with two clouds, a different Capitol dome drawing is seen, with the perspective positioned to the right and the "cloud cover" better resembles the main building itself. In-between the drawing, "'''''American International'''''" fades in a connected 50's font, which resembles the SF Americana Dreams Extended font, along with "'''PICTURES'''" below in small print.

'''Visuals:''' On a evening sky background, a {{color|lightblue|light blue}} circle appears and zooms out into the middle of the screen. When it stops, the saturated Capitol drawing from before in a gold color fades inside the circle, followed by the text "{{font|serif|'''''American International'''''}}" appears in-between the circle, now in a fancy serif font.

'''Visuals:''' On a black background, a large {{color|darkgrey|dark grey}} circle fades into view, taking up the entire height of the screen. It then fades to pink, followed by gold, along with revealing a heavily simplified version of the Capitol building drawing inside of it. The circle then fades to red and flies to the top right of the screen, changing colors twice more (first to dark blue, and then to white with a red drawing), with pieces of an abstract "'''a'''" in white fading in piece by piece. Once its all completed, the text "{{font|serif|'''''American International Pictures'''''}}" fades in below.

'''Availability:''' It only appears on the movie ''Cry of the Banshee'', right after the MGM and/or Orion logos.

'''Visuals:''' On a time-lapse clip of a cloudy sky moving, a double-layered yellow circle is seen with the "{{color|gold|'''a'''}}" logo inside of it, albeit without the Capitol building in it. Below, the text "{{font|serif|{{color|blue|American International}}}}", in the same font as before, fades in below.

'''Byline:''' Starting in 1979, a byline reading "{{color|blue|{{font|Bauhaus 93|'''A FILMWAYS COMPANY'''}}}}" in the Filmways corporate font fades in below.

* Sometimes, the logo would fade out to make room for "'''{{font|Arial|{{color|blue|SAMUEL Z. ARKOFF presents}}}}'''".

*It also appears at the start of a March 8, 2023 UK airing of ''The Evictors'' (1979), following the 2012 MGM logo on Talking Pictures TV as well.

'''Visuals:''' On a black background, a globe of the Earth, with gold continents and black water, appears as an extreme close-up that rotates clockwise as a white light streaks across the edge of the globe. The camera follows the streak until it hits a low point, of which it reveals the "'''{{color|gold|a}}'''" from before, albeit with the globe replacing the dot, and the white letters "'''IP'''", forming "'''{{color|gold|{{Big|a}}}}IP'''". It zooms off to the upper left, shining with white lights as the globe continues to rotate. After it almost settles into place, the stacked text "{{Font|Times New Roman|{{color|gold|'''''American International Pictures'''''}}}}" slides in from the right, the globe stops at the Americas, and the logo settles into place. A MGM byline, with "MGM" in its corporate Metro-Mayer Serif font, appears below in white as the globe shines once more.