Odeon Cinemas

Background
Odeon, stylised as ODEON, is a cinema brand name operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Norway, which along with UCI Cinemas and Nordic Cinema Group is part of the Odeon Cinemas Group subsidiary of AMC Theatres. It uses the famous name of the Odeon cinema circuit first introduced in the UK in 1930.

1st Logo (1986-1997)
Logo: The logo starts with the words "The First Choice" appearing quickly and successively in a neon cursive font. After a few seconds, the neon red Odeon logo appears. The camera then pans out and begins to spin around the front of a black model Odeon cinema decorated with Odeon signage and neon red light strips. It goes over the top of the cinema before revolving to the entrance, moving up slightly so that it views the "tower" segment at an angle.

Variants: There were a lot of variants that were created for this particular era:
 * The feature presentation variant would effectively play the logo in reverse order. The camera starts looking up at the Odeon sign from the entrance and it then revolves back to the sign where "The First Choice" is replaced with "OUR FEATURE PRESENTATION" through a left-to-right fade in. The words "OUR FEATURE PRESENTATION" have a neon blue bar both above and below.
 * Sometimes, the words "SHOWING NEXT" would appear in a cursive font on the "tower" segment as soon as the camera stops. "SHOWING" is in orange while "NEXT" is in white. At some point during the logo's run, this was omitted and replaced with the words "SHOWING SOON", which appeared in a neon white bold font on the bottom right of the screen; the announcer would say "Welcome to the first choice".
 * Some break bumpers consisted of the neon cursive words "SHOWING NOW" or "SPECIAL, DON'T MISS IT!" placed underneath an Odeon sign on the front of the model. The music for these was a synth humming sound.
 * Another variant had the camera descending on the front of the model with Access and Visa logos (used at the time and with a neon white outline) flashing in successively on the bottom left of the screen. An Odeon gift voucher (also how it appeared at the time) flashes in on the bottom right a few seconds later. In this variant, the announcer would say "Enjoy your visit even more. Use your Access or Visa card and book your seats in advance in person or by phone. And Odeon gift vouchers are available so that your friends can enjoy a visit to this and every Odeon cinema - they're the perfect gift." while accompanied by the latter soundtrack.
 * If an intermission occurred (which didn't happen a lot even by then), then a variant would play where the camera moves very slowly towards the entrance side. On the right side of the screen, neon red/blue renditions of common cinema food and drink would flash from the top to the bottom accompanied by the bold white word "INTERMISSION" on the bottom. The earlier version would play the normal animation while the 1986 announcer said "2 minute warning: eats and drinks are now available. It's your last chance before the film.".

Technique: It was, quite simply, a model cinema of the Odeon branch in Harrogate which had lighting wired into it, placed into a dark room. The camera would then move around the model in various ways. Some CGI animation was put on to the model.

Music/Sounds:
 * The original 1986 theme was a rather serious and bouncy sounding synthesizer theme, which sometimes started in a triumphant-sounding way. It would sometimes be followed by an announcer which had a rather angry sounding tone.
 * After a few years, this was replaced with a more calmer sounding theme which sounds vaguely similar to "West End Girls" by the Pet Shop Boys. It was composed by Warren Bennett and, because of what it sounded similar to, was named "Dead End Girls". Also, the announcer was changed; their tone was much more calmer.

Availability: Extinct in cinemas, but it has been preserved by enthusiasts and might still be found on some obsolete cinema reels.

2nd Logo (1995?-1997)
Logo: Here we start out with two glowing spots that go in and out of frame a few times before colliding into an explosion of color and a cross-hair in the middle. In a tiny font in the bottom right corner, it reads "book your tickets by phone". After a few passes of the word "Odeon" and "Odeon Cinemas" a visual of someone typing on a keyboard appears. Again in the bottom right corner of that reads "you can pay by credit card" in a very small font. As more visuals and "Odeon" pass, now the small text reads on the left side "enjoy something to eat" then "something to drink". In the bottom middle as visuals pass it reads "Odeon gift vouchers are on sale". Finally a neon sign slowly creeps towards the screen reading "Welcome to ODEON cinemas" and fades once the sign gets close enough.

Technique: Lots of passing images of "odeon theater", keyboards and several other things.

Music/Sounds: A trance song consisting of drum beats.

Availability: Extinct. It wasn't easy to find during its run either; it was introduced not long before the "Fanatical About Film" logo below was rolled out which meant cinemas weren't using it for a long time and there were quite a lot of cinemas which didn't receive this logo at all and instead kept their "The First Choice" logo until the "Fanatical About Film" era started.

3rd Logo (1997-2002)
Logo: The logo starts with a spinning green light (possibly representing a film reel) that fades into some blurred green lights. They then flash to a darkish blue room, with the words "SINCE 1930" appearing on neon green lights. Some more flashes follow, and then the words "52 WEEKS PER YEAR" appear in the same way. More lights appear, and then "7 DAYS PER WEEK" start to flash on an angle before a blue light sweeps up the screen, to properly reveal the words. Then, the words "24 HOURS PER DAY" appear one by one as they flash with the light effects. At this point, a blue light spins to reveal the updated Odeon logo, this happens twice before the camera then shows the light shining on the glass closer up. The same shots of a blue light shining on the logo quickly are repeated a few more times at different angles before a neon "60" appears. A slow and bright flash then replaces that with "MINUTES PER HOUR" before another flash sweeps in. A red wave effect then slowly appears with the words "60 SECONDS PER MINUTE" below it, flashing slightly. The screen then shows multiple shots of this wave over a second, together with segments of "24 FRAMES PER SECOND" before showing it fully for less than a second. Shots of the Odeon logo at different points with an orange are shown briefly before the logo itself is shown. The end logo is a glass "ODEON" that shines blue (with some explosion effects behind it) for a split second before the words "FANATICAL ABOUT FILM" appear. Afterwards, the words that appeared on the logo before are shown very quickly before the screen cuts to black.

Technique: Mostly live action, though there are some effects. This was directed by Nick Livesey at RSA Films.

Music/Sounds: A rather dark sounding jazz tune. Composed by The Elements Music in Los Angeles, California.

Availability: Extinct.

Legacy: It's a favorite of many due to its unique effects and music.

4th Logo (2002-2006)
Logo: The entire logo consists of a black screen with pink text that explode into pink sparkles before going to the next line reading the following: "At www.Odeon.co.uk" "You can book tickets online" "register for exclusive offers" "and receive weekly film times by Email" "and book tickets" "by interactive TV" "with sky active" and a few more lines. After giving credit to the people who made the song in the background, the logo fades.

Technique: Pink sparkles.

Music/Sounds: A soft song playing.

Availability: No longer current. It was first introduced when Odeon launched a booking service on Sky Active in the first quarter of 2002 and was used in tandem with the 5th logo when it was introduced shortly afterwards.

5th Logo (2002-2008)
Logo: This logo consists of only a black screen and orange sparkles flashing from various places of the screen. After a bit of that, "Odeon" shows up for a few seconds and disappears. Finally, the last thing that happens is small text that reads "fanatical about film" before fading.

Technique: The orange sparkles.

Music/Sounds: A nice, lively song playing. It is actually "I Like It Like That" by Pete Rodriguez.

Availability: No longer current.

6th Logo (2008-2015)
Logo: On this logo, we start off with a similar setting as the last one, but in blue. There are also blue glares wiping across the screen as well. After a few seconds "Odeon" appears and is wiped out by another glare. Finally, just like the last logo, it again reads "fanatical about film" and after one more glare, the logo fades.

Technique: The glares and sparkles.

Music/Sounds: Music that seems to have been created on a computer.

Availability: No longer current.

7th Logo (2015- )
Logo: The "O" from the Odeon logo spins in to the centre of the screen. It plays different effects to the ones shown on the screen (multicolored explosions), which continues until the screening begins.

Technique: CGI.

Music/Sounds: A calm, quiet ambient droning sound.

Availability: Currently in use.

8th Logo (2021- )
Logo: TBA.

Technique: Same as the 13th AMC Theatres logo.

Music/Sounds: Same as the 13th AMC Theatres logo.

Availability: Currently in use with the previous logo.