Warner Bros. Pay TV/Warning Screen

(197?-2000's)


Warning: On a blue background, we see two white horizontal lines, the bottom one much thicker than the other. Between the lines, in an all-caps futuristic font, is this text:

THE FOLLOWING COPYRIGHTED MOTION PICTURE IS PRESENTED SOLELY FOR PRIVATE HOME VIEWING BY PAY TELEVISION SUBSCRIBERS. ALL COPYING, RECORDING OR OTHER USE OF THIS MOTION PICTURE WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE COPYRIGHT PROPRIETOR IS PROHIBITED, AND MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

Variant: A grayscale version appears on movies filmed in black-and-white.

Technique: None, just the warning fading in and out.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Appeared on Warner Bros.-owned films shown on pay cable channels and pay-per-view, the latter almost exclusively by the 1990s, and continued to be used into the 2000s on PPV and VOD prints.
 * Titles known to have used it include Tequila Sunrise, Batman Forever, Sphere and The Hobbit.
 * Surprisingly, it appeared on the 1981 VHS release of The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (right after the "Big W" logo). It also made surprise appearances on Disney Channel's prints of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and The Polar Express, TCM's print of Catalina Caper, and Warner Archive Instant's print of A Fine Pair. The black-and-white version was spotted on a print of Tall Story.
 * It has also been sighted on first two episodes of V (the 1984-85 series) on Tubi. On Freevee's print of the Falcon Crest episode "The Harvest", you can see a split-second of this screen fading out at the start, which was most likely an editing mistake.

Legacy: This screen has been noted for its longevity, appearing as late as March 2009.