1492 Pictures

Background
1492 Pictures is the production company of director Chris Columbus and was founded in 1994 (with its first film, Nine Months; the following year). It is named after the year the explorer Christopher Columbus landed on the Bahamas, as well as a pun on the former's name.

Logo (July 14, 1995-)
Visuals: The sequence starts by seeing a thick white line surrounded by lens flares. As the lens flares disappear, the white line turns right, revealing a huge and detailed compass drawing with the numbers "Times New Roman" in it. The camera then zooms out in a box as the compass spins a few times around and disappears while the numbers "Times New Roman" remain in the background, which is a landscape of an ocean and clouds. The word "Times New Roman" is seen below and in spaced-out letters to fit the width of the box. The waves move in the logo after it is completely formed.

Variants:
 * Depending on the film, the logo either fades out, cuts to black or cuts to the start of the film.
 * At the end of The Help, the logo is still.
 * There is a television version of the logo where "Times New Roman" replaces "Times New Roman". The box also has a tint to it.

Technique: CGI by R/Greenberg Associates and Imaginary Forces.

Audio: A very dramatic and heroic orchestral fanfare, composed by Hans Zimmer. Sometimes, it's the opening theme of the movie. None for the still or TV versions.

Audio Variant: On I Kill Giants and Rent, the full logo is silent.

Availability:
 * It debuted on Nine Months.
 * Also seen on Rent, Christmas with the Kranks, Jingle All the Way, Pixels, Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Night at the Museum and its two sequels; among others (sometimes not until the end).
 * This doesn't appear on Stepmom, Bicentennial Man, the first three Harry Potter films, Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, and The Christmas Chronicles saga, however.
 * The TV version was seen on the short-lived reality series 3.