Legendary Pictures

Background
Legendary Pictures is an American film production and mass media company based in Burbank, California, founded by Thomas Tull in 2000 after raising $500 million from private equity firms. It was one of the first companies of its kind to pair major motion picture production with major Wall Street private equity and hedge fund investors.

In 2005, the studio signed an agreement with Warner Bros. Pictures to co-produce and co-finance up to 40 films over seven years. In July 2013, Legendary reached an agreement with Universal Pictures in which it would market, co-finance, and distribute the studio's films for five years starting the following year, after their similar agreement with Warner Bros. expired. On January 11, 2016, Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group announced that it had concluded an agreement with shareholders to acquire the studio for $3.5 billion, making it the largest acquisition of an American media company by a Chinese firm.

On August 13, 2018, following the box office failure for many of their recent films, the distribution deal between Legendary and Universal ended the following year (although the two companies would later collaborate on the short-lived Debris through their television divisions in 2021) and a new agreement was reached to return to Warner Bros. Pictures later on.

1st Logo (November 17, 2005-February? 2006)
Nickname: "The Sword", "The Lost Legend"

Logo: We see a forest above a lake, all obscured by clouds. As the camera zooms in, a sword fades in with the words "LEGENDARY PICTURES", in a majestic font, in front of it. The clouds disappear as the logo fades in.

Variants:
 * Sometimes, the logo is still.
 * Early trailers for Superman Returns have a black background.
 * Early trailers for Lady in the Water have water with the sky reflecting off of it in the background.

FX/SFX: Simple zooming and fading animation.

Music/Sounds: The sound of wind followed by a majestic fanfare, or the trailer's opening theme. Composed by Musikvergnuegen.

Availability: Rare.
 * This was only seen on the first trailers for Superman Returns, Lady in the Water, and The Ant Bully.
 * Despite the logo being fully animated, it was pulled almost immediately and replaced with the next logo before usage on any of their films. However, this does appear in print form on promotional material for Batman Begins, their first film.

Editor's Note: It's a nice-looking logo, which makes it all the more confusing and disappointing on why it was pulled so quickly before showing up on any films.

2nd Logo (June 28, 2006-October 16, 2009)
Nicknames: "The Celtic Knot", "The Golden Celtic Knot"

Logo: Against a black background, we see an extreme close-up of a flame shooting downward. As the flame passes by the camera, it briefly leaves behind a cloud of smoke that obscures the screen. The camera pans back, and several more flames shoot across, eventually revealing a series of intertwining lines (resembling a Celtic knot) and the words "Copperplate" below it. As this all happens, the intertwining lines glow brightly with a white-red color, much like a heated branding iron, before "cooling down" to an orange color. A spotlight faintly shines over the finished product.

FX/SFX: CGI animation that was designed by Picturemill.

Music/Sounds: The sounds of fire accompanied by a violin/piano-like sound composed by Walter Werzowa.

Availability: Common. Can be seen on films produced by the company such as Superman Returns, The Ant Bully, and 300. The last film to use this logo was Where the Wild Things Are.

Editor's Note: This is a very neat logo, and is well remembered for its unique concept.

3rd Logo (April 2, 2010-July 12, 2013)
Nicknames: "The Celtic Knot II", "The Fiery Celtic Knot"

Logo: An enhanced version of the previous logo, which now has a much grungier appearance. The appearance of the first flame is now accompanied by a lens flare, the initial cloud of smoke has been removed, and particle effects from the flames, such as sparks, are visible throughout. The "branding iron" glow on the intertwining lines are now have a pulsating appearance, and have a slower, more gradual cooldown. The text now flies in from the lower-right corner of the screen word-by-word; and the finished logo, after zooming out, slowly rotates from right to left.

Variant: On later films from the studio starting with Jack the Giant Slayer, the word "Copperplate" is removed.

FX/SFX: CGI animation that was done by yU+co in association with Picturemill.

Music/Sounds: A triumphant fanfare, composed by Hans Zimmer, accompanied with the same sounds of flames from the previous logo (albeit more subdued in volume).

Music/Sounds Variant: On Picturemill's Vimeo page, the last logo's fanfare is heard.

Availability: First seen on Clash of the Titans. Also seen on Jonah Hex, Inception, The Town, Due Date, the last Hangover films, The Dark Knight Rises, Jack the Giant Slayer, 42, and Pacific Rim.

Editor's Note: This is a nice improvement over the previous logo, and the majestic triumphant fanfare really showcases this.

4th Logo (April 24, 2014-April 12, 2019)
Nicknames: "The Celtic Knot III", "The Celtic Knot In Space"

Logo: Same concept as the previous two logos; but the "branding iron/fire" properties, as well as the previous logo's grungy aesthetic, have now been discarded. A streak of light now illuminates the logo, which along with the text has been redone in a pristine, shiny  color. The logo is also now set against a black- space background, and the view moves 180-degrees clockwise.

FX/SFX: Entirely done in CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: The same Hans Zimmer theme from the previous logo, but with the ending note extended to fit with the length of the logo. The fire sound effects have also been changed. Starting with ''Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again'', it uses a different triumphant theme composed by Frank Ilfman, with the full version getting eventually released on YouTube by Ilfman himself, which can be heard here.

Availability: First seen on the trailer for As Above, So Below. The fully animated version debuted on Godzilla and last appeared on Little.

Editor's Note: Another improvement on the original 2006 logo, once again reflected with a really nice and epic theme.

5th Logo (May 7, 2019-)
Nicknames: "The Celtic Knot IV", "The Infinite Celtic Knot"

Logo: Similar to the last logo, but the light streaks on the Celtic knot are now, and the knot itself has visible paint textures on it (as opposed to the polished look from the previous logo). During the logo's rotation, we also see a trail of infinite identical Celtic knots underneath the logo, which fade into in a distant but bright white light; the trail of knots and light all fade to black as the logo zooms out to its normal position. The logo retains its color from before, now with a  trim, while the name is in a metallic sans-serif font. The background has also been changed from a space one to a plain and darker blue one.

FX/SFX: Entirely done in CGI from yU+co, who solely designed it here.

Music/Sounds: The same Frank Ilfman theme as the last logo, with another new set of flame sound effects.

Availability: Current. While its theatrical debut was on Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, the logo technically debuted on an official joke video uploaded to YouTube on May 7, 2019, before the movie's official release. Also seen on films such as Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Enola Holmes, Dune and at the end Fresh. Don't expect this to appear on the start of Fresh and Jurassic World: Dominion, for the latter, their agreement with Universal ended in 2018, as the company produced the film with Universal on the last two films.

Editor's Note: This is an exceptionally well-done logo, even if it could have more potential, and is a worthy successor to the previous logos.