1492 Pictures

Background
1492 Pictures is the production company of director Chris Columbus and was founded in 1994 (with its first film, Nine Months, being released 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: First, there is 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.