Cinema Club

Background

Cinema Club was a low-cost home video distributor formed in the early-1990's as a joint-venture between the UK division of RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video (later Columbia TriStar Home Video) and Video Collection International that focused on re-releasing feature films (mainly from Sony Pictures Entertainment) at low prices.

In 2002, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment sold their stake in Cinema Club and formed a new partnership with Universal Studios Home Video for the creation of the Universal Columbia Alliance (later named Universal Sony Alliance). Cinema Club was reorganised by VCI, with their label being used on full cost releases and the Cinema Club label being used on low cost releases. After VCI was renamed to 2 Entertain Video, the brand was retained by them as their low cost DVD distributor until 2007.

1st Logo (1995-2004)

Visuals: After the warning screen, the area inside of the golden filmstrip fades out, and the text "CINEMA CLUB", in a modified Gill Sans font, slides in from the top and bottom of the screen respectively, meeting in the centre. The logo remains still for the remainder of the time before it cuts to black.

Technique: 2D animation.

Audio: None.

Availability:

• Cinema Club VHS releases are very easy to find and are always guaranteed to have this logo. It can be seen after the warning screens.
• It is most commonly found on budget VHS releases of the Columbia TriStar catalogue, such as Jumanji, Labyrinth, various Muppets releases, the Ghostbusters 1 and 2 single tape set, among others.
• It also shows up on several Carry On releases, and budget releases of Buena Vista Home Entertainment films, such as Dick Tracy.
• DVD releases don't use this logo. VCI's logo was used instead but the Cinema Club logo does appear on the packaging of DVD releases however.
• This logo also does not appear on the 1999 UK VHS reissue of Men in Black (1997), which uses the Columbia TriStar Home Video logo instead, due to it reusing the 1998 VHS master.
• The logo continued to be used on VHS releases until at least 2004, as seen on the UK VHS release of Santa Claus: The Movie (1985).

2nd Logo (2004-2007)

Visuals: On a black background, a CGI rendition of the "CINEMA CLUB" text from before fades in, facing backwards as it zooms and rotates into the camera. The camera then suddenly flips as the text are shown facing the right way, and a lens flare appears as a modified version of the bright gold filmstrip frame from before fades in, and the text zooms into it. The camera also rotates upright during this. The lens flare then fades away as the gold turns into a more saturated shade.

Variant: On fullscreen DVD releases, the logo is letter-boxed to 4:3.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A deep drumroll is heard first, followed by the sounds of whooshing and a film camera rolling. A deep synth drone then plays throughout the rest of the logo.

Availability: Seen on UK DVD releases from the time period until 2007. However, the label was not used for VHS releases.

• Can be seen on a few DVD releases from the company, such as Batfink: The Complete Series and Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) with their logo following the 1995 VCI logo.
• It is also preserved on 2 Entertain distributed DVD releases after VCI was renamed to 2 Entertain in September 2005, with their logo following the 2 Entertain logo. Examples include, the 2005 UK DVD release of A Christmas Carol: The Musical, and the 2006 UK DVD release of The Road to Guantánamo, among others.