Cineplex Odeon Theatres
Background
After successfully winning a legal challenge against the Famous Players/Canadian Odeon duopoly and their exclusive contracts with major studios, in June 1984, Cineplex bought Canadian Odeon Theatres who owned 164 theaters with 297 screens for $12 million, to become Cineplex Odeon. The Bronfman family was a major investor in the purchase. They would undergo many more acquisitions in the years to come, including Essaness Theatres, Neighborhood Theatres, and RKO Century Theatres. In 1986, they formed Cineplex Odeon Films and Cineplex Odeon Video. In April 1998, a merger between Cineplex Odeon and Loews Theatres occurred, forming Loews Cineplex Entertainment. Alliance Atlantis would acquire Cineplex Odeon Films and Cineplex Odeon Video in the process.
1st Logo (June 28, 1985-1999)
Visuals: On a starfield background, the Cineplex Odeon logo appears and slowly zooms in. It then gets bombarded with red lasers before splitting into many squares (with the ones on the edges curved), which flip forward. The logo zooms past some of the squares before another Cineplex Odeon logo appears, in which 3 red rings wipe around it. Then after it stops zooming, "FEATURE PRESENTATION", above the "O", and "CINEPLEX ODEON THEATRES" appears below it in the Friz Quadrata font. It appears like this:
FEATURE PRESENTATION
CINEPLEX ODEON
THEATRES
Coming Soon Variant: Fading in from black, the camera starts rotating over the walls of a coliseum, with mountains and other ruins seen as silhouettes over a evening sky. As the camera moves around, the coliseum's seats fade to a glassy purple before a red line cuts into the seats and begins to zoom out, segueing into the next part. Here, the background has transformed into a starfield and the purple glass seats become the Cineplex Odeon logo, which is a segmented "O" with 4 sections in general and split down the middle, with it also designed to give the illusion of depth, which starts rotating towards the screen. After it stops spinning, the "O" becomes a metallic purple and the words "COMING ATTRACTIONS" appear above the "O" and "CINEPLEX ODEON THEATRES" appears below it, in the Friz Quadrata font, and fades to black. It appears like this:
COMING ATTRACTIONS
CINEPLEX ODEON
THEATRES
Variants:
- 1986-1989: The logo was reduced in size and has a bit of a blue tint.
- 1989-1999: The logo was further reduced in size and has a deeper shade of purple. The background is also darker.
Trivia: This was also used as the Cineplex Odeon Home Video presentation ident used from 1985-1990.
Technique: CGI.
Audio:
- 1985-1989 (Mono track): A dramatic synth fanfare that increases in volume accompanied by plinks when red streaks cut the oval into squares.
- 1989-1999 (Dolby Stereo track): A percussive roman/jungle-like fanfare, with mixed percussion and whooshes for the rings and lasers was used.
- Coming Soon 1985-1986: A series of trumpet fanfares over the sound of wind. It then leads to a "bang" sound effect before leading into a fanfare that sounds like the Cineplex Odeon Home Video logo at the time.
- Coming Soon 1986-1999: Low synth notes play during the beginning. This leads to a different "bang" sound and goes into a soft synth piano tune.
2nd Logo (1985-1999)
Visuals: On a black background, two transparent-white objects of what appear to be extruded and outlined text appear and begin to move from the top and bottom edges of the screen towards each other. After they reach the centre of the screen, they continue moving, and the front ends of the extruded text begin to move away from the screen, reducing the extrusion of the text. Once the text no longer looks 3D, the text becomes filled with white and glows. At the same time, a more contrasted version of the purple-lined "O" from the previous logos appear between the text, and the outlines of the individual segments of the "O" quickly glow one at a time. The text dims down to a teal/light gray gradient colour, and continues to shine for a few seconds. The top text reads "NOW PLAYING AT", while the bottom text reads "CINEPLEX ODEON THEATRES". It is arranged like this:
NOW PLAYING AT
CINEPLEX ODEON
THEATRES
Technique: Cel animation.
Variant: A still variant exists.
Audio:
- 1985-1989: A synthesized fanfare beginning with a long swoosh that ends after the text glows.
- 1989-1999: A rising synth sound building up to a cymbal crash, a guitar chord, and the same drums from the Feature Presentation bumper.
Audio Variant: The still variant has announcer Dave Duvall saying "Now Playing at a Cineplex Odeon Theatre near you!"
3rd Logo (1999-2004)
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Visuals: On a animated blue background (not like the previous logo), there is a countdown from 8 to 2, with spinning outlined circles surrounding it. The countdown becomes faster and faster, and the circles start to form the Cineplex Odeon logo from before. The words "CINEPLEX ODEON" appear letter-by-letter by a light. They are coloured white, and a laser beam turns them yellow. "CINEMAS" and the Loews Cineplex Entertainment byline fade in. A light appears below "CINEMAS" and "FEATURE PRESENTATION" wipes in at the same position of the light. Another light occurs on "FEATURE PRESENTATION", which makes the words crossfade into "ENJOY THE SHOW".
Coming Soon Variant: There is a theatre curtain with two spotlights illuminating it. The curtain opens to reveal another curtain of another colour, which opens to reveal more opening curtains of different colours. The last one of them opens to reveal a blue background with the new Cineplex Odeon logo (now gold and with 3 circles instead of 4) along with "CINEPLEX ODEON" and "CINEMAS" below, in white and yellow colours respectively. Below there's a Loews Cineplex Entertainment byline. Two spotlights suddenly appear and reveal "COMING SOON", also yellow.
Technique: CGI. A combination of live action and CGI for the coming soon variant.
Audio: Loud gun sounds, along with short whooshes when the CINEPLEX ODEON text appears.
Coming Soon Audio Variant: An ascending fanfare, along with whooshes. A 3-note bell tune is heard after that.
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Cineplex Odeon Theatres |
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