Forum:October 1994-April 1995 New Line Cinema releases
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It was believed for a long time that both The Mask and Corrina, Corrina were the first two New Line releases to use the 1994 prototype GGI filmbox logo and in the case of the former, director Chuck Russell even said that The Mask was first movie to use it in his audio commentary that he did for the 1996 Laserdisc release (which was later included on both the 1997 and 2005 DVDs and the 2008 Blu-Ray). But this was later proven to be not true as it was confirmed that both The Mask and Corrina, Corrina both originally opened with the 1987 Filmbox logo and was plastered with the 1994 prototype logo on all home video releases. In the case of The Mask, in 2020 and 2021 both a theater bootleg copy and a 35mm print of The Mask surfaced and both opened with the 1987 logo. And in the case of Corrina, Corrina, current TV and streaming prints have the 1987 logo restored, though the 1999 DVD opens with the 1994 prototype logo. Currently, the 1994 prototype logo is said to have debuted on Wes Craven’s New Nightmare which was released in October 1994 and was also used on The Swan Princess, released a month later in November. It was believed that Dumb & Dumber (released in December 1994) was the first movie to use the regular/finalized version of the 1994 CGI logo. But I’m not sure if that was the case, because an Australian TV broadcast (uploaded by BrokenSaw) opened with the 1994 Prototype logo with the Roadshow Television logo appearing before it, which suggests that it’s possible that theatrical prints of Dumb & Dumber (and other late 1994-April 1995 New Line releases) originally opened with the 1994 prototype logo. However, I think that it’s also possible that all New Line releases from October 1994 to April 1995 opened with the 1987 logo. Especially, since the 1987 logo appeared on trailers and TV spots for those films and the closing variant of the 1987 logo also appears at the end of all releases from this era. And it’s since been confirmed that In The Mouth Of Madness was the last New Line release (February 1995) to open with the 1987 logo, since the recent Scream Factory Blu-ray restores it. The bulk of this is mostly my own speculation, but I would like to hear what you guys think. Do you think that New Line films released between October 1994 to April 1995 originally opened with the 1987 filmbox logo or the 1994 prototype CGI logo? |
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definitely the 1994 prototype CGI logo. |
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I'm guessing Friday originally used the regular version of the logo (with Turner byline, of course), but I'm not sure. As for the rest, I have no clue. And as far as the 1995 Mortal Kombat film is concerned, if it was released around May 1995, and all the releases before it (including Friday) had the prototype, that could make MK '95 the first film to use the regular version. Basically, we'll just have to wait and see... |
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Mortal Kombat wasn’t released until August 1995. But you do bring up an interesting point. I think it’s possible that the regular version (with the Turner byline) did in fact make its debut in 1995. But the question is where it exactly debuted. It’s possible that the regular version made it’s debut on on the 1995 VHS/Laserdisc release of Dumb & Dumber, possibly plastering over the 1994 prototype logo (or even the 1987 opening logo) while it made its theatrical debut on Friday. Though like you said, it’s also possible that the regular version did make it’s debut on Mortal Kombat. |
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I think we need to bring up the Turner-era closing logo as well. New Nightmare, Dumb and Dumber, and Friday all used the 3rd logo's closing variant. Meanwhile, as you pointed out, Mortal Kombat '95 came out in August, so the Turner-era closing variant had to be at the end of theatrical prints of that film. I'm not sure what films New Line released in between the releases of Friday (April 26, 1995, IIRC) and MK '95 (August 1995; I don't know exactly which day in August it came out though), so those might need to be brought up too. As of the original Swan Princess film, I'm guessing a New Line logo had to be on at least American theatrical prints. The VHS release, however, has no New Line logo at all. I'm going to guess that the closing logo was the 3rd logo's closing variant, but since New Line only had theatrical rights in America, we may never know for sure. We already know what In the Mouth of Madness has, so that's out of the discussion. |
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According to Wikipedia, the only theatrical release from New Line that was released between Friday and Mortal Kombat was My Family which was released on May 3, 1995 and that opened with the regular version with the Turner byline. Though I’m not sure if the 1987 closing logo or the Turner-era closing logo appeared at the end. The other releases in between Friday and Mortal Kombat were Little Odessa (which was released under the Fine Line Features label and was released on VHS through LIVE Entertainment) and Embrace Of The Vampire (which was released as a direct-to-video movie). |
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But what we don't know about is which logo was at the beginning of My Family in its original theatrical run. In fact, I think we might need to search for 35mm prints of New Line movies from October 1994 to at least August 1995 to see which New Line logos (especially the opening logos) appear. If any images are to be posted from such prints, there will be 2 ways to post them:
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There was a 35mm print of Dumb & Dumber that someone posted on the Wikifoundry version of this wiki, that had the regular version with the Turner byline. That being said, given what’s recently come to light, I’m not sure if if earlier theatrical prints used the 1994 prototype logo (or even the 1987 opening logo) and later theatrical prints used the regular version. |
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Update. I can confirm that Friday indeed did originally open with the regular version with the Turner byline. There’s a theater bootleg that someone posted to YouTube and it opens with the regular version with the Turner byline. And as mentioned earlier, In The Mouth Of Madness originally opened with the 1987 logo. With that being said, there were three other films that New Line released in between ITMOM and Friday, which were The Mangler, Don Juan DeMarco and The Basketball Diaries. I’m starting to think that the regular version probably either debuted on either The Mangler (released in March) or on Don Juan DeMarco (released in April) It’s also worth mentioning that the 1994 prototype logo also made one additional appearance beyond 1995. It reverse plastered the regular version with the Turner byline on the Widescreen Laserdisc release of the 1996 film Bed Of Roses. |
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Since the newer forums have been down for months now, I might as well "reopen" this thread. Now that we know that Friday originally used the regular version of the 1994 logo, My Family and Mortal Kombat '95 had to have used that version too. But the original closing logos on both films are still unclear. As for Don Juan, that used a audio variant of the logo, so if the regular 1994 logo debuted on that film, since Friday used the opening theme (technically, a line from the movie proper), that would mean My Family was the first to use the regular logo with the usual theme, assumin' the theme was used on the New Line logo there (and assumin' The Basketball Diaries had a silent logo). In the case of The Basketball Diaries, we'll have to check theatrical prints since PolyGram released the film on video (and for the record, the film was released on April 21, 1995, while The Mangler was released on March 3 and Don Juan was released on April 7)... Any thoughts on this? |
