Franchise Pictures

Credits

Descriptions by
MatthewLMayfield and TheLogoFan2004

Captures by
Dison

Video captures courtesy of
EnormousRat, Jack Wong, Rafael Sanchez and LogicSmash

Background

Franchise Pictures was an independent film company founded in 1997 known for rescuing pet projects and their production of action films. Much of their output was negatively-reviewed and/or bombed at the box office. The company's first few films were distributed by Morgan Creek Productions in North America, but since Morgan Creek lacked an in-house distributor, the films were distributed via Morgan Creek's domestic distributor, Warner Bros. which also handled distribution themselves in several other international territories. Internationally, sales for Franchise's titles were handled by Intertainment. The company hit a major bump with the release of the wildly infamous Battlefield Earth, which was slammed by critics, went drastically over-budget due to the company's embezzlements and marketing, and grossed only $29.7 million at the box office out of an overall $73 million budget. Already hit with major losses from the movie, Franchise was later sued into bankruptcy with accusations of purposely inflating the film's budget. The company, as well as its subsidiary Phoenician Entertainment, closed in 2004, although many unproduced films they funded were released years afterwards. The film library of Franchise Pictures, is now owned of half by Orange Holdings LLC., along with TH!NKFilm, and another half is owned by Revolution Studios (via Morgan Creek Entertainment).

Logo (July 6, 1999-February 15, 2005)

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  Early print version

Visuals: The logo starts out by panning through a street with many buildings, then the camera pans out to a skyscraper with "FRANCHISE" in Haettenschweiler above it, and "PICTURES" in the same font on the base. The background soon changes to a teal background.

Variants:

• A short version has the first 4 seconds cut off.
• On Heist, the logo is black and white and the camera only pans up to the skyscraper.
• On Green Dragon, the word "CLASSICS" in Trajan Pro flows from the right (a la Universal Pictures) and places on the skyscraper.
• On earlier releases from the company, the logo is a blue still of the skyscraper and company name in a white box.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: An ascending, majestic orchestral fanfare composed by David & Eric Wurst. On some films, it's the opening theme or none.

Availability: It was first seen in print form on early films distributed by the company, such as The Confession and A Murder of Crows. The animated version debuted on The Boondock Saints. A teal print variant also appeared on the GBA game A Sound of Thunder.

Legacy: Despite the quality of the company's output, the logo exhibits some great CGI.