HBO Feature Presentation

Credits

Descriptions by
James Fabiano, Kris Starring, Zach Harden, Kylejaker1988, Logoarto and Mysterious_Guy

Captures by
Thatvhstapeguy, TheRealMarcel2000, and Alexander 1999

Editions by
Jeff B., Yoshidude987, TheMisterFree, and Trevor807

Video captures courtesy of
HBO, Imaginary Forces, Broken Saw, Tyree McKelton, Alex Garza, VectraQS, Venezuelan Rec, NDGAMING Offical channel, Satur-DANG!, Tommy Hale, Westley West, ia2000skid, William William, Carlos Aguilar, Alan, and Chuck D's All-New Classic TV Clubhouse

This article is about the feature presentation bumpers. For their regular idents, see HBO. For their production logos, see HBO Entertainment.

1st Bumper (May 11, 1975-September 19, 1982)

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Visuals: Over a black-blue gradient background, the logo starts with the word "SPECIAL" zooming towards the camera, leaving a few copies behind it. Then, as the word stops zooming, the copies of the text slide in various directions, towards the edge of the screen. Then, they merge back together into one text. A gold HBO logo then rapidly zooms in, then zooms back out inside the "C" in "SPECIAL".

Technique: Analog computer effects.

Audio: A disco-like fanfare, with an announcer saying "The following program is a special presentation from Home Box Office".

Availability: Only seen on the channel's first broadcasts.

2nd Bumper (1979-September 19, 1982)

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Visuals: The sequence starts out with a space background with a light grid sheet rapidly moving across the bottom. Then, there are two triads of searchlights light up on the left and right sides, eventually crossing over each other. At the same time, blue lights appear and many yellow rays rapidly move towards the screen, followed by blue rays, yellow circles, yellow zigzags, colorful criss-cross lines, blue and yellow straight lines, and finally wavy yellow lines with curvy red lines between them. Then the camera pans up to the searchlights, which move down to reveal a box of popcorn with many kernels shooting out. The screen cuts to a scene of five yellow popcorn kernels flying around the screen and falling down with a "shadow" effect, before they draw a marquee with several neon lines and designs (looking like that of the Orpheum or Pantages theater), and the camera zooms in below it. Then, the screen cuts to a plain black screen, and the stacked words "HBO FEATURE MOVIE" zoom out and pan down with a "shadow" effect, flashing when they settle on the background. After the flash dies down, lines appear behind each word, and the text turns red. Finally, the lines shine repeatedly.

Technique: A mix of live-action shots and backlit cel animation, shot with motion control cameras and slit-scan, then composited together (similar to how the space battles in Star Wars were made). All of the 1979 idents were produced at Robert Abel & Associates.

Audio: An orchestral fanfare that sounds very similar to the Star Wars theme, with the last portion sounding eerily similar to Star Trek's theme.

Availability: Last seen on HBO in 1982.

3rd Bumper (1979-September 19, 1982)

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Visuals: The camera travels down an infinite loop of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where there are several movie-related items (including a glass slipper, a box of popcorn, and a soda bottle, among others) on the left and right sides of the screen. The screen then zooms into a screen that shows a color-changing background and the aforementioned objects moving around while briefly morphing into blobs, before cutting back to the Walk of Fame where a box office gradually zooms in as the sky turns to a night sky and searchlights move around it. When the box office comes close to the screen, it cuts to the "HBO FEATURE MOVIE" text animating as usual.

Technique: Cel animation, combined with camera-controlled animation effects.

Audio: A jazz rendition of the fanfare.

Availability: This was last seen on HBO in 1982. This appears on The World of Robert Abel, an installment in Pioneer's 1985 LaserDisc series Visual Pioneers.

4th Bumper (1979-September 19, 1982)

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Visuals: On a space background with a gridded floor is several bright lights drawing in a stylized movie theater complete with a box office and a marquee with the text "H.B.O. FEATURE MOVIE" on both sides. The screen then zooms into a yellow star on the marquee, and the screen cuts to more bright lights drawing in the interior of the theater. As the camera slowly zooms in, a red curtain on the center rises to reveal a blue pair of curtains, which open as the camera zooms in and it fades to the "HBO FEATURE MOVIE" text animating as usual.

Technique: Scanimate animation, combined with the motion-controlled ending.

Audio: An alternate version of the fanfare used in the first logo of the time, only slower and louder.

Availability: Last seen on HBO in 1982.

5th Bumper (1979-September 19, 1982)

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Visuals: On a space background, the screen pans through and around many abstract shapes of various colors and sizes, some of which light up. At one point, a circle with a star passes by the shapes, with a bubble trail passing through them shortly after. After a while, a stylized yellow screen moves in from the right and the screen zooms into it as it starts showing the "HBO FEATURE MOVIE" text animating as usual.

Technique: Camera-controlled/cel animation.

Audio: A bouncy disco version of the fanfare.

6th Bumper (1979-September 19, 1982)

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Visuals: There is a futuristic-like city at twilight, and the camera pans to the left where a neon movie theater is seen with searchlights scanning the sky. Then the screen zooms into the entrance and see a bird's-eye view of the theater, lit in brown and orange. The screen slowly zooms into the projection screen and the camera fades to the "HBO FEATURE MOVIE" text animating as usual.

Technique: A combination of CGI and live-action.

Audio: A moody, funky, and smooth version of the fanfare.

7th Bumper (1979-September 19, 1982)

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Visuals: On a black background, purple streaks rain down the screen diagonally as the screen fades to see a gray rounded rectangle with a neon pink outline rotating and zooming out, with an ocean at the bottom of the screen. When it disappears, a blue circular flash brings forth a series of gold bars that fly towards the screen at an angle. They eventually form a theater hallway with the ocean turning into a black floor, and a brown screen quickly zooms in as the "HBO FEATURE MOVIE" text starts animating as usual.

Technique: Scanimate, combined with the camera-controlled animated ending.

Audio: A relaxing synth version of the fanfare mixed with drums.

Availability: This was the last intro HBO used until the "HBO In Space" logo debuted in September 1982.

8th Bumper (September 20, 1982-October 31, 1997)

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Notes:

• The eleventh video is a partial recording of the "Screen on the Green" variant.

Visuals: As the sequence starts with a man tuning the cable on a TV set for a channel (to HBO) in his apartment as he settles down on the couch with his wife. The camera pans backwards and outside the window to show a somewhat busy city intersection with figurines of vehicles and people standing on the sidewalk at twilight. The music starts, and the camera "flies" forward down the street, through several intersections. At one point, a movie theater with "HBO THEATRE" on the marquee can be seen. The camera flies over some buildings before going into the suburbs, with lots of trees, then several houses and a clock tower. Then the camera pans up into the sky, which briefly takes sunset hues before becoming blue and black with a starfield. The camera goes up into space, eventually panning up to reveal the source of the light; a star (positioned near the top center of the screen) that gets brighter and brighter, and eventually explodes in a scarlet and blue gemstone-shaped flash, leaving behind a shiny chrome model monolith. The monolith moves down and across the screen and rotates clockwise, revealing that it is the HBO logo, then turns around one more time as the camera then zooms in on the side of the "O". The side of the "O" disappears in a flash of light, revealing a stream of red, yellow and blue rays streaking counterclockwise around a silver axis, and "HBO FEATURE PRESENTATION", in a heavy, lavender 3D "gaspipe" font and with each word stacked on top of the other (as well as a line under "PRESENTATION"), appears against an array of purple lines. Some more rays sweep across the words and shine, then the background fades to black with more flashes from the surrounding rays.

Trivia:

• In 2008, this logo was parodied in the music video for Justice's "DVNO".
• The HBO short-form interstitial series Behind the Scenes, which aired between features from the early 1980s to about the early 1990s, had one episode titled "A Closer Look: Inside HBO's City" devoted to showing virtually all the work behind this logo and how the ideas of the bumper came up. It should be worth noting that the "HBO" letters were originally designed with a variant of the 1975-1980 logo in mind, with the "O" being not as deep in the "B", before being redesigned to the 1980 logo. The episode can be viewed here.
• From 1993 to 2018, HBO sponsored Bryant Park Movie Nights (one block away from HBO's headquarters in New York City), where movies are projected on a massive screen to an audience every summer. The long version starting from the fog was played before each feature. The intro begins with "Bryant Park Summer Film Festival" in an old fashioned red and yellow font. Then the intro continues as normal. Some organizers and moviegoers in the park have been known to dance to the music.
• A similar thing happened in Washington, D.C., where HBO co-sponsored a film festival known as "Screen on the Green" along with Comcast from 2005-2015. Numerous accounts say that people used to get up and wave their arms left and right above their head when the bumper came on.

Variants:

• Beginning in late 1983, the long version starts off with the city covered in fog (which slowly clears up), then has the camera pan across the city as usual.
• A short version of the logo that starts before the "big bang" was shown most often (the long version would only be used for new features).
• There were multiple different endings used depending on what type of program was shown. They include "HBO Feature Presentation" (the standard version), "HBO Premiere Presentation" (for HBO Premiere Films before they were renamed to HBO Pictures), "HBO Family Showcase", "HBO Classic Feature", "HBO Theatre", "HBO Music", "HBO Saturday Night Movie", "HBO Sunday Night Movie", "HBO Special", "HBO Comedy", "HBO Rock", "Standing Room Only", "HBOriginal", "HBO Sports", "On Location", and "World Premiere Presentation", the latter being used in 2019, when it was remastered.
• Two April Fools Day variants that used much cheaper versions of the model city, the HBO monolith and the end card also exist: one used "HBO Feature Presentation" in the style of a rebus puzzle (H-bee-O Feet-Y-oar Present-A-shun) which flipped up into the screen, while the other had the "lyrics" to the song in a "follow the bouncing ball" style over the model city. When the screen reaches to space, the familiar HBO, now in aluminum foil held by some string, falls down and is spun around by a hand. "HBO FEATURE PRESENTATION" in cheaply arranged paper letters fade in on a black background with a pair of live-action hands briefly making odd movements over it (the rebus puzzle version also faded to this, but with only a half-second of hand movement).
• Some end cards had the lines colored royal blue or a red-gray gradient.
• An extended version exists. After the man tunes the cable to HBO, him and his family are seen sharing popcorn while HBO is being tuned on TV before zooming out the window. This was apparently used in the first weeks this intro debuted.
• Occasionally, during debuts of popular films, when the streaks move around the "O", it cross-fades to a promo, and when the promo ended it fades back to the "Feature Presentation" version, which ends normally.
• For HBO's joint venture with Silver Screen Partners, the HBO logo portion was adapted for its logo; this was seen only on the 1984 movie Flashpoint.
• On HBO Hungary in the mid-1990s, a bumper has the full logo playing as normal until the end where the HBO logo fades away before the rays appeared, then a still "HBO" logo appeared in front of the space background.

Technique: Not a single computer-generated image was used to make this bumper. The city is an intricately detailed model with lightbulbs placed under the houses, from which a motorized camera was used to film it. There were also crew members who puffed smoke into the city to add the atmosphere. The starburst before the HBO logo appears is the "stargate" animation, made with two pieces of art and is moved around and animated traditionally, frame-by-frame. That effect was done by David Bruce. The HBO logo itself is a model made of brass and is chrome-plated and combined with the starry sky background. The part with the colored rays was actually a series of fiber optics with motors and gears and pulleys used to change the colors and move them around and put inside the chrome "O". All done by Liberty Studios in New York City.

Audio: The sounds of the TV in the opening scene (beginning with a TV host saying "On your big bonus question for..." before getting cut off when the man changes the channel), followed by some honking horns and city noises (or, in the short version, a whoosh, and the fog variant contains wind sounds) A piano/string chord is heard, which leads into a dramatic orchestral theme that gets progressively more tense. When the star explodes, phasing sounds are heard, culminating in a very loud, upbeat, almost disco-style horn-driven overture, ending with synth sweeps (representing the rays "inside" the "O"). Composed by Ferdinand J. Smith with a 65-man orchestra.

Audio Trivia: There is a full length pop version of the theme, also composed by Ferdinand J. Smith, which was also the second part of the network's main theme song, known as "HBO Main Theme", also known as "The Fantasy", while the music, as heard above, albeit without sound effects, is the first part of that song. It was released in vinyl and cassette tape, with the latter only featured the instrumental vision and being given to radio listeners. The full album, entitled "HBO: Music Made for Television", including the full version of the network's main theme song, with and without vocals, can be heard here.

Audio Variants:

• For the first few months the bumper was used, a different end-tune that was similar to the "HBO Special" version played instead of the normal end.
• For the "Family Showcase" variant, the music would get softer and play an uplifting theme just after the "O" disappears.
• For the "HBO Music/HBO Rock" variants, a rock guitar tune would play near the end.
• For the "HBO Special" variant, a faster-paced horn tune would play, which sounds kind of like a game show theme.
• For the "Standing Room Only" variant, an upbeat, fast-paced tune would play.
• For the "On Location" variant, a slow, jazzy tune would play.
• One April Fools variant had the theme being played on kazoos, while a "BOING!" sound is heard while the aluminum HBO comes in on the background.
• For the "HBO Comedy" bumper, a "comedic" tune would play.
• For the "cross-fade promo" version, a voice-over would begin speaking as the camera enters the interior of the "O", and the first variant mentioned played under the VO at the end.
• For the "HBOriginal" variant, a noir film style piece would play.
• For its 2019 appearance, the fanfare was re-recorded at a lower key.
• The Hungary variant has a voiceover at the end.

Availability: It can be seen on HBO's YouTube channel. This was also screened before movies in Bryant Park in New York City until 2019, shown every Monday evening in summer, and on "Screen on the Green" in Washington, D.C. until 2015. It reappeared on the 2019 special Dan Soder: Son of a Gary.

Legacy: One of the most beloved opening bumpers of the 1980s, thanks to its effects and theme, which HBO has consistently continued to use in modified forms ever since.

9th Bumper (November 1, 1986-October 31, 1997)

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Visuals: There is a heliotrope HBO logo across a vertical filmstrip with light rays shooting through it. The camera pans around and zooms back from several CGI squares glowing in various neon colors. Then, the lights shoot out the last square and light up a group of small dots glowing in rainbow colors, then zoom out to reveal a light purple HBO logo with "Movie" in a script font and in a raspberry-like color with the rainbow circles on a black background behind it.

Variants:

• On HBO Hungary, "Mozi" (Hungarian for "movie") replaces "Movie", and the colors are brighter.
• In Poland, "Film" replaces "Movie".
• In Brazil, "Apresenta" (Portuguese for "presents") appears in "Movie"'s place.
• Most other foreign versions of the channel probably have "movie" written in their own native language as well.

Technique: CGI by Pacific Data Images.

Audio: A loud electric guitar tune, which culminates into a brief, funky new wave theme that at the very end ends with another electric guitar strum and a twinkling fade-out.

Availability: It was last seen on HBO in 1997.

10th Bumper (1986-1998)

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Visuals: On a violet/white CGI background with a dark blue floor is many colored shapes zooming through the screen. A black rectangle zooms in slowly and settles on a stack of other rectangles on a black base, as two more rectangles fly in and stack themselves above it, and a hot pink HBO logo rises up from it. As the camera starts rotating, the gold words "SPECIAL PRESENTATION" zoom out with a shadow effect and plaster themselves on the front of the base, and the camera stops on a slight angle (a la 20th Century Studios).

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A synthesized rock fanfare with guitar and drums.

Availability: Mainly appeared on HBO specials in the late '80s-early '90s, though it appeared as late as 1998. It appeared on The Roseanne Barr Special and George Carlin's Jammin' in New York. Most of the specials are on home video; the latter title contains it. It also appeared when HBO aired The Celluloid Closet.

11th Bumper (1990-1993)

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Visuals: On a black-reddish gradient background, there is a translucent filmstrip that has a blue circle with lines dividing it in four quadrants in the style of a movie countdown on its center. Squares fly through its sprocket holes, and a circular light beam shines below its center, starting a countdown of the letters "H", "B", and "O". As this happens, the camera pans to the left and slowly zooms in on the countdown with the beam of light extruding through the circle. After the "O" appears, the circle turns into an "O" and another "O" flies through the film strip and the beam of light with several "O"s appearing and flying behind it. More light beams appear on the left and right as everything turns blue, and the screen scrolls to a stone platform where the "O"s land, after which the screen pans out to reveal it’s part of the word "ORIGINAL" with blue lines above and below. As this happens, the words "THE HBO" scroll in from the left and rest above "ORIGINAL" and the camera zooms out to reveal the word "MOVIE" below it. The platform has two sets of four light beams, one arranged vertically on the top left corner and the second arranged horizontally above the word "HBO". A filmstrip scrolls up behind the logo as a spotlight passes through it twice.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: It begins with an electric guitar solo that segues into a synthesized rock piece with bells heard as the "O"s fly down and synched with the "O"s landing on top of each other.

Availability: It was seen at the beginning of TV movies produced by HBO at the time and only on their original broadcasts.

12th Bumper (August 1991-1993)

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Visuals: There is a countdown with the letters "H", "B", and "O". When it stops, it starts again as a globe bounces on it and onto a round red layer with the word "MOVIES" and several gold banners with the words "HBOmovies" on them circling it. The globe bounces into a filmstrip, imprinting bouncing globes onto it, then bounces on the "M" and moves to another layer with the word "BOXING" and several "HBOboxing" banners on it. The globe and the letter "B" fight with each other, pushing the globe onto a layer with the word "MUSIC" and several "HBOmusic" banners, as a bunch of globes appear. Three of the globes turn red and bounce onto a new layer with "FAMILY" and "HBOfamily" banners. The "F" juggles them, throwing them onto a final layer with "COMEDY" and "HBOcomedy" banners. The "C" laughs as the countdown appears again. It turns into an "O", which zooms out to reveal the rest of the HBO logo, and the globe bounces into the middle of the "O".

Variants:

• There were five 15-second versions of the opening where the globe bounces on one layer before the first layer returns.

Technique: CGI produced by Jill Taffet at Pacific Data Images.

Audio: A calypso/rock theme with a voiceover saying "Blockbuster movies. Original movies!" (cheering) "Boxing." (Series 1000 boxing ring bell sound effect) (boxing commentator mentions "Holyfield") "Big music events." (few guitar notes, voice, cheering) "HBO for kids." "Toto, come on, here boy! We haven't got much time Toto!" "Serious comedy." "Is this funny or what?" (Series 1000 laughing sound effect) "HBO."

Audio Variants:

• "Movies" ID: A voiceover (with a robotic filter) says "Die Hard 2. Young Guns 2. Presumed Innocent. Flatliners. Days of Thunder. Goodfellas. Ghost. Rocky V. Postcards from Heaven." Another voiceover says "Simply the best movies!"

13th Bumper (November 1, 1997-November 5, 1999)

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Visuals: In a widescreen effect (with the letterbox bars having a black and blue background) is the white words "FEATURE PRESENTATION" appear over the HBO logo, which is in one of many situations (like the ITV "Hearts" idents from the same time). For example, one scenario involves the HBO logo inside a limo with several paparazzi stumbling to get to the limo and taking several pictures. Another features the camera panning around a skyscraper to reveal the top of the skyscraper is in the shape of the HBO logo (an influence on the next logo). Finally, another one shows the HBO logo in a fish tank.

Variant: The first few uses of this logo had a brief look at the movie that's going to play. The logo started as usual, but the word "NOW" zoomed in. Some clips from the following movie then played, before the appearance of the HBO logo in this logo appeared, with the "NOW" animation playing again, and the full logo played as normal after that.

Technique: CGI, often mixed with live action, produced by Telezign.

Audio: A 12-note cover of the 1982 fanfare in different instruments depending on the variant, composed by RK Music. The "Now" variant features an announcer saying over the music "It's on, now. [brief description of movie]. [2 actors from movie] in, [movie title]. It's on HBO, right now."

Availability: These bumpers were only used for two years before the next one came along.

14th Bumper (November 6, 1999-April 1, 2011)

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Visuals: There is a busy street intersection with a theater (a homage to the theater briefly shown in the 8th opening) displaying the HBO logo and the words "FEATURE PRESENTATION" on its marquee. The camera zooms into the theater, past the box office (a homage to the zooming box office from the 3rd opening) and into a bright light. After the light dims down, the camera starts zooming down a street in a residential neighborhood with cars driving and people walking about, and goes through a bridge superstructure shaped like an "H", after which it zooms down a rural highway, passing farms and such. After some fog obscures the screen is the camera zoom down a mountain road, flying over a pit, and heading down a "B" shaped tunnel. The tunnel leads to a desert road surrounded with gorges and cliffs at the other end, and the camera zooms into a truck with an "O"-shaped cylindrical tank, taking the screen through another transition. The screen ends up zooming through a CGI rendering of the city from the 8th opening, then into a skyscraper-filled downtown. Passing through the buildings with a lens flare effect, the camera travels down a freeway as lights from behind several buildings quickly turn on, followed by more lights ahead of them. The camera pans and takes the screen into an aerial view above the clouds, and the spotlights outlining an HBO-logo shaped harbor is shown. The 3D letters "FEATURE" fly in and come together over the HBO logo, and a flash below them brings forth a dark blue rectangle with the word "PRESENTATION" appearing on it letter-by-letter as the screen tilts above the HBO-shaped harbor.

Variant: A shorter, much more common version of this logo was available, which starts off with the lights lighting up. The full version, as described above, was only shown on Saturday night movie premieres from November 6, 1999 to March 26, 2011.

Technique: CGI, directed and designed by Mark Johnston at Pittard Sullivan and animated by Computer Cafe.

Audio: The long version has a powerful, dramatic orchestral fanfare that uses the 12-note HBO fanfare at the beginning, and near the end. During the "HBO City" sequence, there are whooshes that can be heard from passing cars and buses. The short version has just the final seconds of the orchestral fanfare.

Availability: It may appear on old tapes, DVDs, and/or digital recordings between 1999 and 2011. It debuted on November 6, 1999 before the HBO premiere of Saving Private Ryan. This also appeared on most of the HBO multiplex channels from 2002 onward (with the exception of HBO Family).

15th Bumper (April 2, 2011-)

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Visuals: On a black background, a flash appears, turning into a cerulean aurora background as the HBO logo appears on the left and the words "Feature Presentation" (in the Gotham Book font) appear on the right.

Variant: Other channels have their logo in place of their partner logo. Examples are HBO Latino (which replaces the text with "Pelicula") and HBO Family.

Technique: CGI by Jesse Vartanian.

Audio: A brief ascending section of strings, followed by an orchestrated version of the 12-note HBO fanfare, composed by Made Music Studio. HBO also made a prototype fanfare featuring just a latter part of the music out of just a bass and violin, which was exclusively used on HBO Family.

Audio Variant: An alternate version exists where the HBO fanfare sounds different and using the familiar tone from the previous opening. It was also heard on HBO Canada.

Availability: This bumper was retired by HBO USA on July 4, 2014. On HBO Asia, this bumper was used until December 31, 2016; it is still being used by HBO Signature Asia.

16th Bumper (July 5, 2014-)

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Visuals: On a black background, pictures from various movies (which change frequently depending on what's being shown on HBO at the time) fade in and drop down. Then, they fade out and drop down again. Then, the HBO logo and the words "Feature Presentation" from the previous logo drop down.

Variants:

• On HBO Family, the word "FAMILY" (in rainbow colors) is under the HBO logo. There is also a variation of that bumper in which the background is white, and the HBO logo and "Feature Presentation" are in light blue. Also, the pictures of the movies were replaced by the pictures of various family movies (such as The Iron Giant, Shrek and The Book of Life).
• Two versions have been exclusively used on HBO Asia: the first is the Game of Thrones version which features a teal Game of Thrones background with the GOT logo below fading in. The second one is the Westworld version with the movie pictures being in B&W and the Westworld logo fading in below at the end, against a black & white background.
• Sometimes, a movie picture remains at the left as all the pictures drop down, while the split with the HBO logo and "Feature Presentation" appears in the right. This doesn't appear on the Asian version, as of this writing.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: The 2011 theme, with the addition of an announcer saying "And now, an HBO feature presentation". There's also a different variant where an announcer says "And now, an HBO feature presentation: [movie title]." On HBO Asia and HBO Family USA, there's no announcer.

Audio Variants:

• On the HBO Asia GOT version, it uses a different orchestrated fanfare.
• An alternate fanfare from the previous opening is used.

Availability: The normal version is retired in the US as of March 4, 2017; the HBO Family version is still being used. Currently in use on HBO Asia beginning January 1, 2017.

17th Bumper (March 4, 2017-)

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Visuals: The screen fades in to a shot of a man holding a bowl of popcorn. As the camera pans to the right is him walking towards his wife, who's snuggling up with a blanket on a sofa. In the background are two sets of home plants, a desk lamp, a set of magazines, and two glasses of what seems to be wine or cola. On the wall, there is a canvas print of another apartment. Below the couch, a pair of shoes are visible. The man places the popcorn on a table, settles down with his wife, and turns on the TV. As the screen zooms out through a window, a suitcase-style turntable can be seen. Zooming further out of the apartment, there is a few more sets of apartment complexes. Two more pairs of shoes can be seen dangling from a telephone wire. Panning further to the right, there are two streetlamps. The screen then zooms out from the streets into the room of two teenage siblings; an older sister and a younger brother. The wall is covered with fan posters of various celebrities. Zooming further out is the sister on her bed, and the brother on a large cushion. The brother holds a tablet towards his sister. Zooming out even further, the camera reaches a balcony. In it, a patio table and a bicycle can be seen. As the camera zooms further out, the screen zooms out into the living room of another apartment complex. This scene is basically a recreation of the 8th opening, with a few modern touches added (e.g. cushion couches on a rug next to a flat-screen TV, which is showing a portion of the 8th opening (the part where the screen zooms into the "O"). As the screen zooms out again, it is noticeable that the apartment complex is actually a home, nested on a floating brick lawn. More apartments and condominiums are nested next to the home. The logo zooms in to the living room of yet another apartment. The first thing shown is its flat-screen TV, which is also showing the 8th opening. In it, a group of college students are seen on a couch, with one of them serving a snack to another. As the screen zooms out yet again, a man holding a phone can be seen on the balcony of yet another apartment. After that, the camera zooms out further and further. It is then revealed that the city is inside the HBO logo, set over a dark sky background on a flat grassy plain, with a river shown beside it. The words "MOVIE PREMIERE" are seen below the logo. At this point, everything shown inside the towering logo is no longer noticeable in detail.

Variants:

• A variant exists without "MOVIE PREMIERE".
• There is a more common short version that starts near the end when the HBO logo is revealed, and the text under the logo reads "MOVIE PRESENTATION".
• On HBO Latino, the text "PRESENTACIÓN DE PELÍCULA" ("PRESENTATION OF THE MOVIE" in Spanish) replaces "MOVIE PREMIERE" or "MOVIE PRESENTATION".
• On Max, a very short version exists.
• HBO posted a comparison video on March 2, 2017, which compares select scenes of this opening with those from the 8th opening, although being stretched to fill the 16:9 aspect ratio. It can be shown as an unlisted video on HBO's YouTube channel here.

Technique: A blend of live-action and CGI that homages the 8th and 14th openings. It was made by Imaginary Forces. A case study can be found on their website here, while a behind the scenes video can be found on their YouTube channel and Vimeo page here.

Audio: Similar to that of the 14th opening, it's another powerful, epic orchestral fanfare that incorporates the 12-note 1982 fanfare, starting with only a piano, before progressing with some strings, and leading into a full orchestra. City noises and river sounds can be heard as well. In the comparison video, the sound effects are omitted. Composed by Made Music Studio.

Availability: It debuted on February 28, 2017 as an unlisted video on HBO's YouTube channel. This full version premiered on HBO on March 4, 2017, before its premiere of X-Men: Apocalypse, and can be seen before new movies every Saturday night. The short version can be seen before most movies on the HBO channels (except HBO Family, and if there are promos before the movie).

External Links

• Official website
• HBO article on Wikipedia