Lionsgate Home Entertainment (Warning Screens)

USA and Canadian Warning Screens

1st Warning (1981-1982)

Vivid Video Productions FBI Warning Vivid Video Productions FBI Warning Vivid Video Productions FBI Warning

Nickname: "The USA Flag"

Warning: On a background that's split in 2 sections, a blue stripe on the left, and white with pink stripes on the right, we see a white "FBI" with the FBI seal below in the blue area surrounded by 21 gold stars, and in the white-and-pink-striped area we see "FBI WARNING" in red at the top and below is the "$250,000" warning. The result looks a little bit like an American flag.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Ultra rare, as it's only known to appear on earlier prints of Deadly Games and Spacekeeters. However, a split second appears at the beginning of this video. For some reason, it doesn't appear on the 1982 VHS of A Gumby Adventure, Vol. 3.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Warning (1982-1990)

Caballero/Monterey/USA FBI Warning (1983, early variant)USA/IVE/FHE Warning (1980s)

Nicknames: "Blinking FBI", "Ominous FBI", "The Headlight"

Warning: We see a white outline box, with a white filled box with "FBI" in black. Below it is a black box, with the word "WARNING" in red, which blinks on and off, and below it is the Warning text in white.

Variants:

• Early tapes with this logo had slightly different warning text that was capped off with the copyright year and was in all caps. It's also more compressed to make room for "CABALLERO CONTROL CORPORATION" at the bottom of the black box. Also, "WARNING" blinked at a faster rate and by the time the screen fades to black it had blinked 23 times.
• On U.S.A. Home Video releases, the warning screen splits into quarters, which exit to all four sides of the screen. It then segues into the U.S.A. Home Video logo.
• Later Monterey tapes with this warning screen had this split in half at the end and the two halves move toward the left and right edges of the screen to make room for the Monterey Home Video logo.
• On some prints of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, the red "WARNING" text is strangely deleted.
• A still version of this was spotted on Monster Madness Volume 1.
• A variant exists where the red "WARNING" text isn't blinking, the text is all set in Times New Roman font and fades in and out smoothly. This variant appeared on Palm Beach Entertainment releases.

FX/SFX: The word "WARNING" blinking.

Music/Sounds: None.

Music/Sounds Variants:

• On the U.S.A. Home Video variant, after 7 seconds of silence we hear a loud synthesizer blare that segues into the U.S.A. Home Video logo theme.
• On Magnum Entertainment releases, the first second of the logo theme begins at this warning's final second.

Availability: This warning screen was first seen on most FHE/USA/IVE releases from 1983-1988. It has also appeared on various other companies' tapes too, some of them not affiliated with IVE, FHE, or USA (i.e: Tenth Avenue Video, Magnum Entertainment, V.E.C., VCA Pictures, and Classic Family Entertainment). The warning remained on FHE releases until 1990 and can also be seen on early King Bee tapes. It is also seen on tapes from Caballero, especially the earlier variant, which can also be seen on the Monterey Home Video release of Deadly Games, among possible others. However, later prints have the normal version instead. The variant with the Times New Roman font appeared on Palm Beach Entertainment releases from the mid '90s.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Warning (October 6, 1988-2013)

Live/FHE Warning (1990s)IVE Warning (1989)Live/Artisan WarningLionsgate FBI Warning (2006)

Warning: We see the word "WARNING" in red, and in 3D. Below it is the warning text in white, and in italics.

Variants:

• On some tapes, the top text is replaced by "FBI WARNING".
• Some IVE and Live Home Video releases, as well as Vidmark Entertainment releases, have a gap between the two sentences, as well as smoother text.
• On Lionsgate releases from 2001 to 2013, the word "WARNING" is in white and in the same size as the warning text, which is now smaller.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None, though the first Vidmark releases to use this warning had the warning text read by a voiceover.

Availability: This warning screen is currently present on all late IVE, Live, Artisan, FHE, and Lionsgate releases. Also appears on later Vestron Video releases after Live Entertainment acquired Vestron. Also seen on Pioneer Entertainment, and Vidmark Entertainment releases as well. The warning appeared later on FHE releases in 1990 and on Baby Einstein VHS tapes from 2000 to 2002. Until 2013, it was still seen on some recent DVD releases such as the 2006 DVDs of Employee of the Month and The Invincible Iron Man, and the 2009 DVD release of My Bloody Valentine. Don't look for a French version of this warning on French-language Lionsgate releases, because they use the Astral Video warning screen instead. Starting in 2013, they used the new FBI Anti Piracy warning screens.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Warning (March 9, 1989-July 20, 1989)

Warning: Against a blue background, we see a white box outlined in black. The left half contains a black box with "FBI" and, to the right, warning text.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Exclusive to IVE releases under the King Bee Video label.

Editor's Note: None.

5th Warning (1999-2000)

Warning: On a black background, we see the text "INTERPOL WARNING" and the standard warning text below.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on reprints of Stickin' Around tapes (the ones that use the Lions Gate Home Entertainment logo with music from the Avalanche Home Entertainment logo in place of the Cinepix logo).

Editor's Note: None.

United Kingdom

(2011-)

Warning: We see the warning text in a plain white font, split into two paragraphs.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Current. Appears on all UK DVDs that were released by Lionsgate. From 2011 to 2015, this warning only appeared after the movie. It's more common on more recent releases, such as Wonder, Fighting With My Family, Ratchet and Clank, The Hitman's Bodyguard, My Little Pony: The Movie, the third and fourth Hunger Games films and Valerian: the City of a Thousand Planets among others.

Editor's Note: None.