Regency Enterprises

Background

Regency Enterprises is a Los Angeles-based motion picture production company formed by Arnon Milchan and Joseph P. Grace. It was founded in 1982 as Embassy International Pictures with international sales being handled by Producers Sales Organization (with some titles being released internationally by 20th Century Fox), but the company's name was changed to Regency International Pictures to avoid confusion with Norman Lear and Jerry Perenchio's Embassy Pictures' global division Embassy Pictures International.

In 1991, Milchan alongside Scriba & Deyle and Canal+ formed a joint venture between the three to finance 20 films in five years. As a result, Regency International Pictures was rebranded to Regency Enterprises and a subsidiary of the company known as New Regency Productions was formed. Its films were distributed by Warner Bros. until 1998, and by 20th Century Fox (later under their parent company The Walt Disney Studios) from 1999 onward (with some released by Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Focus Features, A24, Amazon Studios among others) and with the distribution deal (initially signed in 1997 and was extended twice), Fox bought a 20% stake in the company. This stake remained even after Fox's merger with Disney in 2019, with the deal extended again in late 2021 under Disney's watch.

International home video distribution was handled by Thorn EMI Video, which later became Cannon Video, which later sold the Thorn EMI library to Weintraub Entertainment Group. Warner Home Video, Weintraub's international home video distributor, later acquired the worldwide video rights outright from Weintraub, and today the library is distributed by Disney through the subsidiary now known as 20th Century Studios. RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video released the sole title Regency outright owned in North America during the '80s, The King of Comedy. Warner Bros. has retained distribution rights to select titles released during the Warner partnership, including JFK, Heaven & Earth, and Tin Cup.

1st Logo (July 20, 1994-December 25, 2015)

Later variant

Logo: Over a black background, a light draws a stylized "R". As we pan out, the glowing emitting from it slowly dims, and "REGENCY" turns toward us under it as the logo shines.

Variants:

On the 2000 TV movie Noriega: God's Favorite, the logo freezes just before it shines.
Starting with Broken City, the logo has an enhanced look where the light is purple, and the logo is a lighter shade of blue.

FX/SFX: The light effects and the shining.

Music/Sounds: A mystical orchestral tune with a flute, with a faint whoosh as the "R" is drawn, as well as some cymbal crashes as the logo shines. This was composed and written by Danny Elfman, and is a truncated sample of the main title theme from the 1993 film Sommersby, which was a production from the company.

Music/Sounds Variants:

During the logo's early years, it was silent. The fanfare began use starting with Bogus on September 6, 1996.
On some films, the opening theme plays instead.
On Free Willy 3: The Rescue, the music starts a little earlier while the visual starts a little later.
On a couple 1999-2002 films, the very beginning of the music plays alongside the tail end of the 20th Century Fox logo's music when the said logo fades out to black.

Availability: Common. It's seen on any film produced by Regency from 1994 to 2015. Also appeared on licensed games, such as Fight Club. This logo first appeared on The Client, and made its final appearance on The Revenant. It makes a surprise appearance as a de-facto home video logo on the PAL DVD release of Ridley Scott's Legend instead of the 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment logo. Another early Regency title, The King of Comedy, has this plastered over the 20th Century Fox logo on the Warner Home Video release. Also appears at the start of the 2000 Showtime TV movie, Noriega: God's Favorite.

2nd Logo (November 10, 2016-)

Logo: We see the top of the "R" forming and it zooms down showing both the rest of the top and the bottom form and the logo zooms out to show the full thing, similar to the last logo, but silver color fills in, and on an aquamarine background, the company name in Blair appears from right to left in the same color.

FX/SFX: Amazing CGI animation!

Music/Sounds: The 1996 theme from the previous logo, none or the opening theme of the movie.

Availability: First appeared on the trailer for the film adaptation of Assassin's Creed. The fully animated version debuted on both Rules Don't Apply and the aforementioned film itself and later appeared on every film since. The version with the theme debuted on Little Women (2019) and was later seen on Barbarian and Amsterdam.

Legacy: A great update to the previous logo, which pairs even better in some cases with the 1996 theme.