Sony Pictures Modified Screens

1st Bumper (August 17, 1994-December 12, 1995; December 24, 2002-November 15, 2005)
Bumper: Same as Paramount and Universal's modified screen.

Variant: On the 2005 VHS of Lords of Dogtown, the text is in all-caps and somewhat rearranged.

Technique: None, unless you count a fade in and fade out.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Appears on some 1994-95 Sony tapes such as I'll Do Anything (the first tape to use it), Legends of the Fall, and Princess Caraboo. The last tape to contain it in this run is First Knight, though the screen reappeared on a decent number of 2002-05 tapes such as Trapped (the first tape in its second run to have it), Auto Focus, Maid in Manhattan, Basic, Spider-Man 2, The Forgotten, Christmas with the Kranks, and Stealth (the last overall tape to use it).

2nd Bumper (January 31, 1995-2006; 2009-2010)
Bumper: A black screen fades in reading: "This film has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit this screen." It fades out after a few seconds.

Technique: Just the simple fade in and fade out.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Common.
 * This can be found on a large variety of Sony Pictures VHS tapes from the 1995 release of It Could Happen to You until their second-last release, Zathura, in 2006 (specifically most Columbia and TriStar movies, as features released outside of them use no modified screen), and many full-screen DVD releases (including titles that were solely available in the full-screen format, such as The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, 84 Charing Cross Road, both the 1997 and 2005 DVD editions of Matilda, the 2002 Deluxe Edition of Stuart Little, and a 2005 one-sided reprint of Air Force One, among many others).
 * However, while prints of Panic Room that feature opening previews contain the screen, it doesn't appear on prints without them.
 * It makes surprise appearances on Paramount's 2001 VHS of Enemy at the Gates, FXM's print of April Love (a 1957 20th Century Fox film) and the PlayStation Portable UMD video of The Karate Kid (2010), also bundled with LittleBigPlanet.
 * It also appears on the fullscreen disc of Anchor Bay's DVD of Last Chance Harvey.

3rd Bumper (2003?-present)
Bumper: On a black background, we see the following text in Times New Roman Bold font: "The following film has been modified from its original version. It has been..."


 * "...formatted to fit this screen."
 * "...formatted to fit this screen and edited for content."
 * "...formatted to fit this screen, to run in the time allotted, and edited for content."
 * "...edited to run in the time allotted and for content."
 * "...edited to run in the time allotted."
 * "...edited for content."

Variant: In early years, the font was slightly different.

Technique: Just the simple fade in and fade out.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: On some full-screen DVDs of the era (without the fade in and fade out). The other variants appear on syndicated and network prints of Sony movies as well as MGM and Trifecta-owned Starz movies. This strangely appeared on the full screen DVD of Monster House, where the text is written in a similar font, but is aligned like the TV version. Earliest uses of this modified screen was on a November 2003 UPN airing of Real Men (MGM) and a 2004 Disney Channel airing of Stuart Little 2 (Sony). It was also seen at the start of a 2009 Disney Channel airing of Lionsgate's Akeelah and the Bee.