Logos[]
1st logo (1925-1939)[]
On a black background, a large, bizarrely shaped shield is seen, with a very wide top. The top part of the shield shows a picture of the Warner studio in Burbank CA, the bottom having a squashed, stylized "WB". "a WARNER BROTHERS" is above the shield (with "WARNER BROTHERS" in an arc around the shield, a la the first Columbia logo), with "CLASSIC of the SCREEN" below. Starting in 1926 or so, it changed to "PRODUCTION".
Closing Titles[]
There are two closing titles for this WB era:
- 1st Closing Title: We see the words "THE END" all in capitals on both sides of the WB shield, with "THE" on the left and "END" on the right. The "T" on "THE" and the "E" on "END" are bigger than the other letters. Below the shield, we see "A WARNER BROTHERS CLASSIC OF THE SCREEN" in big capital letters. But on some movies, the WB shield was omitted. For example, Beau Brummel (1924) had a BG with some books and two candles on both sides of the screen. Above the books, we see the "The End" in a small, fancy white script arched above a small "A WARNER BROTHERS "CLASSIC of the SCREEN"" text.
- 2nd Closing Title: The second variant is the one you are seeing on the 3rd photo from left to right. On The Jazz Singer (1927), it was superimposed on a marble-like BG.
2nd logo (1929-1936)[]
The words "WARNER BROS. PICTURES, Inc." appear, and below that "& THE VITAPHONE CORP." appears in a much smaller font, with the "VITAPHONE" using "electric" style letters. Below that is a very small WB shield (using the stylized WB seen in the 1st logo), and in script, "Present". Behind it there is the drawing of a flag, "waving" so it looks like it is in three sections. On the first one, "WARNER BROS." appears, followed by the electric-letter "VITAPHONE" logo and on section 3, "PICTURES".
Closing Title[]
- The closing variation has "The End" instead of "Present".
- A colored version exists, in which the logo (the text, the flag, the shield) are colored yellow and appear in a blue BG.
3rd logo (1934-1937)[]
Over a cumulonimbus cloud setting, a superimposed WB Shield design zooms in to the screen. The words "WARNER BROS. PICTURES, Inc. Present" appear over the shield.
Variants[]
- For colorized releases, mainly Captain Blood, the cloud background is blue and the shield is yellow.
- On Here Comes the Navy and Dames (both 1934), the shield is seen on a white backdrop. Instead of the shield zooming into the camera, the opposite takes place.
- On The Woman in Red (1935), the shield appears without the words.
- On The Goose and the Gander (1935), the shield is a still image, and is shaped extremely bizarrely.
4th logo (1937-1948)[]
Inside a shield, a more realistic version of the stylized "WB" as seen in the previous logo appears. Over the shield is a banner that reads "WARNER BROS. PICTURES, INC." Below the logo is the word "Presents" in script.
Variants[]
- For color releases, the shield was bronze colored and the background was red.
- Starting in 1942, "JACK L. WARNER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER" was seen below the Warner Bros. Pictures banner.
- Starting in 1944, the word "PRESENTS" is now in the same font as the Warner Bros. Pictures banner.
- A colorized version of this logo with a blue background, a gold shield and a red inside exists on The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, among others.
- An ornate hand-drawn version of the shield against a parchment-like background was seen on some films, such as The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.
5th logo (1948-1967)[]
Same as before, only the design has been cleaned up a bit. The border of the shield, banner, text, and "WB" are now gold, and the inside of the shield is now blue. The banner phrase is now changed to "WARNER BROS. PICTURES" and is now gold. "Presents", in the same font as the previous logo, usually appears below. Also, the background is now a cloud skyline (much like the logos of 1984 on). For the later years, this logo was usually superimposed onto the titles of Warner features of this period.
Variants[]
- A color version of this logo appears on color releases, such as Rope, among others.
- There were many different cloud background variants throughout the years.
- A sepia-toned variant of this logo can be found on Jack and the Beanstalk and Bonnie and Clyde.
- Some movies, most notably The Crimson Pirate and The Master of Ballantrae, had this logo on a different cloud skyline.
- On some 3D films, films that were originally planned to be made in 3D, or the occasional film intended for 2D like House of Wax, Hondo, Dial M for Murder, Them!, The High and the Mighty, and Rebel Without a Cause, the WB shield looks more three-dimensional. It was also used for logo plastering, as was the case for reissue prints of the 1951 film Force of Arms (aka A Girl for Joe).
- One film that had the "Presents" text absent is Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn.
- Some movies, most notably Battle of the Bulge and Cool Hand Luke, had the logo on a black background.
- Sometimes, the banner reads "WARNER BROS. PICTURES INC." like the previous logo, except the "INC." is really tiny and seen on the very right. This version can be seen on some movies, most notably The Prince and the Showgirl.
Closing Titles[]
- 1st Closing Title: Was the same as above, seen only with the "A Warner Bros.-First National Picture" and "A First National Picture" text.
- 2nd Closing Title: Superimposed on the last scene of a movie or a special BG, the words "The End" with font varies on that movie fades in with the WB shield bug between two thick lines below. Sometimes, the following disclaimers were used:
- "Produced and Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc."
- "Produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc."
- "Produced and Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures"
- "Distributed by Warner Bros."These texts are seen sandwiched below "The End" and above the WB shield bug.
6th logo (1967-1970)[]
Just a superimposed, stylized shield which can be white, yellow or red. The shield features a combination of a "W" and a "7", representing Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. The "W7" is often drawn on-screen, a la the NBC Snake, although it's a still logo on a few films. Below the shield, "WARNER BROS.-SEVEN ARTS" is seen. The word "Presents" usually appears under the shield.
Closing title[]
After the words "The End" and the credits, the words "Distributed by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts" are seen in the screen superimposed in the last scene of the movie or a special BG with the W7 shield bug below.
7th logo (1970-1972)[]
Over a blue screen is an abstract shield (like those seen on WB movie posters in the '60s) in a golden color with a dark brownish color inside. A simple lettering of the WB appears at the upper part and a rectangle of the same colors appear at the lower part of the shield, with the Kinney byline inside. The word "PRESENTS" appears underneath the logo.
Bylines[]
- May 13, 1970-June 25, 1971: "A KINNEY NATIONAL COMPANY"
- April 18-May 1, 1971: "A KINNEY SERVICES COMPANY"
- June 17-September 30, 1971: "A KINNEY LEISURE SERVICE"
- December 19, 1971-February 25, 1972: "A KINNEY COMPANY"
Variants[]
- At the end of the film, we sometimes see the byline "Distributed by WARNER BROS." or "Distributed by WARNER BROS. INC." on top of (or in the case of THX-1138, underneath) a superimposed rendition of the company logo. (On earlier films from 1970, such as Chisum and The Battle of Cable Hogue, there is no banner/byline on the superimposed version.)
- Some films (including There Was a Crooked Man... and THX-1138) had the logo on a black background.
- Others (such as The Omega Man) had it superimposed over the opening credits.
- Dirty Harry and Billy Jack do not have the "PRESENTS" text.
- Some films, including McCabe and Mrs. Miller, had a two-dimensional version of the shield appearing in white over a black background.
- On the 1970 re-release print of the 1956 movie Giant, the Kinney Shield was set over the classic WB clouds. It is unknown if this appears on any home video release.
8th logo (1971)[]
On a background similar to the last logo, a bannerless WB shield is seen, with the design being more closer to the classic WB shield. "A KINNEY LEISURE SERVICE" is seen below
9th logo (1972-1973)[]
The standard WB shield logo, without the banner. It is on a blue background with "A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY" underneath. "Presents", in script, may appear below.
Variants[]
- On some Warner VHS releases of titles like Deliverance, the aspect ratio of the logo would be squeezed into 4:3 full screen from a wider ratio.
- On Get to Know Your Rabbit, a dark version of the logo is seen, and it is slightly tilted to the left.
- On the 2007 DVD and Blu-ray of Deliverance, "Presents" underneath the byline is not present. This is likely due to that release using the original negative as the basis for it's restoration as opposed to a 35mm inter-positive.
10th logo (1973-1989)[]
On a black background, a red abstract "W" consisting of two slanted elongated circles and a shorter elongated circle zooms in towards us. Around halfway through, the words "WARNER BROS" (in the Warner Communications custom typeface) appear below it. The red logo overtakes the screen as a smaller white "W" zooms in. It stops at the middle of the screen and a black square field, whose corners have been rounded and softened, fades in around the logo. "A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY" in the same font used for "WARNER BROS" fades in below. Most of the time, "PRESENTS" fades in below after that (in Helvetica).
Variants[]
- On the 1976 film All the President's Men, the logo is in black-and-white and "PRESENTS" is absent. This variant is preserved on the DVD of the film.
- On some films (including Oh, God!, The Frisco Kid, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, Just Tell Me What You Want, Private Benjamin, The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, Firefox, The Man with Two Brains, National Lampoon's Vacation and Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island), "PRESENTS" fades in at the same time as the Warner Communications byline.
- On Superman: The Movie and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, a white (\\') zooms in on a black background and stops in the middle. The words "RELEASED BY WARNER BROS" fade in below. (Superman retained this on early video releases, but it was replaced by the regular version on later releases, and the 1984 version of the shield on later video releases. It was restored on the film's DVD and Blu-ray releases. Current prints of the film as seen recently on Encore, HBO, and VUDU remove it and replace it with the variant seen on Flags of Our Fathers).
- On some other outside productions released by WB (including Superman III, among others), "RELEASED BY WARNER BROS" replaces "WARNER BROS" at the beginning of the logo (this version was retained on the original video release of Superman III).
- On the original version of The Exorcist, the logo is austerely presented over a black background.
- On Exorcist II: The Heretic, there is a still image of a black \\' inside a red square field, with "WARNER BROS, A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY" below in red.
- On Night Moves and Dog Day Afternoon, the word "PRESENTATION" appears below the Warner Communications byline, making the phrase "A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY PRESENTATION".
- Though the 1973 film Steelyard Blues had the "Big W" logo, it still used an in-credit "Distributed by" version of the mid-1972 WB logo at the end.
- On the 1984 VHS release of Class of '44 and an early 80s overseas WHV VHS of Halloween, the logo's 2.35:1 aspect ratio was squeezed into 4:3 full screen.
- On trailers for re-releases, the logo has a copyright notice at the bottom, while on the top it says " A RE-RELEASE FROM WARNER BROS.". This has been seen on reissue trailers of Superman: The Movie and Around the World in 80 Days.
- Original 1981 home video prints of The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975) have this logo at the end of the film, even though it had an in-credit version of the WB Distribution logo at the end.
- There's a short version that starts with the white \\' zooming in. This can be seen on the trailer for McQ.
Closing Variants[]
- The closing "DISTRIBUTED BY WARNER BROS" logo has the colors inside out, with the "W" in black and the field in white. This was seen as late as 1988 on Evil Angels.
- An early version of this logo had a different font for the text as well (this version appeared at the beginning of some prints of The Shining).
- A black-and-white version appeared at the end of TCM's print of Onionhead, followed by the 2003 Warner Bros. Television logo.
- An ITV overnight showing of the 1968 film The Heart is a Lonely Hunter in early September 1996 had its original W7 logo at the beginning, but this logo, with "PRESENTS", oddly appeared at the end.
- Some early WCI Home Video releases have this closing variant sloppily tacked on at the end of some features, and replacing the Warner Bros. distribution logo at the end of early video prints of Mister Roberts (1955) and replacing the National General Pictures distribution logo at the end of the WCI print of Executive Action (1972).
11th logo (1984-1998)[]
Over a set of clouds (exactly the design of the clouds used in some versions of the 1948 logo), the WB shield appears (including the banner reading "WARNER BROS. PICTURES"), with the name of the owner at the bottom.
Bylines[]
- June 8, 1984-September 14, 1990: "A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY"
- March 9, 1990-February 26, 1993: "A TIME WARNER COMPANY"
- August 14, 1992-February 2, 1998: "A TIME WARNER ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY"
Variants[]
- For some of their earlier films, and for films that had this logo plastered on over older logos, the word "PRESENTS" faded in a couple of seconds afterward, like on WB films that originally used the 9th logo. This logo was also seen in black and white when added to the beginning of some films, such as Onionhead.
- On older prints of The Killing Fields, we see the WB shield, then the Warner Communications byline fades in.
- Scope films used a different cloud background, which was also used for this logo's television counterpart during the Warner Communications era.
- On Malcolm X (the 1992 film), the scope version of the logo is shown unmatted at 1.78:1, thus it is shown at a farther distance, revealing more of the background.
Closing Variants[]
- 1984-1998: The end logo, seen at the end of most movies, features a simple superimposed WB shield (without a banner), much like the short lived logo from mid-1972. The phrase "DISTRIBUTED BY WARNER BROS." appears above the shield with the owner byline at the bottom. On films from 1984-roughly 1989, it would use the "Big W" logo, such as Gremlins, Cannonball Run II, The NeverEnding Story, Purple Rain, Tightrope, Oh, God! You Devil, US prints of Razorback, City Heat, Fandango, Vision Quest, Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment, The Goonies, Pale Rider, National Lampoon's European Vacation, Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, American Flyers, Krush Groove, Spies Like Us, The Color Purple, The Clan of the Cave Bear, Wildcats, Police Academy 3: Back in Training, Cobra, Under the Cherry Moon, Club Paradise, One Crazy Summer, Ratboy, Over the Top, It's Alive III: Island of the Alive, Innerspace, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Surrender, Empire of the Sun, Moving, Stand and Deliver, Hot to Trot, Running on Empty, Imagine: John Lennon, Clara's Heart, Dangerous Liaisons, Bert Rigby, You're a Fool, Lean on Me, Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, Cookie, Next of Kin, and The Witches (completed in 1989, but not released until 1990).
- A few movies had a variant where the "Big W" logo was bigger than normal. This appeared on Deadly Friend, Lethal Weapon, Funny Farm, Crossing Delancey, Tequila Sunrise, The Accidental Tourist, and Dead Bang.
- On films from 1986-1990, such as Heartbreak Ridge, Burglar, Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, The Witches of Eastwick, The Lost Boys, Who's That Girl, Nuts, Frantic, Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach, Above the Law, Arthur 2: On the Rocks, The Dead Pool, Caddyshack II, Clean and Sober, Stealing Home, Bird, Her Alibi, Pink Cadillac, Lethal Weapon 2, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Driving Miss Daisy, Tango & Cash, Hard to Kill, and White Hunter, Black Heart, the credit logo used the previous logo font with a WB shield. A variation of the credit logo can be seen at the end of The Bonfire of the Vanities and Curly Sue with the WB shield and below that "Distributed by Warner Bros., A Time Warner Company".
- December 8, 1988-March 22, 2000: Another ending variation features the movie logo, but modified with the words "DISTRIBUTED BY WARNER BROS." above the shield. This was also used for the beginning of Freejack.
- May 12, 2000-February 2, 2001: Only the words "DISTRIBUTED BY" appear above the shield; the "WARNER BROS. PICTURES" text is redone. Some releases like The In Crowd, Get Carter, and Miss Congeniality have the banner reading simply "WARNER BROS.". Also added is the URL byline, "www.warnerbros.com", below the owner disclaimer. There is also the print closing logo, but it's very rare and was seen on Invictus.
12th logo (1998-2020)[]
A picture of the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, CA is seen with a gold tint. The picture "ripples" slowly for a bit and then rotates, revealing that it is the WB shield, redone in CGI and reflecting the studio. The cloud background is more computer generated. The logo rotates towards us and zooms out to its usual position, with the company byline fading in underneath.
Bylines[]
- January 16, 1998-February 2, 2001: "A TIME WARNER ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY"
- February 16, 2001-September 12, 2003: "An AOL Time Warner Company"
- November 5-December 5, 2003: "A Time Warner Company"
- December 12, 2003-June 15, 2018: "A TimeWarner Company" (with "TimeWarner" in its own logo font)
- September 23, 2016-September 22, 2017: "A TimeWarner Company" (with "TimeWarner" in its own logo font). This was only used on the Warner Animation Group films Storks, The Lego Batman Movie, the teaser trailer for The Lego Ninjago Movie, the trailers for Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, and the trailers for Smallfoot.
- July 21, 2018-November 26, 2020: "A WARNERMEDIA Company" (with "WARNERMEDIA" in its own logo font, called 'AT&T Aleck Sans Bold', while, the rest of the byline is in the standard variation of the same font.)
Variants[]
- January 16-December 18, 1998: For this logo's first year, when the logo is zooming out, "75" and "YEARS" appear from behind the shield and move away to surround it. "Entertaining The World" fades in underneath, followed by the Time Warner Entertainment byline in white instead of orange. Also, the shield and the background are slightly enhanced. This was used on Fallen, Sphere, Dangerous Beauty, U.S. Marshals, City of Angels, Major League: Back to the Minors, Tarzan and the Lost City, Quest for Camelot (uses the Family Entertainment variant), Almost Heroes, A Perfect Murder, Lethal Weapon 4, The Negotiator, The Avengers (1998 film), Wrongfully Accused, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, Without Limits, Practical Magic, Soldier, Home Fries, Jack Frost, and You've Got Mail.
- A somewhat enhanced WB shield in 3D was spotted on NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience, Clash of the Titans, Hubble 3D, Born to Be Wild 3D, and 3D international releases of Beowulf. The animation revealing the shield is quicker, the flash reflection on the banner when the shield is revealed is not as bright, the inside of the shield is a brighter blue, the banner around the shield is shinier, the cloud background is further back, and the shield zooms out further more.
- A version of the logo exists in which Bugs Bunny walks from the shield, does a Vanna pose, and eats a carrot, but the banner still reads "WARNER BROS. PICTURES". This version was used for Warner Bros. Family Entertainment for a short time.
- Starting with Dolphin Tale, the shield is sleeker, the banner is shinier, the byline is orange-yellow, and the animation revealing the shield is enhanced. Though some films like The Dark Knight Rises, Gangster Squad, and most foreign films released by the company at the time uses the 2003-2011 version.
Closing Variants[]
- 1998-February 2, 2001, May 17, 2002, March 5, 2004: Same as the previous logo.
- February 16, 2001- : This closing logo features the 1984 shield with the banner inscription updated to match that of the current opening logo; the words "Distributed by" appear over the shield with the URL address underneath the byline. This is pretty much a modified version of the 2001 Warner Bros. Television logo.
- A scope version of the closing logo has a much zoomed out shield, much like the IMAX variant. This was spotted on We Are Marshall.
13th logo (2020-2021)[]
It starts the same way as the previous logo (possibly blue-tinted), then we see the new Warner Bros. shield without a banner swing in fully upright from the left of screen against the same cloudy sky background as the previous logo. The "WB" text reflects various other clouds. As the shield zooms out into position, the sky background fades to black and the WarnerMedia byline now reading "a WarnerMedia company" fades in below. The shield shines throughout.
Variant[]
On Judas and the Black Messiah, a still variant of the finished product was used; however, on Gintama: THE FINAL, an animated variant of the finished product was used.
14th logo (2021-)[]
Starts off similar to the previous logos (again), but this time, instead of a simple rippling image, the camera pans across a beautiful CGI rendering of the studio backlot at sunset, with the water tower (displaying the shield and "WARNER BROS. STUDIOS" in three rows on it) taking centre-stage. After a few seconds, it continues like how the previous logo did; turning upright as it zooms out like the 1998 logo, revealing a new, much more realistic cloud background. The WarnerMedia byline fades in below as the shield shines.
Music/Sounds[]
1st logo[]
None or a film's opening theme.
2nd logo[]
None.
3rd logo[]
The opening theme of the movie.
4th logo[]
Usually the beginning of the movie's theme, or a majestic horn sounder, composed by Max Steiner. On at least three films, To Have and Have Not, Confidential Agent and Dark Passage, a different fanfare, composed by Franz Waxman, plays.
5th logo[]
Same as the previous logo. Sometimes, it was usually the beginning of the movie's theme music.
Music/Sounds variant[]
On New York Confidential, the logo had a different fanfare, composed by Joseph Mullendore.
6th logo[]
None or the opening of the movie.
7th logo[]
Again, the opening/closing theme of the movie's theme or silence.
8th logo[]
Silent, or in the case of The Man in the Wilderness, the opening audio.
9th logo[]
Silence or the beginning of the movie's theme, though Get to Know Your Rabbit uses a horn-driven theme with a flute mixed in towards the end.
10th logo[]
Usually silent, but some movies have the beginning of the movie's theme playing over it. Oddly, on Warner Archive's Blu-ray release of The Drowning Pool, it has the second half of the 1999 fanfare playing over the logo, due to a plastering error.
11th logo[]
In most cases, silent or the beginning of the films audio is used. For some of their first features (such as Gremlins), a loud and majestic horn sounder (a classic WB fanfare) is heard.
Music/Sounds Variant[]
On the Warner Archive DVD-R release of How Sweet It Is!, the logo is accompanied with the National General fanfare (the original distributors of the film) due to a sloppy plaster job.
12th logo[]
- January 16-December 18, 1998: The original 75th Anniversary version of this logo used a wind-blowing chime fanfare.
- February 12, 1999-: An 8-note piano tune that builds into a powerful, moving fanfare, based on the theme from Casablanca, "As Time Goes By".
- In other cases, it uses the opening theme of the movie from a soundtrack or silence.
Music/Sounds Variants[]
- On current prints and HBO airings of U.S. Marshals and The Negotiator, the 2003 version of this logo with the TimeWarner byline uses the wind-blowing chime fanfare from the original 75th Anniversary version. The 1999 DVD and 2009 Blu-ray of the latter retain their original 75th Anniversary logo.
- On current prints of Innerspace and Caddyshack II, this plastered the Warner Communications version of the previous shield, but kept the horn fanfare.
13th logo[]
The opening theme of the movie.
14th logo[]
It's an even more dramatic and re-orchestrated version of the 12th logo's theme, now played in a different key (this time in E♭ major). It has a much more powerful build-up and the opening notes are now played on a guitar as opposed to a piano. This version of the "As Time Goes By" fanfare debuted with Non Mi Uccidere on April 21, 2021 in Italy.
Scare Factor[]
1st logo[]
Minimal to low, due to the strange design of the logo, but it's otherwise harmless.
2nd logo[]
None, but the next logo is a different story...
3rd logo[]
Low to high, since the main reason is the rough zoom in, the music and the shield's rather strange, elongated design, in particular for people who are not used to this.
4th logo[]
None; a lot tamer than before.
5th logo[]
None. It's harmless.
6th logo[]
Minimal to low. The logo looks weird, but nothing is scary.
7th logo[]
None. This logo is actually neat to see.
8th logo[]
None to minimal. Unless you were expecting the previous logo to show up, then you should be fine.
9th logo[]
None. It's tame.
10th logo[]
Minimal to low. This is a favorite of many, but the red "W" zooming in and logo design may startle a few.
11th logo[]
None. You might be annoyed by how many times you've seen it.
12th logo[]
None. It's held up remarkably well over the past twenty years it's been used, and it's a favorite to many.
13th logo[]
None. It's also tame.
14th logo[]
None, it's an absolutely magnificent rebrand. Also, this logo has a beautiful fanfare.