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Background[]

In 1979, Miramax Films was started by Bob and Harvey Weinstein. The company name was a combination of the first names of their parents: Miriam, for their mother, and Max, for their father. In 1987, they went full throttle as far as producing/distributing movies are concerned. In 1993, Miramax was purchased by Disney, though they still licensed home video rights to Live Entertainment (which had already been distributing select Miramax titles, beginning with Hostile Takeover, on videocassette) until they formed a new home video division specifically to release new Miramax product in late 1994. On March 29, 2005, however, the Weinstein brothers decided to leave both Disney and Miramax (the split was consummated on September 30 that same year), and in October 2005, they opened another studio, The Weinstein Company. In January 2010, its offices were shut down in New York and Los Angeles, and they moved operations to Burbank, where Disney is based. The move caused 70 people to lose their jobs and left only another 10 to keep the brand going. Disney also cut releases each year from 6 to just 3. Dick Cook, former Disney Studio Chairman wanted to keep Miramax but resigned, with his successor (Rich Ross) deciding on selling Miramax.. On December 3, 2010, The Walt Disney Company finalized the sale of Miramax Films to Filmyard Holdings, LLC, a joint venture between Colony Capital, Tutor-Saliba Corporation, and Qatar Investment Authority; Miramax released its last films the following year. Domestic video distribution rights were later handed to Lionsgate Home Entertainment, while international home media rights were given to StudioCanal. On January 22, 2013, Ron Tutor sold his stake in Miramax to Qatar Investment Authority. On March 2, 2016, the studio was sold to the beIN Media Group, a spin-off of the Al Jazeera Media Network's sports assets. In December 2019, the then newly reformed ViacomCBS purchased a 49 percent ownership stake in Miramax, placing Miramax's 500 film library into Paramount's ownership.

1st Logo (November 26, 1980-March 27, 1987)[]

Nickname: "Filmstrip M"

Logo: On a black background, we see a filmstrip, made into a letter "M". The text "MIRAMAX FILMS" is next to the "M" with "in association with" above.

Variant: On some films, such as Crossover Dreams and The Quest, the logo is a simple textual graphic reading "A MIRAMAX FILMS Release" in a plain non-serif font.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: Silent, or the music from any given soundtrack.

Music/Sounds Variant: On some prints of David the Gnome, the last note of the Cinar logo is played.

Availability: Very rare. It was seen on their limited output of this era such as Rockshow and The Secret Policeman's Other Ball, among others. The English-language version of David the Gnome also had this logo when it aired on Nickelodeon & TLC in the US, Family Channel in Canada, and across several other English-speaking territories, however it is not preserved on DVDs of the series. It is intact on the U.S Family Home Entertainment and UK Video Collection VHS releases.

2nd Logo (1987-1999; September 24, 2002)[]

Nicknames: "The Banner of Boredom"

Logo: Simply a still version of the 4th logo.

Variants:

  • On Clerks, instead of fading out it fades to the start of the View Askew Productions logo.
  • On a 1992 TV spot for Freddie as F.R.O.7., all the text is green.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None or the theme of the movie or trailer.

Music/Sounds Variant: The Clerks version has the start of the VAP's logo music.

Availability: Rare. It's mainly been used on trailers for some Miramax features and films such as The Unbelievable Truth and Blue in the Face. It also made an appearance on the 2002 reissue of 1964's A Hard Day's Night.

3rd Logo (September 11, 1987-October 29, 1999; June 1, 2004)[]

Miramaxfilms

Nicknames: "The M", "The Big M", "Flashing M", "The Miramax M", "The Blue M"

Logo: A blue "M" in Gill Sans Ultra Bold zooms out to the left of the screen (à la the MTM logo). It scrolls to the right, revealing "MIRAMA" in gold, and when it gets to the end, it disappears in a flash of light, revealing an "X". The word "FILMS" (which is spaced out to fit the width of "MIRAMAX") fades in below with lines above and below it. A large "M" in black with a glowing blue corona surrounding it zooms out and borders the logo.

Variants:

  • For a number of years until Disney acquired the company, the word "presents", in script, would appear under the logo, depending on the variant.
  • On some scope versions of the logo, the top and bottom edges of the "Big M" touch the black borders, or are cut off.
  • Sometimes, the logo fades out early while the rest of the music plays.
  • Rarely, the text would be silver.
  • On Ready to Wear, when the "M" zooms out, the entire logo zooms out even further.
  • For films released outside North America, "FILMS" was replaced with "INTERNATIONAL."
  • On television broadcasts, "FILMS" was replaced with "TELEVISION."
  • On some films, such as The Wings of the Dove, "FILMS" is omitted.

FX/SFX: The zooming out of the "M", the glowing letters, the flash, the "Big M".

Music/Sounds: A calm synthesizer jingle. Other times it's silent or uses the film's opening theme.

Music/Sounds Variants:

  • On Pulp Fiction, the theme fades out on the third-last note.
  • On films such as Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, and It's Just the Two of Us, the double pitched music from the Family Films variant of the logo is heard.

Availability: Used to be common, but due to chronic plastering with both 4th and 5th logos, it is now uncommon, bordering on rare.

  • This first appeared on I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, and made its last appearance at the end of Music of the Heart (which uses the next logo below at the beginning).
  • The "presents" variant appears on the R1 DVDs of Strictly Ballroom, Kolya, the Live Entertainment releases of The Crying Game, the VHS/Laserdisc releases of The Grifters (but not on the Canadian Cineplex Odeon VHS, where it's skipped entirely), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, and The Snapper, the Canadian VHS release of Prospero's Books, the Paramount Presents Blu-ray of Just Another Girl on the I.R.T., and the Canadian Seville Pictures DVD of Breaking the Rules (VUDU's print uses the Morgan Creek logo instead, though with Miramax's jingle retained), among others.
  • The version that fades out early can be seen on Il Postino (The Postman) and Everest.
  • This logo is not present on Bob Roberts, despite the print logo appearing on posters and trailers; only the 1990 Paramount Pictures logo is used on-screen.
  • It was also originally seen on U.S. theatrical prints of Freddie as F.R.O.7 and Tom and Jerry: The Movie, but the home video releases show no evidence, though in the case of the former, it's an alternate cut.
  • This can be seen on The Crow: City of Angels, even though Dimension distributed the film.
  • It was also spotted on the 1999 HBO DVD of My Left Foot, and is preserved on the Anchor Bay DVDs of Strapless and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. It is also seen on early U.S. prints of Princess Mononoke while later prints use the next logo and the 2017 DVD uses the GKIDS logo. It was also seen on the Canadian VHS releases of The Girl in a Swing and The Miracle, despite the fact that Millimeter and Prestige distributed those two respective films to U.S. theaters. It can also be found on the U.S. Buena Vista/Lionsgate Blu-rays of Sling Blade, Chasing Amy, and Life is Beautiful, the Alliance Blu-rays of The English Patient and Good Will Hunting, and the Echo Bridge Blu-ray of Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood. It's also intact on the 2002 DVD and 2022 UHD of Pulp Fiction.
  • Don't expect to see this on Sex, Lies and Videotape or Reservoir Dogs.
  • This may have been seen on theatrical prints of The Long Walk Home, but VHS releases skip the logo (despite its presence on the box).
  • This also makes a surprise appearance on the U.S. dub of Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra instead of the next logo, and made a very strange appearance on an Italian HDTV airing of The Brothers Grimm (instead of the international variant of the next logo).
  • It was also seen on the Canadian Cineplex Odeon VHS releases of Gulliver's Travels, The Golden Treasure, The Adventures of the Magnificent Six and a Half, The Young Visitors, Tail of the Tiger and Undercover Gang, among possible others.
  • It also may have been seen on theatrical prints of Pastime, Crazy Moon, The Pope Must Diet, Murder One, and House of Cards, among others.
  • It is preserved on the 1995 Canadian Alliance Video VHS release of Gordy.
  • The International version was seen on international releases of films of the time. It surprisingly appears at the start of some post 1998-2002 international releases, such as Spy Kids on its Australian DVD release. The variant with "presents" underneath can be found on the 2001 Australian DVD release of Emma.
  • It is unknown if this is seen on the Media/Fox VHS release of Black Rainbow or the Charter Entertainment VHS of I've Heard the Mermaids Singing.
  • On Faithful, which Miramax co-produced with Savoy Pictures, this logo isn't seen, but its 2004 DVD surprisingly includes the 1994-1999 Miramax Home Entertainment logo before New Line Cinema's.

4th Logo (December 18, 1998 - November 28, 2008)[]

Nicknames: "The Buildings", "Lights/Lites in the Big City", "Manhattan Skyline", "The City", "Miramax Skyline"

Logo: We zoom down a river, and pan up to see the skyline of New York City's Manhattan at sundown. As the sun sets, the lights in the building windows begin to turn on, like normal when it is sundown. As we zoom in closer to the buildings, several lights begin forming the Miramax Films logo, simply in white (no glowing effects like last time). The city skyline fades to black as the Miramax Films logo forms, piece by piece, while zooming towards the center of the screen.

Trivia: If you look hard enough, you might see the World Trade Center towers. This was animated three years before the events of September 11, 2001.

Variants:

  • From 1998 until 2004, the logo was shot in 35mm. From 2005-08, a digitally-shot version was used.
  • For this logo's first official year (1999, even though this logo debuted in 1998), the words "20TH ANNIVERSARY" appear above.
  • There is a prototype variant of the "20TH ANNIVERSARY" logo where the top text is in orange or yellow, depending on the film quality.
  • There is a version of the anniversary variant where "20TH ANNIVERSARY" is smaller. It can be seen on a couple of films released in 1999.
  • For releases outside the USA and Canada, "FILMS" was replaced with "INTERNATIONAL".
  • There is an anniversary variant of this version also.
  • In 2005, the skyline was slightly revised due to the events of 9/11 (even though it occurred several years earlier), with the left tower being moved to the edge and the right tower being deleted.
  • There exists a 1.78:1 open-matte version where the landscape is zoomed out much farther back. This version is seen on the Miramax DVD releases of Three Colors: Blue and some 2007-08 releases such as The Queen.

Closing Title: The print logo.

FX/SFX: CGI.

Music/Sounds: The logo is usually silent, or has the opening theme of the film playing over it. Although some films, such as Music of the Heart, have a pleasant orchestrated piece with few instruments in the selection.

Music/Sounds Variants:

  • On later prints of pre-1998 films such as The Harmonists and Mouth to Mouth, it uses the theme from the last logo!
  • On later prints of Shaolin Soccer, it uses the shortened theme from the next logo, due to a plastering error.

Availability: Uncommon. Seen on releases from 1998-2008, and while it was also used to plaster older Miramax logos, this was no longer the case now that the next logo does the honors. This logo first appeared on Shakespeare in Love, and made its final theatrical appearance on The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Gangs of New York does not have this logo at all, but the next logo appeared on the 2020 Paramount DVD/Blu-ray release and streaming prints. In an interesting occurrence, when Confessions of a Dangerous Mind airs on Starz/Encore, the SD version retains this logo, but the HD version features the next logo below instead.

5th Logo (December 25, 2008-July 6, 2018; September 22, 2020)[]

Nicknames: "The Buildings II", "Lights/Lites in the Big City II", "Manhattan Skyline II", "The City II", "Miramax Skyline II"

Logo: Same concept as before, but instead of the skyline, we pan up to see the Brooklyn Bridge at sundown. As the sun sets, we zoom towards the buildings until we finally get to the skyline of Manhattan. One difference of the skyline is that both towers of the World Trade Center are gone (a change carried over from the previous logo). After we get to the city, the lights in the building windows begin to turn on, like normal when it is sundown. As we zoom slowly to the skyline, several lights begin forming the Miramax Films logo like before. The city skyline then fades to black as the Miramax Films logo forms, piece by piece.

Trivia: This logo was made by Studio Nos.

Variants:

  • Since 2010, most films only show the second half of the logo.
  • Starting in 2011 with The Debt, the word "FILMS" is omitted.
    • Both of these versions (particularly the latter) plaster over older Miramax logos on new releases of their films.

Closing Title: Same as the previous logo.

FX/SFX: Marvelous CGI. It's possible that it is live-action, or a hybrid of both.

Music/Sounds: Usually, a soft piano tune with coastal and city noises.

Music/Sounds Variants:

  • Sometimes, it is silent or has the opening theme of the movie.
  • The shortened version has a shorter musical theme.
  • On some recent prints of their 1987-98 films, such as Jackie Brown and Il Postino, it uses the music from the 1987 logo!
  • On Bridget Jones's Baby, the opening song "All by Myself" starts after the music ended, and it carries to the Working Title logo, leading to the opening.

Availability: Common. It first appeared on Doubt, and can be seen on both newer features and newer prints of older films. The opening logo also appears on more recent prints of In Search of Santa, despite earlier prints not having any logo. Oddly, the short version is also seen on Disney Movies Anywhere's version of Mickey Mouse in "Runaway Brain", while the standard Movies Anywhere print removes it. The full version last appeared on Bridget Jones's Baby. It also surprisingly appeared on a TCM airing of Wuthering Heights, a Samuel Goldwyn film (this may be a result of Miramax owning TV rights to the Samuel Goldwyn Company library).

6th Logo (October 19, 2018-March 4, 2023)[]

Nicknames: "The Buildings III", "The City III", "Aurora Miramaxius"

Logo: We start off with a blue aurora at night in the Hudson Valley, which becomes the outline of the "R". The hole in the "R" pans across the landscape below, followed by the first "M" which illuminates. The text "MIRAMAX", which is dark blue, then starts to slowly come together, illuminating as it comes together. Once the text is fully formed and finished, the byline "a beIN MEDIA GROUP COMPANY" then fades underneath the word "MAX".

Bylines:

  • 2018-2020: "A beIN MEDIA GROUP COMPANY"
  • 2020-2022: "A beIN MEDIA GROUP AND VIACOMCBS COMPANY"
  • 2022- "A beIN MEDIA GROUP AND PARAMOUNT COMPANY"

Variant: There is a shorter version, which skips the first pan across the "R".

Trivia: The logo was animated by MOCEAN.

FX/SFX: Amazing CGI animation!

Music/Sounds: A four note somber theme, or the opening soundtrack of the movie.

Availability: Current. The full length version made its first appearance on Halloween (2018). The shorter version appears on Netflix releases such as The Perfection. It last appeared domestically on Halloween Ends.

7th Logo (January 13, 2023-)[]

Screenshot 20230321-164221 YouTube

Nicknames: "The Buildings IV", "The City IV"

Logo: On a black background, we see the text "MIRAMAX" (in a slight cream color) tilted at an angle and slowly zooming in as it tilts to the right. A city skyline with blue lights (almost like the one from the previous logo) pans up from below. Once the text is finished straightening itself and zooming in, a blue 3-D shadow appears beneath it (giving it a retro 3-D text effect), as the byline "a beIN MEDIA GROUP and PARAMOUNT COMPANY" fades in below the text. The logo then fades out to black.

Trivia:

  • Unlike the previous logos, this one takes place in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, as the foreground of Hollywood sign can be seen towards the start (if one looks closely).
  • This logo was partially designed by Nate Carlson, who created retro-style logo variants for Miramax and Focus Features for use in the movie The Holdovers. Miramax loved his work so much that they requested to use his design in another logo for use in their other films.

FX/SFX: Impressive CGI by Crafty Apes, Spin FX, and Fuse FX.

Variants: A 2.39:1 scope version exists, where the Hollywood sign is not shown.

Music/Sounds: An 80s-like electronic synth theme with a piano. Sometimes, it has the opening soundtrack of the movie.

Availability: Current. This logo first appeared on Sick, and also appears on U.S. prints of Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre (international prints use the previous logo), and Old Dads. The logo with the fanfare made its debut on Beekeeper.

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