Logo Variations: Columbia Pictures

The Criminal Code and Ten Cents a Dance (1931): The torch lady is shown, but text is absent. The practice of showing the Columbia logo sans company name predates the variations seen on some later films.
Gun Fury (1953): It is tinted in greenish-brown, and the Torch Lady's pedestal doesn't extend to the bottom of the screen, making it look like she's floating!
Cowboy (1958, Opening): It is similar to The Criminal Code and Ten Cents a Dance variants, but with a different logo.
The Mouse That Roared (1959):
* Opening: The logo is realistic. After a while, The Torch Lady looks down and sees a mouse at her feet on the pedestal, which cuts to her feet. After that, the lady leaves her pedestal, leaving her torch behind spinning, which cuts to the mouse.agian.
* Closing: The Torch Lady enters from the left, grabs the torch, and returns to where she was in the opening variant.
The Three Stooges Meets Hercules (1962): On the black background, the 1936 Torch Lady is on the left side, and the text "COLUMBIA PICTURES PRESENTS" is on the right side. The text fades to a statue of Norman Maurer, the son-in-law of Moe Howard of The Three Stooges holding a stick of dynamite with the Sparks flowing. The Torch Lady fades to the text "A NORMANDY PRODUCTION". The dynamite later explodes, leaving the lower legs and the pedestal on the statue. The text "FILMED IN GLORIOUS BLACK AND WHITE" fades in above. 
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Zotz! (1962):
* Opening: A more realistic logo appears, with William Castle sitting on a director's chair in the bottom-right corner of the screen. William gets out of his chair and says "Zotz!" The Torch Lady replies by asking "Zotz? What's Zotz?" After that, we fade to the opening credits of the movie.
* Closing: The black & white version of the 1950s logo is shown, but the Torch Lady says "Zotz all!"
Lawrence of Arabia (1962): It is still, and the clouds aren't as billowy. This was created especially for the film because there was no 70mm version of the logo in existence, and this variation was, at one point, plastered with the standard version for years until the film was restored in 1989. 
Bye Bye Birdie (1963): The Columbia Torch Lady's flame leaps from the torch to form the title of the film.
Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963): The Torch Lady is on an orange background. Like the Cowboy variant, the company name does not appear over the logo, but does appear on a title card that fades in a few seconds later as part of the main titles. 
Strait-Jacket (1964, Closing): The Torch Lady's head has been chopped off and is sitting at her feet.
Good Neighbor Sam (1964): Similar to the Under the Yum Yum Tree variant, except the Torch Lady is on a light blue background. Incidentally, both films starred Jack Lemmon and used the same director, so this was no coincidence.
Cat Ballou (1965): The Columbia Torch Lady transforms into an animated version of Jane Fonda as a cowgirl who is holding two guns and firing them.
The Trouble with Angels (1966): A halo appears above the "A" in COLUMBIA, and wings sprout behind it. This reveals to be an traditionally animated angel hiding behind it, who flies around the Torch Lady and blows out the torch.
The Man Called Flintstone (1966): The logo is presented in an art style similar to that of the series, with Wilma Flintstone as the Torch Lady.
Torture Garden (1967): The 1953 logo has the company name appearing darker than usual, and "PICTURES CORPORATION PRESENTS" fades in below in yellow.
Head (1968): After the end of the credits, we see a psychedelic, almost Art Nouveau looking Torch Lady; slowly the film disintegrates.
Oliver! (1968): The logo is in sepia tone, and after the giant "COLUMBIA" text fades in, the words "PICTURES CORPORATION PRESENTS" fade in below.
The Looking Glass War (1969) and There's a Girl in My Soup (1970)​: It has the words "PICTURES" and "PRESENTS" appear below the "COLUMBIA" name and on either side of the Torch Lady. The font for those words varies on both films.
Flight of the Doves (1971): Almost the same as the Cowboy variant, but the clouds appear to be more blue.
The Last Picture Show (1971): It is grayscaled.
Thank God It's Friday (1978): The opening song starts playing before the logo fades in. The first half is redone. The Torch Lady then turns animated and gets into a few seconds of dancing. Then she resumes in torch pose, it cuts to the second half of the normal logo.
The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking (1988):
* Instead of fading to black, it fades into the white background with a illustration of Pippi Longstocking's eyes & hair.
* When viewed in fullscreen, it is seen at a much farther distance than any other 4:3 version. Here, the pedestal is cut off at the very bottom of the frame made more apparent.
Little Nikita (1988): At the ending, it fades into the blue sky.
City Slickers (1991, Hub airings): It is still, unlike the Lawrence of Arabia variant.
A League of Their Own (1992, 1943 Newsreel): At the end of that within the beginning, it has the words "COLUMBIA MOVIESCOPE NEWS" with the 80s Columbia print logo on top of the marquee styling between the words.
Last Action Hero (1993):
* During the movie, the 1989 version of the 1981 logo is integrated into Jack Slater IV. It is briefly shown, then disintegrates like an old film would do, into the opening titles.
* At the end, the closing logo is tinted in orange, like the following closing credits scroll.
The Age of Innocence (1993): It fades in at the zooming out portion. When the music is almost over, the color fades to sepia and, as "COLUMBIA" fades out, turns into a still picture.
Wolf (1994): It is already formed with the clouds tinted navy blue. Then, the front fog moves from left to right, transitioning to the opening shot.
The Indian in the Cupboard (1995): The logo is brighter than usual.
The Juror (1996): The first film to use the byline, the byline is slightly bigger, and is shifted up.
The Cable Guy (1996): The opening theme starts over it. After the byline fades in, the television static effect occurred surging into the opening.
Men in Black (1997): The opening theme starts over it. After the byline fades in, It fades into a starry sky. 
Go (1999): The ending is abruptly interrupted by jarring clips from a opening rave scene that fades into it.
The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999) and Whatever it Takes (2000): Exactly the same as The Indian in the Cupboard variant, but with the Sony Pictures Entertainment byline.
Charlie's Angels (2000): The logo pans to the right, as the movie starts off in the sky on a plane.
What Planet Are You From? (2000): The Torch Lady's face is replaced with that of star Annette Bening, in a nod to the oft-noted resemblance between Bening & Jenny Joseph, the Torch Lady. It fades into the night sky. 
Finding Forrester (2000): The logo's music is played on a guitar. 
Ali (2001): It plays in reverse, while the opening audio fading in over it.
Men in Black II (2002): The opening stinger is heard over it. The neuralyzer is hidden behind the torch. After the byline fades in, it darkens a bit. The teal flash of the neuralyzer glows and dims to have it darkened completely.
Eight Crazy Nights (2002): the logo is fast, The Torch Lady is replaced with Eleanore Duvall, who later melts into the Torch Lady.
Trapped (2002): It is in a shade of cerulean. 
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003): After the logo is done, it goes back to the start point where the movie begins.
Big Fish (2003): Same as the Ali variant, but the Torch Lady's light flashes to white (ala the 1976 "Sunburst" logo) to start the feature.
Peter Pan (2003, Non-US version): The logo fades into the sky.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003): The 1993 logo zooms out futher than usual.
Hellboy: Director's Cut (2004): There's a fire in the torch, and the logo plays backwards to start the movie.
The Adventures of SharkBoy and LavaGirl (2005): It animates faster than usual. At the ending, it cuts to the Troublemaker Studios logo.
Stealth (2005): The logo zooms backward through the clouds.
Yours, Mine & Ours (2005): It plays as usual, but it cuts out at the ending.
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005): At the end of the movie, the logo fades in just after the zoom out and proceeds as usual. The following logos (DreamWorks, Spyglass Entertainment, Amblin Entertainment, Red Wagon Entertainment) are cut short likewise.
The Da Vinci Code (2006): The blue searchlight appears on the logo, and the camera pans to the right.
All the King's Men (2006): The logo is slightly in the shade of black & white.
Open Season (2006), Surf's Up (2007), Popeye (2010, animatic), Arthur Christmas (2011), The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012): Instead of fading out, the torch lady's light glows to fill the screen and fades into the Sony Pictures Animation logo.
The Grudge 2 (2006): The logo starts as usual, but the torch flickers, briefly causing the Torch Lady to turn into Kayako, and the word "COLUMBIA" to turn into "GRUDGE 2".
Casino Royale (2006): In order to accommodate the prologue, this and the MGM logo preceding it are in black and white.
The Holiday (2006): The logo is shortened and it cuts to the last few seconds.
Superbad (2007): A rather neat variation of the 1976 logo. The byline "a SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT company" is seen at the bottom in the beginning. As the camera slowly zooms into the torch, it disappears. As the "sunburst" is forming, a clock-style transition occurs behind it, turning the background from black to yellow, and after the sunburst forms, several human silhouettes are seen.
The Messengers (2007): The logo turns black & white.
30 Days of Night (2007): The logo turns dark blue after six seconds.
Pineapple Express (2008): The black & white version of the 1950's Columbia logo is used, and the Sony Pictures Entertainment byline fades in below.
Angels & Demons (2009): At the very last second the torch begins to flicker, like the anti-meter and the logo fades out, leaving a blurry transition to the next one.
Ghostbusters (2009, game): The 1981 logo is used, but it starts with the middle of the flash. On the 2014 remastered version from Ghostbusters Collection, the 2014 trailer variant using the Sony logo is used instead.
Terminator Salvation (2009, non-USA): The logo is gray, and it has been static shocked.
The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009): The logo zooms out in a box, as if emerging from a subway tunnel and fades into the New York skyline. The logo is accompanied by train-related sound effects
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009): "Columbia" is slightly smaller. When the music is nearly over, a banana flies down from the top-right and hits the Torch Lady sending her & the light spinning away to the right. The clouds transition from this to the SPA logo.
2012 (2009): The logo glows with a tangerine lens flare.
The Bounty Hunter (2010): The 2006 version of the 1993 logo is bylineless. Only on the Starz Saturday Premiere.
The Smurfs (2011): The music is slightly abridged and ends earlier as the opening stinger starts playing (Which carries into the following SPA and The K Entertainment Company logos). At the same time, it is the same as Open Season and Surf's Up variants.
The Green Hornet (2011): Same as the SPA variant, but before the light flashes, the light beaming from the torch turns jungle green. Also the SPA logo is replaced by the Rainforest Films logo.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011): The logo is shown in a gray-green tint. Also, it's shortened, beginning when "COLUMBIA" fades in.
Men in Black: Alien Crisis (2012, video game): On the game for Wii, the logo plays in reverse and the torch is replaced with a Nebyliser, which flashes at the beginning. The flash then leads us to the game screen.
Hope Springs (2012): The logo is shortened, beginning when "COLUMBIA" fades in.
Hotel Transylvania (2012) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015): A female vampire is disguised as the usual Torch Lady. When the music is nearly finished, she transforms into the bat, causing the light to die down. The bat flies to the right of the background, makes the circle loop and flies to the bottom-left corner of the logo. Grabbing the corner, she flies forward towards us and, like a page in the book, transitions into the white background making room for the SPA logo.
Django Unchained (2012): The 1968 logo is used with the SPE byline in the same font as the 1974 "A DIVISION OF COLUMBIA PICTURES INDUSTRIES, INC." byline.
The Smurfs 2 (2013):​ The Torch Lady's dress is white to represent the Smurf's clothing and her robe is light blue to represent their skin color. After the byline fades in, a Smurf hat flies in a far distance behind the Torch Lady and it flies past the "BIA" in "COLUMBIA" and toward in front of the logo  transitioning into the white background for the following SPA logo.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013): When the music is about to finish, the byline fades out. Just like the first movie, the banana, this time in the computer-generated version, hits the Torch Lady. The banana then transforms into a Banaostrich (One of the Foodimals seen in the following movie). Berry the Strawberry (Another Foodimal) who is carrying the smallest torch with low light walks in from the bottom-left corner, and he jumps into the banana which makes a dolphin sound. The banana then gives Barry a blast to give his torch more light, as the latter exclaims "A-ha!" The banana immediately jumps out from the pedestral and runs as Barry's torch light fills the screen with white making room for the following SPA logo.
American Hustle (2013): This is the First Film with a Sony byline, but no Sony Trancition. The 1976 logo is used with the "a Sony Company" byline in it's 2014 style. The opening stinger starts from this variant and it continues into the following Atlas Entertainment and Annapurna Pictures logo variants.
The Interview (2014):
* Opening: The 1953 logo is used with the 1928 logo theme.
** First Time since 1928 to use a Sony Entertainment Logo without a Sony logo or Byline.
* Closing: The print logo is bylineless with the closing stinger is heard with vocal "Ohhhhhhh. Noooo no-no-nooooo, Baily." leading into the memorial screen of Baily, the dog seen in the movie. He Got Killed at the end of the Movie.
The Night Before (2015) and The Front Runner (2018): The Sony logo transitions to the 1981 logo, but it is shortened beginning with the burst. The byline fades in after "Columbia Pictures" fades in.
Aloha (2015): Same as the Django Unchanged Variant, but with the Sony byline in it's 2013 Style and a Sony Trancition.
Spectre (2015): Similar to the All the King's Men variant, but it's slightly darker.
Concussion (2015): Same as The Night Before Variant, but the 2006 logo replaces the 1981 logo, when Sony zooms in, the start of the columbia theme is heard, and contunues. This was the Origial Sony Trancit.
Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017):
* A cardboard version of the Torch Lady is in the pedestal. When the music is about to finish, it falls down, dimming out the torch's light, revealing Smurfette and an orange mushroom with white spots standing next to her at the left on the pedestal. She looks left & right, then, she notices the mushroom. She picks it up and poses. Then, The Smurf hat flies to the screen, unlike Smurfs 2.
* Closing: The first closing logo is used but with the 2013 Sony byline in a blue-black gradient window. This was the first film to use this variant.
Puppy! (2017 short):
* Opening: Same as The Holiday variant, but with the 2014 logo instead.
* Closing: On a black background, the closing logo fades in and cuts out.
The Emoji Movie (2017):
* Opening: It animates as normal, but the byline fades in a little earlier than usual. After a couple seconds, Alex's iPhone rises up to take a close-up image of the Torch Lady with the "U" & "M' of "C O L U M B I A" on the camera. Alex then swipes up the emoji stickerboard and selects the sunglasses emoji sticker to cover the Lady's face. Alex then sent the picture into his messenger which then, at the same time, puts away as the phone's flash flashes to the SPA logo.
* Closing: The white print logo appears over a dark green background.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017): It is a little bit dark, and computer glitch out screen, and back to normal. There's a prototype version of this variant where the logo is red and the 2014 Sony logo transitions with a flash, with the words appearing letter-by-letter and the cloud background being different.
Only the Brave (2017): The logo changes from full color to sepia, and the music turns into a 40s styled version.
in SPA Films from The Star (2017) to Wish Dragon (2021), The Logo doesn't appear in the opening.
* in the closing, the logo appears with the Credits Background. However on the 2021-2022 films, the closing logo isn't used at all.
** Films in 2018 (But Summer Vacation), 2021 (But Wish Dragon) and 2022 has the Logo:
*** in Peter Rabbit (2018): The Sony Pictures Animation logo appears before the Columbia logo, transitioning to the torch through a shine on the second "a" on "Animation". After the logo's animation ends, several birds appear, flying through the logo. The birds pass through the statue, transitioning to the opening scene of the movie.
*** Goosebumps 2 (2018) uses the Normal logo.
*** in Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse (2018), The logo appears. Only, during the zoom in, Dots appear and we go through, the 2006 Columbia logo, with a Sony Byline fading in before the Text (Just like Peter Rabbit), Cuts in after we zoom in to one of the dots. The logo is made of dots and has rings. The Logo glitches to diffrent Styles and all the variants (Cat Baillou, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) are shown.
***In The Mitchells vs. The Machines (2021), just like the movie itself, Sony and Sony Pictures Animation logos everything is Katie-ified. The Sony logo variant leads to the 2006 Columbia logo, with several colorful lines and waves coming out of the Torch Lady's torch. After the byline appears, a leg appears behind the Torch Lady, and stomps on the pedestal, turning her into a cartoon version with rainbow garbs and several objects (like pizza, burgers, stars, and emojis) flowing out of the torch. A pug face draws three rainbows behind the Torch Lady as anthropomorphic stoves with tong hands, bread, rats and pugs appear on either side of the screen and clap, the clouds holding a clapper board and a video camera. The Torch Lady dances for a while before throwing the torch at the ground, creating a starburst that goes to the Sony Pictures Animation logo.
***In Vivo (2021), the 1936 logo is used but it has the 2014 Sony logo transitioning to it and animates like the current 2006 logo, with the Sony byline at the bottom. At the near end, the Torch Lady turns into a silhouette with the "COLUMBIA" text sliding up and the Sony byline fading out, after which the silhouetted Torch Lady plays a flute in a cartoonized background, then she glances out from the right side to make way for the Sony Pictures Animation logo to slide down, continuing to the SPA logo variant.
***In Hotel California: Transformania (2022), the same variant from Cuncussion is used, but the clouds are seen fading to the already formed logo, the syth notes are heard fading to the ending of the 2006 theme and the lights turned off at the end, ending the music. Then they turn on, but the Torch Lady is replaced by Blobby. Then, the light flash from the SPA variant from 2006-2017 happens, leading to the film's SPA 2018 variant. Oddly enough, Sony updated their logo in 2021, yet the 2014 logo is still used.
Alpha (2018): The whole logo (especially the Sony logo following it) is silent.
Men in Black International (2019): at the end, a Hand Moves and puts on Sunglasses. then, the flash appears (ala SPA Variant).
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019): at the end, the Lady appears in the opening and changes while the text and byline fades out. a Car comes in and the opening starts.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019): The Sony Logo trancitions to Black, unlike Peter Rabbit, it zooms to the O, then the Columbia Starts. it's the same as the Alpha Variant but the Sony byline is from the font for the Django Variant's byline.
Zombieland: Double Tap (2019): At the end, many people acting like zombies came in and the lady kills them with her torch, then the logo fades and turns to normal.
Little Women (2019): The Sony logo transitions to the original variant of the 1993 logo but with the Sony byline in it's 2014 style.
Peter Rabbit: The Runaway (2021): The logo fades to the opening scene.
Category:Logo variations
Category:Logo Variations
Category:Sony