Cineplex Entertainment

Famous Players Theatres

Background

Famous Players Canadian Corporation dates back to the early days of Famous Players Film Company (later Paramount Pictures), founded in 1912, as its earliest predecessor, though that company did not have any operations in Canada until 1920, when it bought Nathan Nathanson's Paramount Theatre chain, which Nathanson had established four years earlier. Nathanson, along with being the 5th richest person in the world, became the first president of the resulting entity, Famous Players Canadian Corporation Limited.

1st Logo (1954-1958)

Logo: A book page is displayed marking the status of an upcoming feature. Following this, the book is closed to reveal its front cover, which displays the Famous Players logo of the time (a maple leaf with the words "A FAMOUS PLAYERS THEATRE" written into the inner light grey sections). The snipe then either fades or cuts out.

Variants: Many, depending on the date and time in which an upcoming feature is scheduled to be screened.

FX/SFX: Live action.

Music/Sounds: TBA

Availability: Extinct.

2nd Logo (1987-1994)

Logo: We start by briefly flying across a aerial shot of the earth, which quickly descends into the inside of a series of clouds. A series of grey lines appears from within the clouds, which then zoom out as the clouds dissolve to reveal a sunset over the ocean. Eventually the grey lines zoom out far enough that they reveal themselves as being the Famous Players logo-a series of segmented lines which extend across most of the "FAMOUS PLAYERS" text before forming a maple leaf and a small rectangular border on the far right. Once the entire logo is visible, the smaller text "Coming Attractions" fades into place underneath the logo. The logo continues zooming out as the snipe eventually fades out.

Variants: A feature presentation variant likely exists, but has yet to be found.

FX/SFX: Live action and CGI.

Music/Sounds: A piano-based space jingle which segues into a triumphant brass fanfare.

Availability: Extinct.

3rd Logo (1994-2001)

Logo: We open by fading into a space background complete with stars shining. Then one star near the center of the screen lights up, and the words "BIG SCREEN" emerge from the star's light and zoom in across the screen before disappearing. Then the words "BIG SOUND" also emerge from the star and do the same. The text "FAMOUS PLAYERS" (in blue) then zooms out until reaching the center of the screen. Then a much larger flash of light encompasses the entire screen, surrounding the text and releasing a small meteor shower. The same text as before-except a bit smaller-then flashes into place underneath the company name. The entire logo then fades out, though the music drags on a little bit longer.

Coming Attractions Variant: We start with the completed logo as before fading in. Then a star shines a light between the two lines of text, which start to move themselves above and below the star, respectively. The star then rotates itself upwards, gradually revealing itself to be the same logo from the 1987 trailer. Once the logo and text have re-centered themselves into place, a flash of light appears which changes the bottom text from "Big Screen Big Sound" to "Coming Attractions". A series of lights then shine from the maple leaf, along with two which flash from the left and right sides of the screen. The light quickly dims, and then the entire logo fades out.

FX/SFX: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: A rather jarring percussion fanfare for the main trailer, and a synth sci-fi fanfare for the coming attractions variant.

Availability: Extinct.

4th Logo (2001-2005)

Logo: A white flash of light bursts onto the screen, revealing a red background with a series of circles resembling speaker rings in the center. From here, a barely visible series of rings slide out from the center until disappearing as the red background shrinks to a small beam of light stretching across the middle of the screen with a white line drawn out across the light. The stereo rings reemerge and pan across the screen vertically while the line splits into a series of wavelengths which zoom out as the rings float back on screen with the speaker rings reformed behind them. The white line reappears to write out the text "Feature Presentation" in a slick, futuristic font as more rings float in behind the text. The text wipes out as the same Famous Players logo as before draws itself in on the top half of the screen. A circular white light shines across the logo before filling in the maple leaf. Four more light beams zoom in at the bottom to reveal the logos of Famous Players' various subsidiary labels (Famous Players Coliseum, Paramount, SilverCity and IMAX Colossus respectively) The trailer ends with all five logos sucked into the red light which then zaps itself off the screen as if it were a TV set turning off.

Coming Attractions Variant: The same trailer plays against a blue background, and the white line displays the text "Coming Attractions".

FX/SFX: CGI animation by TOPIX FX.

Music/Sounds: Various laser-synth sound effects, with a short chime theme playing near the middle. For the Coming Attractions Variant, the chimes play at the beginning and at the end.

Availability: Extinct.

Odeon Theatres

Background

The oldest ancestor of Cineplex Odeon was Odeon Theatres of Canada, started as "Generals Theatre Corporation" by Paul Nathanson, son of Famous Players Canadian Corporation president Nathan L. Nathanson. The "Odeon Theatres of Canada" name was first used in January 1941. The elder Nathanson was rumoured to be involved in the chain, but it was not until early May 1941 that he resigned (for the second time) from Famous Players Canadian, and acknowledged his position in creating and operating Odeon. The chain, initially composed of independent theatres, was not originally affiliated with the British "Odeon Cinemas" circuit; it was sold to the British chain's owners, The Rank Organisation, in 1946. Following World War II, there was a wave of anglophilia in Ontario; Odeon emphasised its British ownership to capitalize on this sentiment, screening British films—particularly those made by Rank.

1st Logo (1945-1960)

Logo: Against a grey background comprised of many segmented lines, a print variant of the Rank Organization's usual gong logo appears, with various text superimposed over the logo indicating either the start of the film, or a trailer for an upcoming film or other attraction. Underneath this appears the Odeon Theaters logo (the same as it's British counterpart).

Variants: Again, many depending the status of the feature being previewed.

FX/SFX: Simple animation.

Music/Sounds: TBA

Availability: Extinct

2nd Logo (1960-1978)

Logo: Similar to the above, expect the snipes are now in color-specifically dark brown against a red background) and the Rank logo is placed to the left of the given text.

Variants: Mostly the same as above, except the feature presentation version is in bold text (rather than script), the inner border is now blue, and the logo returns to being placed behind the text.

FX/SFX: Simple animation.

Music/Sounds: TBA

Availability: Extinct.

Canadian Odeon Theatres

Background

Odeon Theatres of Canada merged with the Canadian Theatres chain in 1978, becoming known as Canadian Odeon Theatres. Cineplex Corporation began operating in 1979. On April 19, 1979, Nathan "Nat" Taylor, inventor of the multiscreen theater, and Garth Drabinsky opened the first Cineplex location, an 18-screen complex in the basement of the Toronto Eaton Centre. At the time, the theatre earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest cinema. In July 1982 they opened their first theater in the United States, with a 14-screen multiplex in the newly built Beverly Center in Los Angeles, the largest in the US at the time. Also in 1982, the company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

(1978-1984)

Logo: A red line appears from the center of the screen. As a pair of lights shine, the line turns on its side revealing a maple leaf. Once the leaf has revealed itself completely, it zooms back followed by a series of lights which then do the same, forming a triangle outline around the leaf. Then a series of blue triangles also zoom out (similar to the 2nd American Cinema Releasing logo) and come together to form the completed triangle border, the lights now placed along the edges to resemble a filmreel. Just before the triangles finish forming, the text "Canadian Odeon Theaters" flashes into place, after which three more lights shine across the logo. The text "OUR FEATURE PRESENTATION" then wipes into place underneath the logo via a "sparkling" effect. Finally, several more lights shine across various points on the logo until it fades out.

FX/SFX: Appears to be Scanimate.

Music/Sounds: An ambiant synth-brass/woodwind fanfare.

Availabilty: Extinct.

Cineplex Odeon Theatres

Background

After successfully winning a legal challenge against the Famous Players/Canadian Odeon duopoly and their exclusive contracts with major studios, in June 1984, Cineplex bought Canadian Odeon Theatres who owned 164 theaters with 297 screens for $12 million, to become Cineplex Odeon. The Bronfman family was a major investor in the purchase.

1st Trailer (Early July 1985-1999)

Nickname: "The Coliseum"

Logo: Fading in from black, the camera starts rotating over the walls of a coliseum, with mountains and other ruins seen as silhouettes over a evening sky. As we move around, the coliseum's seats fade to a glassy purple before a red line cuts into the seats and begins to zoom out, segueing into the next part. Here, the background has transform into a starfield and the purple glass seats become the Cineplex Odeon logo, which is a segmented "O" with 4 sections in general and split down the middle, with it also design to give the illusion of depth, which starts rotating towards the screen. After it stops spinning, the "O" becomes a metallic purple and the words "COMING ATTRACTIONS" appear above the "O" and "CINEPLEX ODEON THEATRES" appears below it, in the Korrina font, and fades to black. It appears like this:

COMING ATTRACTIONS

CINEPLEX ODEON
THEATRES

Variants:

1986-1989: The logo was reduced in size and has a bit of a blue tint.
1989-1997: The logo was further reduced in size and has a deeper shade of purple. The background is also darker.

FX/SFX: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds:

1985-1986: A series of trumpet fanfares over the sound of wind. It then leads to a "bang" sound effect before leading into a fanfare that sounds like the Cineplex Odeon Home Video logo at the time.
1986-1999: Low synth notes play during the beginning. This leads to a different "bang" sound and goes into a soft synth piano tune.

Availability: Extinct.

Legacy: These bumpers are considered favorites among those who went to Cineplex Odeon cinemas at the time.

2nd Trailer (1985-1999)

Logo: On a starfield background, the Cineplex Odeon logo appears and slowly zooms in. It then gets bombarded with red laser before splitting into many squares, which flip forward. We zoom past some of the squares before another Cineplex Odeon logo appears, in which 3 red rings wipe around it. Then after it stops zooming, "FEATURE PRESENTATION", above the "O", and "CINEPLEX ODEON THEATRES" appears below it, cheaply inserted in and in the Korrina font. It appears like this:

FEATURE PRESENTATION

CINEPLEX ODEON
THEATRES

Trivia: This was also used as the Cineplex Odeon Home Video presentation ident used in 1986-1990.

FX/SFX: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds:

1985-1989 (Mono track): The same music from the Cineplex Odeon Home Video logo was used.
1989-1999 (Dolby Stereo track): A percussive roman/jungle-like fanfare, with mixed percussion and whooshes for the rings and lasers was used.

Availability: Extinct.

Legacy: Another favorite among those who went to Cineplex Odeon cinemas at the time.

3rd Trailer (1985-1989)

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Logo: On a black background, two transparent-white objects of what appear to be extruded and outlined text appear and begin to move from the top and bottom edges of the screen towards each other. After they reach the center of the screen, they continue moving, and the front ends of the extruded text begin to move away from the screen, reducing the extrusion of the text. Once the text no longer looks 3D, the text becomes filled with white and glows. At the same time, a more contrast version of the purple-lined "O" from the previous logos appear between the text, and the outlines of the individual segments of the "O" quickly glow one at a time. The text dims down to a teal/light gray gradient color, and continues to shine for a few seconds. The top text reads "NOW PLAYING AT", while the bottom text reads "CINEPLEX ODEON THEATRES". It is arranged like this:

NOW PLAYING AT

CINEPLEX ODEON
THEATRES

FX/SFX: CGI animation.

Variant: A still variant exists.

Music/Sounds: A synthesized fanfare beginning with a long swoosh that ends after the text glows.

Music/Sound Variant: The still variant has announcer Dave Duvall saying "Now Playing at a Cineplex Odeon Theatre near you!"

Availability: Extinct.

4th Trailer (1999-2004)

Nickname: "The Curtains"

Logo: We see a theater curtain with two spotlights illuminating it. The curtain opens to reveal another curtain of another color, which opens to reveal more opening curtains of different colors. The last one of them opens to reveal a blue background with the new Cineplex Odeon logo (now gold and with 3 stripes instead of 4) along with "CINEPLEX ODEON" and "CINEMAS" below, in white and yellow colors respectively. Below there's a Loews Cineplex Entertainment byline. Two spotlights suddenly appear and reveal "COMING SOON", also yellow.

FX/SFX: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: An ascending fanfare, along with whooshes. A 3-note bell tune is heard after that.

Availability: Extinct.

Legacy: Though considered inferior to its predecessors, this bumper still isn't terrible.

5th Trailer (1999-2004)

Nickname: "The (Loud) Countdown"

Logo: On a animated blue background (not like the previous logo), we see a countdown from 8 to 2, with spinning outlined circles surrounding it. The countdown become faster and faster, and the circles start to form the Cineplex Odeon logo from before. The words "CINEPLEX ODEON" appear letter-by-letter by a light. They are colored white, and a laser beam turns them yellow. "CINEMAS" and the Loews Cineplex Entertainment byline fade in. A light appears below "CINEMAS" and "FEATURE PRESENTATION" wipes in at the same position of the light. Another light occurs on "FEATURE PRESENTATION", which makes the words crossfade into "ENJOY THE SHOW".

FX/SFX: All good CGI.

Music/Sounds: Loud gun sounds, along with short whooshes when the CINEPLEX ODEON text appears.

Availability: Extinct.

Legacy: While considered inferior to its predecessors, this is still not a bad ident.

Loews Cineplex / Cineplex-Galaxy LP

Background

In April 1998, Cineplex Odeon Theatres merged with New York City-based Loews Theatres (founded in 1904 by Marcus Loew) to form Loews Cineplex Entertainment. Alliance Atlantis purchased Cineplex Odeon Films's assets along with its home video division the same year. After the merger, the company ceased to exist and was merged into the operations of Loews Cineplex Entertainment. In 1999, Ellis Jacob and Steve Brown, former executives who left Cineplex Odeon Corporation during the ownership change, created Galaxy Entertainment designed to bring big-city entertainment to mid-sized markets across Canada. In 2001, Loews Cineplex Entertainment, the company that merged with Cineplex Odeon, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Lowes Cineplex was later acquired by Onex Corporation and Oaktree Capital Management in 2002. In 2004, Onex decided to sell Loews Cineplex and retain the Canadian operations, merging then with Galaxy to form Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund (now Cineplex Entertainment). At the time of the merger, Cineplex Odeon operated 40 locations in Canada. On June 13, 2005, Cineplex Galaxy announced its acquisition of Famous Players from Viacom for $500 million (about US$397 million). This deal was completed on July 22, 2005. To satisfy antitrust concerns, on August 22, 2005 the group announced the sale of 27 locations in Ontario and western Canada to Empire Theatres. Eight days after Cineplex Galaxy announced its purchase of Famous Players Theatres, Loews Cineplex Theatres and AMC Theatres announced a merger. While AMC Theatres also operated in Canada and was ranked third behind Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund and the enlarged Empire Theatres, Cineplex Odeon and AMC Theatres remained competitors. In 2012, AMC sold four of its theatres to Cineplex Entertainment, in an effort to divest their Canadian operations and focus on their U.S. assets.

(1999-2000s)

See here for more detail.

Cineplex Entertainment

Background

Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund, the owners of the chain, renamed Cineplex Galaxy LP to Cineplex Entertainment on October 3, 2005. In 2011, Cineplex Galaxy became Cineplex Inc.

1st Logo (2005-2009)

Nickname: "Filmstrip City"

Logo: The Cineplex logo rotates counter-clockwise into place on the screen, with the Famous Players, Cineplex Odeon, and Galaxy Theatres logos, ONEX byline and the URL appearing below. The film-reel stops, and the viewer is in a city with buildings made of filmstrips. The camera pans to the "GO BIG" text with searchlights behind it, then the camera moves around till it stops at the "FEATURE PRESENTATION" text flashing into view.

FX/SFX: Decent CGI, but very primitive for the time.

Music/Sounds: A superhero-like soundtrack with whooshes from traffic and a helicopter.

Availability: Extinct. Only used in theatres.

2nd Logo (2009-2012)

TBA.

3rd Logo (2012-2015)

Nicknames: "The Film of History" "History Plane" "100 Years of Movie Memories"

Logo: On a black-and-white 1900s environment, we see where the Wright Brothers is and the Wright Brothers plane, flying. (this could be (possibly) the 1st film to appear in the Famous Players theatre). The plane flies to a set of clouds. After a few seconds, the whole film turns to color inside the clouds. The plane has a new look possibly by that. Then, the plane turns into a new plane and turns into widescreen, and flies vertically reaching a cloud. We have the same top-down effect and the plane may have a new look and sky lighting. The plane turns into a jet and the film grain fades out. Then, another scene of a cloud with a space-like jet flies going up. However, when the jet reaches the clouds it becomes a space shuttle and leaves the Earth. It launches to the screen. We cut through the engine of the spaceshuttle and the shuttle goes up. Then, the spaceshuttle reaches lightspeed until it becomes a white flash. When this flashes, we cut to a nebula scene with the Cineplex logo and a banner saying "100 Years of Movie Memories". Some asteroids come to the logo. One of the asteroids come from the left transforming the Cineplex logo and the banner to just "ENJOY THE SHOW".

FX/SFX: Amazing CGI by Spy Films!

Music/Sounds: A calm tune that grows slowly to a majestic fanfare including the sounds of a plane, a jet and a space shuttle.

Availability: Extinct.

4th Logo (2016-)

Nickname: "Underwater Colosseum"

Logo: We start by seeing a silver-ish background with a light shining on it. It then reveals a stone Colosseum as the camera cuts to another shot of several silver balls rolling around. The Colosseum opens up to reveal a bright white shine, revealing the classic Cineplex Colosseum all turning yellow as the camera cuts to rectangles being inserted to make the logo smooth. A bright flash appears and puts the Colosseum on a white background as the letters for Cineplex appears one by one from left to right. The text "See the big picture" appears below the logo for a few seconds before the logo turns 2-D.

FX/SFX: Awesome CGI!

Music/Sounds: A slightly dramatic fanfare, which starts to rise up and and be majestic. Sounds of marbles rolling are heard and clanking sounds are heard when the yellow Colosseum appears. When the Cineplex letters appear, sounds of a film reel starting to project are heard. 4 xylophone notes are heard which appears to be the new Cineplex jingle.

Availability: Current.