Cinergi Pictures Entertainment
Eric S., Enormous Rat and Livin'
Video captures courtesy of
Eric S., LogicSmash, Broken Saw
Background
Cinergi Pictures Entertainment, known onscreen as simply Cinergi, was a production company formed by Andrew G. Vajna in November 1989, with The Walt Disney Company as a distribution partner. Vajna had co-formed Carolco Pictures with Mario F. Kasser; he left Carolco a month after Cinergi's formation and sold his share of Carolco to Kasser for $106 million due to increasing disagreement between the two over the direction of the company. However, Cinergi almost immediately found itself releasing movies that lost money; almost all of their earliest films, which were Medicine Man, Super Mario Bros., Tombstone, Renaissance Man, and Color of Night, were neither critically nor commercially successful, with Tombstone being the lone exception (although Medicine Man did barely win back its $40 million budget with a worldwide gross of $45,500,797). Cinergi did find success with Die Hard With a Vengeance, the third film in the Die Hard franchise, as well as Evita and, commercially, Up Close & Personal, but it still mostly had misfires, those being the Oliver Stone epic Nixon, Shadow Conspiracy, The Scarlet Letter and Judge Dredd (both Judge Dredd and Die Hard With a Vengeance cost $90 million to produce and both did win back their budgets at the box office, though Judge Dredd grossed less money during its theatrical run).
The box office and budget of Cinergi's films began to fall in late 1996; by then, Carolco had went bankrupt. Broadway Brawler, a movie with Bruce Willis involved, had abruptly stopped production in March 1997; that film was ultimately never released. After a year on consulting, Disney and Cinergi decided to wind down the company. Cinergi released two more films, Deep Rising and An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, before shutting down on February 27, 1998; neither film won back their respective budgets at the box office (the latter, in particular, grossed only $52,850).
Most of Cinergi's library assets were acquired by Disney through Buena Vista, which distributed almost all of Cinergi's productions domestically (most under the Hollywood Pictures label, though Renaissance Man and Up Close & Personal were under the Touchstone Pictures label) except for Die Hard With a Vengeance, which 20th Century Fox owned the rights to until 2019 when it was acquired by Disney after its merger with Fox (though they had already acquired select international distribution rights for that film); this came through a deal after the decision was made to wind down Cinergi, which saw Disney cancel $38 million in production advance owed and 5% of Cinergi shares in exchange of most of the film rights. The other assets were to be merged into CPEI Acquisition, Inc., a joint venture between Vajna and the Valdina Corporation, while Vajna himself went on to reinstate his partnership with Kasser and form C2 Pictures.
While Disney handled distribution of the company's movies in North America and select regions, Cinergi handled their own distribution of their titles elsewhere through subsidiary Cinergi Productions N.V. Inc., with Summit Entertainment handling international sales.
In 2003, Cinergi was revived when Vajna bought video game company Games Unlimited and renamed it Cinergi Interactive. The company operated until 2007.
Logo (December 25, 1993-February 20, 1998)
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Judge Dredd variant
Visuals: On a blue/black background, a transparent "C"-like figure appears and rotates as it zooms out. The beginning has the company name reflected on the "C". When it's finished, the word "C I N E R G I" emerges from the background with sparkles and appears in blue below the logo. The logo continues to zoom away from the camera, then stands still.
Trivia: The logo was created by Rod Dyer Design.
Variants:
- On Tombstone, the "CINERGI" name fades in slowly.
- Nixon has a shortened version, starting at the zoom-out.
- On Judge Dredd, the logo is tinted in dark blue.
- On the Scud video games, a still gold version of the logo is used on a black background.
- On Evita, the logo is in black & white.
- There is a closing credits logo with the 3-D "C" with "DISTRIBUTED BY" above and below "CINERGI PRODUCTIONS N.V. INC.".
Technique: CGI.
Audio: A 12-note horn stinger followed by an uplifting orchestral finish, composed by Jerry Goldsmith. On films such as Evita, Renaissance Man, Nixon, and Deep Rising, it would be silent or have the films' respective opening themes.
Audio Trivia: The fanfare was reportedly conducted by Bruce Broughton, as stated on the expanded score release of the Tombstone soundtrack (where it's listed as "Logo"). Jerry Goldsmith provided the music for the logo but had a scheduling conflict on Tombstone and recommended Broughton to score the film.
Audio Variant: There's a low-pitched version.
Availability: This appears on most of the company's movies.
- It first appeared on Tombstone and went on to appear on Evita, Renaissance Man, Shadow Conspiracy, Color of Night, The Scarlet Letter, Judge Dredd, Die Hard With a Vengeance, and An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (the last release from the company).
- Cinergi's first two releases were Medicine Man and Super Mario Bros., released on February 7, 1992 and May 28, 1993, respectively, which had the print logo on the poster and trailers on the former, though no logo was used in the films themselves; only an in-credit notice appears for the latter.
- It was also seen on the Scud games.
- It also appears on the international versions of Deep Rising and Up Close & Personal (domestic releases of said films have the Hollywood Pictures and Touchstone Pictures logos respectively).
- The closing credits logo is only seen on international prints of films.
