Empire International

Credits

Descriptions by
codyfinke

Captures by
Eric S. and Sagan Blob

Video captures courtesy of
DudeThatLogo and Ry's Classic Commercial Hut

Background

Empire International Pictures was a B-movie company started by B-movie filmmaker Charles Band in the 1980s. Band, who founded Media Home Entertainment, formed Empire after he expressed dissatisfaction to how other outfits distributed his earlier films. Band sold the company to Epic Entertainment in 1988 due to unpaid debts. The television rights previously laid with Vestron Video and its offshoot Vestron Television (later acquired by Modern Entertainment), which also distributed the majority of its library on home video that weren't released by sister company Wizard Video. Most, if not all, of the Empire library currently sits with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios under Orion Pictures who owns Epic's Beta library through the pre-1996 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment movie library.

Logo (August 24, 1984-1988)

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Visuals: On a black background, the camera pans up and over a large set of cubes forming a larger cube, with a cloudy sky reflected off of the surfaces. In the distance, a large blue sphere is seen floating just to the right. As the camera zooms into the sphere, the text "EMPIRE", in a metallic gold futuristic font, of which most of the letters are cut at the top like the Orion Pictures logo, zooms out from the bottom of the screen facing the sky, of which it turns towards the screen upon reaching the sphere. "INTERNATIONAL" in a Microgramma font, also zooms in from below and settles underneath "EMPIRE". "EMPIRE" then shines twice.

Technique: Early CGI, with some camera-controlled animation for the text.

Variant: A short variant of this logo is usually seen on trailers.

Audio: A horn fanfare composed by Richard Band. Sometimes, it is silent.

Audio Variant: On the Full Moon Blu-Ray of Trancers, it uses the last half of the extended 2005 Full Moon Features music, along with the last notes of the 1st Full Moon logo's music.

Availability:

• Can be seen on various films released by the company, including among others Eliminators, Zone Troopers and Ghost Warrior, although it's plastered with the MGM logo on some newer prints of those films. It also may be omitted from the original VHS releases of these films.
• The silent version can be seen on TerrorVision and also appears on the Blu-Ray, after the MGM logo.
• It also appears on the Blu-Ray of Trancers, as well as the Spanish VHS release of Breeders and the Venezuelan Betamax release of Ghoulies, of which it is also on the British VHS and Betamax release of it.
• It was also retained on a Svengoolie broadcast of Ghoulies.
• This logo does not appear on Prison, or the majority of the post-1987/88 Empire films such as Cellar Dweller, Transformations, Spellcaster, Catacombs, Buy & Cell, Arena, Ghost Town, Robot Jox, etc.
• It is unknown if this logo appeared on the U.S. Theatrical Print or Force Video VHS of White Slave (AKA: Amazonia: The Catherine Miles Story).
• It may have been seen on the U.S. Theatrical Print of Assault of the Killer Bimbos, which was the last film the company released as an independent outfit, but home media releases show no evidence of this.
• It also appears on the Japanese VHS release of Dreamaniac.