Filmstaden AB

Background

Filmstaden AB is Sweden's largest cinema chain, founded in 1998 as SF Bio AB after Svensk Filmindustri's film production and cinema subsidiaries split. Owned by Odeon Cinemas, when Odeon was bought by AMC Theatres in 2017 it was rebranded to its current name.

SF Bio

1st Logo (1998?-2010?)

Visuals: On a blue-grey wall, there is the SF logo shining in gold. The logo zooms into it and break through as it shatters like glass. The logo zooms through a gate into what may be the halls of a theater, with posters on the walls. We turn a corner past a school desk and break through more glass. Traveling through a dusty ventilation system, we break the glass on the other end as we turn and approach a doorway with the SF logo on it sparking red and blue-green electricity. The door blasts open from all the sparks, and many characters pop out, including among many others:

A revolutionary war general riding a cannonball.
"Daffy Duck" (a bootleg version of him, albeit quite accurate), who gets scared of all the other action and screams and runs away.
Indiana Jones.
The Millennium Falcon from Star Wars.
The head of E.T. from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
A cop car.
A disembodied gun.
A white cowboy hat.
An airplane.
An animated insect with a bee-colored body and red and yellow checkered wings.
A dazed Tex Avery-esque cartoon wolf with a yellow bird circling his head, who falls to the ground.

The sparking safe from which everything came turns into the SF logo in gold. A gold box labeled "BIO" appears around it.

Technique: A mix of live action, CGI, and hand drawn animation.

Audio: A very dramatic theme akin to an action movie, along with the sounds of glass breaking, electricity, laser zaps, cartoon character yelps, and other sounds related to the action.

2nd Logo (2010-2018)

Visuals: There is many red sparks in darkness. They enter a lens, revealing a camera-like apparatus. The sparks start up again as the screen zooms through the many tubes they course through. The logo zooms out to see that the tubes are in the shape of the SF logo and "BIO". The text lights up like neon as we adjust to a better view.

Technique: CGI by RithusetAB.

Audio: Electricity sounds, zaps, and wooshes, as well as the 1999 Svensk Filmindustri theme.

Legacy: This is a favorite of many Swedes.

Filmstaden

1st Logo (2018-)

Visuals: There is a bunch of billowing red fabric. A golden liquid pours over it and flows in a circle before turning into golden dust. A circular object with a rainbow prism inside of it is formed, and starts to open. There is several angles of the top of a transparent red letter "F". The circle orbits around it to give it a gold coating, then again to cover it with red scales. Zooming out as the "F" is fully coated in red and the circle rapidly spins around it before stopping, there is the text "Filmstaden" below. The background turns to a black and red gradient.

Variant: When Filmstaden celebrated its 100th anniversary (through its owner, SF Studios) in 2019, a version was created. Here, the logo starts the same, but it is in black-and-white, has an old film effect over it, and has a head leader countdown counting up by 3s. The logo then cuts to a universal leader countdown with a "15" in the center. The logo then plays like the regular variant, but with the "F" replaced with a "23". It cuts to a "47" in gold coating, followed by animated smoke colored in beige circling around it. There is a pair of eyes between "56", with a hand-drawn forest behind it. The circle gains a mouth for a split-second before being closed over to reveal "72" with electric blue/yellow lines running through it. It is closed over again to reveal "82", in a transparent, glassy fashion, spinning around. We then see the side of a "91" with popcorn and Coca-Cola nestled inside. It is overrun with a line, transitioning it to a "95" with a gold, rumpy coat. The "1" in "100" is overlaid with an icy texture with the red fabric on top, with it being vice-versa on the top half. The logo then zooms out to reveal "100" (with the second "0" having a pink, fluffy texture with solid red underneath, also in vice-versa, and the third "0" having a silver and gold textures). The "1" and the third "0" flip into the second "0", making it flip into the Filmstaden logo. "Filmstaden" fades in underneath, along with "100 år. 100 känslor".

Technique: CGI by Dallas Sthlm.

Audio: A majestic orchestral theme.

Audio Variant: At the start of the 100th Anniversary variant, the audio is slightly distorted (fitting with the beginning of the logo) and has the slight sound of film static.

Legacy: Many Swedes find this logo to be a downgrade from before, with the music often jokingly getting compared to a news intro.

2nd Logo (2021-)

Visuals: Same as the 13th AMC Theatres logo, but all instances of the AMC logo are replaced with the one for Filmstaden. The final screen puts the logo and the text "WE MAKE MOVIES BETTER" against a red streaked background.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Same as the 13th AMC Theatres logo.