Legendary Pictures

Background

Legendary Pictures was founded in 2000 by businessman Thomas Tull. In 2005, Legendary Pictures became a production and financing partner of Warner Bros. Pictures with its first production being Batman Begins. In 2014, Legendary Pictures went to Universal Pictures with a similar agreement to Warner Bros. to co-finance, market, and distribute all of Legendary's films after their deal with Warner Bros. expired. Legendary was purchased in 2016 by Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group.

1st Logo (November 17, 2005-February? 2006)

Nickname: "The Sword", "The Lost Legend"

Logo: We see a forest above a lake, all obscured by clouds. As the camera zooms in, a sword fades in with the words "LEGENDARY PICTURES", in a majestic gold font, in front of it.

Variants:

Early trailers for Superman Returns have a black background.
Early trailers for Lady in the Water have water with the sky reflecting off of it in the background.

FX/SFX: Either the sword zooming in, or no animation at all.

Music/Sounds: The sound of wind followed by a majestic fanfare, or the trailer's opening theme.

Availability: Rare. Only seen on the first trailers for Superman Returns, Lady in the Water, and The Ant Bully. The best places to find it are early HD trailers for the three aforementioned films (most commonly Superman Returns), which still exist. Despite the logo being fully animated, it was pulled almost immediately and replaced with the next logo before usage on any of their films, so don't expect this to be on Batman Begins (their first film, however the logo does appear in print form on promotional material).

Editor's Note: It's a nice-looking logo, which makes it all the more confusing and disappointing on why it was pulled so quickly before showing up on any films.

2nd Logo (June 28, 2006-October 16, 2009)

Nicknames: "The Celtic Knot", "The Golden Celtic Knot"

Logo: Against a black background, we see an extreme close-up of a flame shooting downward. The camera pans back, and several more flames shoot across, eventually revealing a series of gold intertwining lines (resembling a Celtic knot) and the words "LEGENDARY PICTURES" (in Copperplate Gothic Bold) below it, which are also in gold.

Trivia: This was designed by Picturemill.

FX/SFX: The flames, which are really well done.

Music/Sounds: The sounds of fire accompanied by a violin/piano-like sound composed by Walter Werzowa.

Availability: Common. Can be seen on films produced by the company such as Superman Returns, The Ant Bully, and 300.

Editor's Note: This is a very neat logo, and is well remembered for its unique concept.

3rd Logo (April 2, 2010-July 12, 2013)

Nicknames: "The Celtic Knot II", "The Fiery Celtic Knot"

Logo: Same as the previous logo, except the text flies in from the lower-right corner of the screen word-by-word, the logo looks "grungier" than before and moves from right to left, and some "sparks" appear in the background throughout.

Variant: On later films from the studio, the word "PICTURES" is removed.

FX/SFX: Same as the previous logo, except that it's made with even better animation. This was done by yU+co in association with Picturemill.

Music/Sounds: The sounds of fire accompanied by a triumphant fanfare, composed by Hans Zimmer.

Availability: First seen on Clash of the Titans. Also seen on Jonah Hex, Inception, The Town, Due Date, The Hangover: Part II, The Dark Knight Rises, Jack the Giant Slayer, 42, The Hangover: Part III, and Pacific Rim.

Editor's Note: This is a nice improvement over the previous logo, and the majestic triumphant fanfare really showcases this.

4th Logo (April 24, 2014-April 12, 2019)

Nicknames: "The Celtic Knot III", "The Celtic Knot In Space"

Logo: Same concept as the previous two logos, but the streak is blue, everything is against a blue space background, the logo is silver, and the view moves 180-degrees clockwise.

FX/SFX: The streak and the view moving, all done in nice CGI.

Music/Sounds: At first, it used the same music as the last logo, albeit the ending note was extended to fit with the length of the logo. Starting on Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, it used a triumphant theme composed by Frank Ilfman, with the full version getting eventually released on YouTube by Ilfman himself.

Availability: First seen on the trailer for As Above, So Below. The fully animated version debuted on Godzilla and last appeared on Little.

Editor's Note: Another improvement on the original 2006 logo, once again reflected with a really nice and epic theme.

5th Logo (May 7, 2019-)

Nicknames: "The Celtic Knot IV", "The Infinite Celtic Knot"

Logo: Same concept as the previous three logos, but the streaks on the Celtic knot are orange. We see a trail of infinite Celtic knots before we zoom out of the logo as it forms and the other knots disappear. The logo is now silver with gold trim, while the lettering is in a metallic sans-serif font. The blue background is darker.

Trivia: Like the 3rd logo, this was solely designed by yU+co.

FX/SFX: The streaks, the Celtic knots, and the camera panning. It's all done in amazing CGI.

Music/Sounds: The same Frank Ilfman theme as the last logo.

Availability: Current. While its theatrical debut was on Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, the logo technically debuted on an official joke video uploaded to YouTube on May 7, 2019, before the movie's official release. Also seen on films such as Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Dune.

Editor's Note: This is an exceptionally well-done logo, even if it could have more potential, and is a worthy successor to the previous logos.