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Background

Miramax Films is a film and television production and distribution company that was started in 1979 by Bob and Harvey Weinstein. The company name was created by combining the names of their parents: their mother Miriam, and father Max. In 1987, they went full throttle as far as producing/distributing movies are concerned. In 1992, Dimension Films was created by Bob as a division of Miramax. A year later, in 1993, Miramax, along with Dimension, was purchased by The Walt Disney Company, though it still licensed home video rights to Live Entertainment (which had already been distributing select Miramax titles, beginning with Hostile Takeover, on videocassette) until it formed a new home video division in late 1994.

On March 29, 2005, the Weinstein brothers decided to leave both Disney and Miramax and took the Dimension label with them (a split which was consummated on September 30), and in October of that year, they founded another film company, The Weinstein Company. In January 2010, Disney shut down Miramax's New York and Los Angeles offices and consolidated all operations to Disney's native Burbank. The move resulted in 70 job losses and 10 were kept to keep running the label. Disney also cut releases each year from 6 to just 3. Former Disney Studio chairman Dick Cook wanted to keep Miramax but resigned, with his successor, Rich Ross, deciding on selling the studio. Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed this on a conference call when questioned about a possibility of selling Miramax.

On December 3, 2010, Disney finalized the sale of Miramax to Filmyard Holdings, LLC, a joint venture between Colony Capital, Tutor-Saliba Corporation, and Qatar Investment Authority. On January 22, 2013, Ron Tutor sold his stake in Miramax to Qatar Investment Authority. On March 2, 2016, the studio was sold to the beIN Media Group, a spin-off of the Al-Jazeera Media Network's sports assets. From 2011 to 2019, Lionsgate Home Entertainment handled the US home media distribution of the Miramax library, while European home media rights lied with StudioCanal, and in Japan, home media distribution was handled by Warner Home Video from 2012 until 2017. Shortly after its remerger in December 2019, ViacomCBS acquired a 49% stake in Miramax, putting its film library under the ownership of Paramount Pictures.

1st Logo (November 1, 1980-November 28, 1987)

Nickname: "Filmstrip M"

Logo: On a black background, we see a filmstrip, made into a letter "M". The text "MIRAMAX FILMS" is next to the "M" with "in association with" above.

Variant: On some films, such as Crossover Dreams, Ghost Fever, and The Quest, the logo is a simple textual graphic reading "A MIRAMAX FILMS Release" in a plain non-serif font.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: Silent, or the music from any given soundtrack.

Music/Sounds Variant: On some prints of David the Gnome, the last note of the Cinar logo is played.

Availability: Very rare. It was seen on their limited output of this era such as Rockshow and The Secret Policeman's Other Ball, among others. The English-language print of David the Gnome also had this logo when it aired on Nickelodeon and TLC in the U.S., Family Channel in Canada, and across several other English-speaking territories. However, it is not preserved on DVDs of the show, but it is intact on the U.S. Family Home Entertainment and UK Video Collection VHS releases.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (March 27, 1987-December 11, 1998)

Nickname: "The Banner of Boredom"

Logo: On a black background, we see the text "MIRAMAX" in the Gill Sans Ultra Bold font. Below it is "FILMS", stretched to fit the width of "MIRAMAX", with a line on top and on the bottom of it.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None or the theme of the movie or trailer.

Availability: Rare. It's found mainly on trailers for some Miramax features and films such as The Unbelievable Truth, My Left Foot (VHS only) and Blue in the Face. It also makes appearances on Clerks and the 2002 restoration of A Hard Day's Night (1964). It also makes a surprise appearance at the start of Serendipity.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (September 11, 1987-October 29, 1999, 2002)

Nicknames: "The M", "The Big M", "Flashing M", "The Miramax M", "The Blue M"

Logo: A blue "M" in the same font as before zooms out to the left of the screen. It scrolls to the right, revealing "MIRAMA" in gold, and when it gets to the end, it disappears in a flash of light, revealing an "X". The word "FILMS" with its usual lines fades in below. A large "M" in black with a glowing blue corona surrounding it zooms out and borders the logo.

Variants:

For a number of years until Disney acquired the company, the word "presents", in script, would appear under the logo, depending on the variant.
For releases outside of the United States only, the word "FILMS" was replaced with "INTERNATIONAL".
On at least one occasion, the Roadshow Television logo transitioned into the international variant by zooming out with the "M".
On some films, such as Wings of the Dove, the "FILMS" text is omitted.
On some widescreen versions of the logo, the top and bottom edges of the "Big M" touch the black borders, or are cut off.
Sometimes, the logo fades out early while the rest of the music plays.
Rarely, the text would be silver.
On Ready to Wear, when the "M" zooms out, the entire logo zooms out even further.

FX/SFX: The zooming out of the "M", the glowing letters, the flash, and the "Big M".

Music/Sounds: A calm synth fanfare with a "new age" feel to it. Some films have the opening theme of the film; otherwise, it is silent.

Music/Sounds Variants:

On Pulp Fiction, the last two notes of the fanfare were cut off.
On films such as Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, the double pitched music from the "Family Films" variant is heard.

Availability: Used to be common, but due to chronic plastering with both 4th and 5th logos, now it's uncommon, bordering on rare.

Examples with this are recent releases of Pulp Fiction and Sling Blade. This logo first appeared on I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, and made its last appearance at the end of Music of the Heart (which uses the next logo below at the beginning).
The international variant is only seen on releases outside of the US, such as Australian prints of the Scream films, and UK prints of the Jackie Chan film Thunderbolt. This version is intact on the US DVD of Farewell My Concubine, the Japanese Blu-Ray of The Talented Mr Ripley, and an Australian DVD of Emma.
The "presents" variant appears on the R1 DVDs of Strictly Ballroom, Kolya, the Live Entertainment releases of The Crying Game, the VHS releases of The Grifters (but not on the Canadian Cineplex Odeon VHS, where it's skipped entirely), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, the Canadian VHS release of Prospero's Books, and the Canadian Seville Pictures DVD of Breaking the Rules (VUDU prints use MCEG instead, though with Miramax's jingle retained, oddly), among others.
The version that fades out early can be seen on Il Postino (The Postman) and Everest.
Don't expect to see this logo on Bob Roberts. Despite the print logo appearing on posters and trailers, only the 1990 Paramount Pictures logo is used on-screen.
It was also originally seen on U.S. theatrical prints of Freddie as F.R.O.7 and Tom and Jerry: The Movie, but the home video releases show no evidence, though in the case of the former, it's an alternate cut. Strangely, this can be seen on The Crow: City of Angels, but Dimension distributed the film. It was also spotted on the 1999 HBO DVD of My Left Foot, and is preserved on the Anchor Bay DVDs of Strapless and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. It is also seen on early U.S. prints of Princess Mononoke while later prints use the next logo and the 2017 DVD uses the GKIDS logo. It was also seen on the Canadian VHS releases of The Girl in a Swing and The Miracle, despite the fact that Millimeter and Prestige distributed those two respective films to U.S. theaters. It can also be found on the U.S. Buena Vista/Lionsgate Blu-Rays of Sling Blade, Chasing Amy, Life is Beautiful, the Alliance Blu-Ray releases of The English Patent, Good Will Hunting, and the Echo Bridge Blu-Ray of Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood.
This may have been seen on theatrical prints of The Long Walk Home, but VHS releases skip the logo (despite its presence on the box).
This also makes a surprise appearance on the US dub of Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra instead of the next logo, and makes a very strange appearance on an Italian HDTV airing of The Brothers Grimm (instead of the international variant of the next logo).
It was also seen on the Canadian Cineplex Odeon VHS releases of Gulliver's Travels (1983), The Golden Treasure, The Young Visitors, Tail of the Tiger and Undercover Gang, among others.
It also may have been seen on theatrical prints of Pastime, The Pope Must Diet, and House of Cards, among others.
Don't expect this to appear on Faithful, which they co-produced with Savoy Pictures.
It is unknown if this is seen on the Media/Fox VHS release of Black Rainbow.

Editor's Note: One of the more iconic movie logos of the '90s. This logo utilizes an effective use of cel animation.

4th Logo (December 11, 1998-November 28, 2008)

Nicknames: "The Buildings", "Lights/Lites in the Big City", "Manhattan Skyline", "The City", "Miramax Skyline"

Logo: We zoom down a river, and pan up to see the skyline of Manhattan, New York, at sundown. As the sun sets, the lights in the building windows begin to turn on, just like in real life. As we zoom in closer to the buildings, several lights begin forming the print Miramax Films logo, simply in white (no glowy effects like last time). The city skyline fades to black as the Miramax Films logo forms, piece by piece, while zooming towards the center of the screen. The end result is similar to the 2nd logo.

Trivia: If you look hard enough, you may possibly see the World Trade Center. This was animated long before the original World Trade Center was destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. On recent films shot on digital, the right tower is removed and the left one is placed to the edge of the city skyline.

Variants:

From 1998 until 2004, the logo was shot on 35mm film. In the logo's final years from 2005-2008, it is shot on digital.
When the logo debuted and during the logo's first official year, 1999, the words "20TH ANNIVERSARY" appear above.
There is a prototype variant of the "20TH ANNIVERSARY" logo where the top text is in orange or yellow, depending on the film quality.
Yet another variant of the "20TH ANNIVERSARY" version exists. On a couple of films released in 1999, the anniversary text is smaller.
For releases outside the United States, the word "FILMS" was replaced with "INTERNATIONAL". There is an anniversary variant of this version also.
There exists a 1.78:1 open-matte version where the landscape is zoomed out much farther back. This version is seen on the Miramax DVD release of Three Colors: Blue, and on some films released between 2007 and 2008 such as The Queen.

FX/SFX: The CGI effects are nothing short of perfect.

Music/Sounds: The logo is usually silent, or has the opening theme of the film playing over it. Although some films, such as Music of the Heart, have a pleasant orchestrated piece with a few instruments in the selection.

Music/Sounds Variants:

On early films with this logo such as Children of Heaven, and pre-1998 films such as The Harmonists and Mouth to Mouth, it uses the last logo's theme!
On the some older HDTV airings and the UK StudioCanal Blu-Ray of Shaolin Soccer, it uses the shortened theme from the next logo, possibly due to a botched plaster job.

Availability: Common. Seen on releases from 1998 to 2008 and was the norm for plastering the previous logo, but is replaced with the next logo on most newer prints of their film library.

This logo first appeared on Shakespeare in Love, and made its final theatrical appearance on The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Gangs of New York (2002) does not have this logo at all.
In an interesting occurrence, when Confessions of a Dangerous Mind airs on Starz/Encore, the standard-definition version retains this logo, but the high-definition showing features the next logo below instead.
The "International" version is seen on the German Concorde (as well as a Brazilian) Blu-Ray release of The Brothers Grimm (2005) It's surprisingly preserved on the Criterion Blu-ray and DVD of Naqoyqatsi on the Qatsi trilogy set. VHS tapes and DVDs of movies released during this logo's span are almost always guaranteed to have this logo, such as Pokémon Heroes.
Despite plastering from the following logo, it can still be seen on US prints of The Talented Mr. Ripley, There Will Be Blood, and a YouTube Movies print of The Aviator (2004).

Editor's Note: Despite the nice CGI, some people don't like how this plastered the previous logo on some films.

5th Logo (December 25, 2008-July 6, 2018)

Nicknames: "The Buildings II", "Lights/Lites in the Big City II", "Manhattan Skyline II", "The City II", "Miramax Skyline II"

Logo: Same concept as before, but instead of the skyline, we pan up to see the Brooklyn Bridge at sundown. As the sun sets, we zoom towards the buildings until we finally get to the skyline of Manhattan. One difference of the skyline is that the World Trade buildings are gone (possibly due to 9/11). After we get to the city, the lights in the building windows begin to turn on. As we zoom slowly to the skyline, several lights begin forming the Miramax Films logo like before. The city skyline then fades to black as the Miramax Films logo forms, piece by piece.

Trivia: This logo was made by Studio Nos.

Variants:

A prototype variant exists where there is added motion blur, there is a timelapse effect in the clouds, a boat is floating in the water, the buildings' lights turn off slower and the dark yellow sky at the end doesn't fade out. It's overall a much more detailed version of the logo.
Since 2010, most films only show the last half of the logo.
Starting in 2011, the word "FILMS" is omitted. This variant first appeared on The Debt. Both of these versions (particularly the latter) plaster over older Miramax logos on new releases of their films.
Starting in 2016, a registered trademark ("®") symbol appears next to the Miramax wordmark.
On recent prints of My Life So Far (2002), this plastered the “20th Anniversary” variant of the previous logo, but for some reason, they keep the “20th Anniversary” text.
The closing version has just the Miramax logo and the city skyline.

FX/SFX: A marvelous hybrid of live-action and CGI effects.

Music/Sounds: Usually, a soft piano tune with coastal and city noises. Sometimes, it is silent or has the opening theme of the movie.

Music/Sounds Variants:

On some recent prints of their 1987-98 films, such as Pulp Fiction and Il Postino (The Postman), it uses the 1987 theme.
On Starz’s prints of 40 Days and 40 Nights, the 1997 Universal theme is used, due to the editors using the audio from an international master.

Availability: Common. It first appeared on Doubt, and made its final appearance on Whitney. It also plasters older Miramax logos on recent prints of films. Strangely, it appears before the 1990 Walt Disney Pictures logo on Runaway Brain when it was a digital-exclusive extra on Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection. It also strangely appears on a recent Cinemax broadcast of Tombstone, a Hollywood Pictures film. Until Lionsgate and Echo Bridge assumed the home media rights to the Miramax catalog, this was used as a de-facto home video logo.

Editor's Note: Once again, this logo is well liked, but some people are annoyed how it plasters older Miramax logos. While it does get some notoriety, the logo wasn't very notorious when it debuted in 2008 (due to it being the longer variant and not plastering).

6th Logo (October 19, 2018- )

Nicknames: "The Buildings III", "The City III", "Aurora Miramaximus", "The Big M Returns"

Logo: We see three sets of blue light rings (2 of the 'R', and one of the first 'M', where the I is partially visible) at night in the Hudson Valley, soon followed by the company name, spread out, slowly coming together to form the logo, illuminating a city (possibly a bird's-eye view of New York) below. The respective byline fades in.

Bylines:

2018-2020: A beIN MEDIA GROUP COMPANY (in variations of the Gotham font) underneath the "MAX" text.
2020- : A beIN MEDIA GROUP AND VIACOMCBS COMPANY, with "VIACOMCBS" being the corporate logo, centered underneath the logo.

Variant: There is a shorter version, which skips the the first pan across the "R".

Trivia: The logo was animated by MOCEAN.

FX/SFX: Amazing CGI animation!

Music/Sounds: A somber four-note theme, or the opening soundtrack of the movie.

Availability: Current. First appeared on the final trailer for Halloween (2018), and debuted on the film itself. It was also seen on The Gentlemen and Wrath of Man. The shorter version first appeared on The Perfection, and it will most likely only appear on non-theatrically released films and Miramax Television shows.

Editor's Note: This is the first time Miramax hasn't used the Manhattan skyline concept since 1998.

External Links

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 * On Starz’s prints of ''40 Days and 40 Nights'', the 1997 Universal theme is used, due to the editors using the audio from an international master.
-'''Availability:''' Common. It first appeared on ''Doubt'', and made its final appearance on ''Whitney''. It also plasters older Miramax logos on recent prints of films. Strangely, it appears before the 1990 Walt Disney Pictures logo on ''Runaway Brain'' when it was a digital-exclusive extra on ''Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection''. It also strangely appears on a recent Cinemax broadcast of ''Tombstone'', a Hollywood Pictures film. Until Lionsgate and Echo Bridge assumed the home media rights to the Miramax catalog, this was used as a de-facto home video logo. The prototype version can be spotted on Studio Nos' Vimeo page.
+'''Availability:''' Common. It first appeared on ''Doubt'', and made its final appearance on ''Whitney''. It also plasters older Miramax logos on recent prints of films. Strangely, it appears before the 1990 Walt Disney Pictures logo on ''Runaway Brain'' when it was a digital-exclusive extra on ''Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection''. It also strangely appears on a recent Cinemax broadcast of ''Tombstone'', a Hollywood Pictures film. Until Lionsgate and Echo Bridge assumed the home media rights to the Miramax catalog, this was used as a de-facto home video logo.
 '''Editor's Note:''' Once again, this logo is well liked, but some people are annoyed how it plasters older Miramax logos. While it does get some notoriety, the logo wasn't very notorious when it debuted in 2008 (due to it being the longer variant and not plastering).