Miramax Home Entertainment

Background

Miramax Home Entertainment was the home entertainment division of Miramax Films, formed in early 1992 as Miramax Home Video after years of having their films released by several home video distributors including HBO Video, Media Home Entertainment (through Fox Video) and LIVE Home Video. The same year, Miramax struck a deal with Paramount Home Entertainment to have them release their films on VHS (Paramount still owns the video rights to some of these films). After Disney bought out the company in 1993, Miramax's video releases were distributed by Buena Vista Home Video, first through Touchstone Home Video. A year later, in 1994, Buena Vista created Miramax Home Entertainment as a label for its distribution of Miramax products. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment continued distributing Miramax products until 2011 (after the company's founders and CEOs, the Weinstein brothers, left two years earlier). In December 2010, Miramax was sold by Disney to Filmyard Holdings, LLC, a division of Colony Capital. In February 2011, they entered a home video agreement with Lionsgate Home Entertainment and StudioCanal to distribute more than 550 titles from the renowned Miramax film library on DVD, and later that month, they made a deal with Echo Bridge Home Entertainment for domestic DVD distribution of the studio's additional 251 titles. In March 2014 though, Echo Bridge lost the distribution rights to those titles, allowing Lionsgate to obtain complete access to the Miramax catalog. Later in December 2019, ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global) bought a 49% stake in Miramax and took over the home media distribution rights the next year from Lionsgate, with Paramount Home Entertainment returning to release all of Miramax's titles on home video since September 22, 2020; Paramount now handles the home video rights to the company's library worldwide.

1st Logo (August 24, 1994-August 30, 2005)

Visuals: An "M" in the Gill Sans Ultra Bold-like font zooms out to the left of the screen and scrolls to the right, revealing "MIRAMA", and when it gets to the end, it disappears in a flash of light, revealing an "X". The words "HOME ENTERTAINMENT", with two lines above and below, fade in below. A large "M" in black with a glowing blue corona surrounding it zooms out and borders the logo. The whole logo is animated in a smoother frame rate.

Variant: On the Criterion Collection DVD of Chasing Amy, the logo is stretched into 16:9 widescreen.

Technique: Likely computer graphics.

Audio: The 1987 Miramax logo theme, but in muffled mono.

Audio Variants:

On some Live Entertainment and Miramax Special Edition DVDs, there is a 5.1 surround version of the theme.
On rare occasions, it is silent, like on the Criterion Collection DVD of Chasing Amy.

Availability:

It's seen on Miramax VHS and DVD releases of the era, such as Four Rooms, the demo tape of Things to Do in Denver... When You're Dead, Good Will Hunting, Clerks, and Pulp Fiction. Its first appearances were on Three Colors: Blue and Like Water for Chocolate, both of which were co-branded with Touchstone Home Video; this logo wouldn't appear solo until the next month, starting with The Crow.
This doesn't appear on most Image Entertainment Laserdisc releases, like The Thief and the Cobbler.
One of the last tapes in the U.S. to use this logo was the 1999 VHS of Monument Ave., whereas one of the last DVDs in that region to feature this logo was the 1999 DVD of Everest.
It was also found on a promotional VHS release of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and on some copies of The Others.
This also appears on the 2002 Australian VHS and DVD releases of Serendipity and the 2002 Australian DVD release of Bounce (despite them both released during the next logo's lifespan).
While Miramax's first videocassettes, issued through Paramount, have a home video variation of the Miramax print logo, there is no animated version of it on said releases as they simply use the standard film logo, if that.
UK VHS releases didn't start using this logo until the late 90s. Prior to that, Miramax and Dimension titles were released under the Touchstone Home Video and Hollywood Pictures Home Video labels. Other than that, this logo was used in the UK until 2005, as seen on a VHS copy of MyScene Goes Hollywood: The Movie.

2nd Logo (1999-January 8, 2008)

Chicago variant

Visuals: The camera zooms down a river, and pans 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 the screen zooms in closer to the buildings (including the original World Trade Center buildings in the original version), several lights begin forming the print logo for Miramax Home Entertainment, simply in white (no glowy effects like last time). The city skyline fades to black as the logo forms, piece by piece, while zooming towards the center of the screen.

Variants:

There are videotaped and filmed versions. The former appears on some earlier releases, while the latter appears on early Blu-rays and a few DVDs, such as the 2005 Collector's Series Director's Cut's DVDs of Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood and The Yards, among others.
On some releases, the logo is shown in 16:9 widescreen.
On the DVD of the 1996 Japanese film Shall We Dance?, the 4:3 version of the logo is stretched out to 16:9 rather than being cropped to those dimensions.
On a home video trailer for Chicago, a scene from the movie crossfades into the finished logo, which is now black with a glowing red outline. The first "A" resembles the "A" in the movie's title, and after a couple seconds it ripples out into another scene from the movie.
On early Blu-rays, the filmed version has the "HOME ENTERTAINMENT" text in a different font.
On Bionicle 2: Legends of Meta Nui, the variant plays as usual, but instead of fading out, it freezes and the background fades into the opening shot in which the logo slowly slides down to the water to become the reflection. Once the reflection ripples all the way out, the camera zooms faster to start the prologue.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Usually silent, as per the 1998 logo.

Audio Variant: On some DVD releases and the VHS of Clerks: Uncensored (the cartoon adaptation), it uses the previous logo's theme.

Availability: It can be found on Miramax video releases from 1999 to 2008.

Appears on the Bionicle movie trilogy at the beginning of the film (after the Lego logo).
It doesn't appear on the 2005 DVD of MyScene Goes Hollywood: The Movie, even though the VHS version of the said film has it. It instead uses the Miramax Family logo.
The European DVD releases of Pokémon 4Ever and Pokémon Heroes do not use this logo, instead it uses the Buena Vista Home Entertainment logo, while the VHS release of the former uses the previous logo.
The opposite occurs on the 2002 VHS & DVD releases of The Adventures of Tom Thumb & Thumbelina, where despite Miramax not being mentioned on their labels, it appears on both versions of the film regardless. On the DVD version, this appears right after the 2nd Buena Vista Home Video logo.
The VHS release of Clerks Uncensored (the animated series) has the logo play twice -- first with the previous logo's theme, then again with the usual silence.

Final Note

Starting on February 12, 2008, Miramax DVD and Blu-ray releases just used the standard 1998 logo and later the 2008 logo.