Franchise Pictures

Video captures courtesy of EnormousRat and Eric S.

Background: Franchise Pictures was an independent film company known for rescuing pet projects and their production of action films. Much of their output was negatively-reviewed and/or bombed at the box office. The company hit a major bump with the release of the wildly infamous Battlefield Earth, which was slammed by critics, went drastically over-budget due to the company's embezzlements and marketing, and grossed only $29.7 million at the box office out of an overall $73 million budget. Already hit with major losses from the movie, Franchise was later sued into bankruptcy with accusations of purposely inflating the film's budget. The company, as well as subsidiary Phoenician Entertainment, closed in 2004, although many unproduced films they funded were released years afterwards.

1st Logo

(July 6, 1999-February 1, 2005)

Logo: On a black background, we see a blue box with a white outline with "FRANCHISE" at the top. A building is seen in the box, and "PICTURES" is seen on the lower part of it.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Extremely rare. Was seen on some early films distributed by the company, such as The Confession and A Murder of Crows. The teal variant also appeared on the GBA game A Sound of Thunder.

Editor's Note: None.



2nd Logo
(January 21, 2000-February 15, 2005)

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Nickname: "The Franchise Building"

Logo: We start out by panning out through a street with many buildings, then we pan out to a skyscraper with "FRANCHISE" above it, and "PICTURES" on the base. The background soon changes to a teal background.

Variations:

• In Heist, the logo is black and white and we only see the camera panning up to the skyscraper.
• The short version of the logo can usually be seen in films made by Franchise Pictures. In the short version, first 4 seconds are cut off and we only see the second half of the logo.
• In Green Dragon, the "CLASSICS" word flows from the right (ala Universal) and places on the skyscraper.

FX/SFX: The panning.

Music/Sounds: An ascending, majestic orchestral fanfare. On some films, the logo is silent.

Availability: Common. Seen on several films from the era starting with The Boondock Saints.

Editor's Note: None.