Cinema Club

Background

Cinema Club was a low-cost home video distributor formed in the early-1990's as a joint-venture between the UK division of RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video (later Columbia TriStar Home Video) and Video Collection International that focused on re-releasing feature films (mainly from Sony Pictures Entertainment) at low prices.

In 2002, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment sold their stake in Cinema Club and formed a new partnership with Universal Studios Home Video for the creation of the Universal Columbia Alliance (later named Universal Sony Alliance). Cinema Club was reorganised by VCI as a general low-cost budget DVD distributor and was retained by 2 Entertain until at least 2007.

1st Logo (1995-2004)

Visuals: On a black background, there is a gold filmstrip which fits the screen perfectly, inside the black square, there are the words "CINEMA CLUB" coming from top and bottom and connecting itself in the centre. After three seconds, it cuts out to black.

Technique: 2D animation.

Audio: None.

Availability:

• Cinema Club VHS releases are very easy to find and are always guaranteed to have this logo. It can be seen after the warning screens.
• It is most commonly found on budget VHS releases of the Columbia TriStar catalogue, such as Jumanji, Labyrinth, various Muppets releases, the Ghostbusters 1 and 2 single tape set, among others.
• Also shows up on several Carry On releases, and budget releases of Buena Vista Home Entertainment films, such as Dick Tracy.
• Although the logo appears on the packaging of Cinema Club DVD releases, they dont use this logo. The VCI logo was used instead.
• This logo also does not appear on the 1999 UK VHS reissue of Men in Black (1997), which uses the Columbia TriStar Home Video logo instead, due to it reusing the 1998 VHS master.
• The logo continued to be used on VHS releases until at least 2004, as seen on the VHS release of Santa Claus: The Movie.

2nd Logo (2004-2007)

Visuals: On a black background, there is a large gold text moving backwards towards the camera. The logo then zooms through us and the camera moves back to see the words "CINEMA CLUB" moving towards a gold square filmstrip. The words then go inside the filmstrip, and the logo fades out.

Variant: On Fullscreen DVD releases, the logo is letter-boxed to 4:3.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A dark theme when the words move towards the camera. An energy-like sound then plays when the words move towards the filmstrip.

Availability:

• Can be seen on a few Cinema Club DVD releases, such as Batfink: The Complete Series.
• It can be seen on a few VCI DVD releases, such as Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) and other Cinema Club releases distributed by VCI. After VCI's merger with BBC Video to form 2 Entertain, it can be seen on some 2 Entertain releases that used the Cinema Club brand until it was ditched altogether in 2007.