Summit Entertainment

Background

Summit Entertainment is a film studio that was originally founded in 1991 by Bernd Eichinger, Arnon Milchan, and Andrew G. Vajna to handle foreign sales, and officially launched in 1993 by Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsburger as a limited partnership (LP). The studio was originally a production/distribution/sales organization, which usually co-released and internationally released films by other studios (such as Touchstone Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros.), but they became fully independent in 2006. Their first film as a fully independent studio was P2 (2007). On January 13, 2012, Lionsgate acquired Summit for $412.5 million.

1st Logo (October 4, 1996-October 5, 2007)

Nicknames: "Peaceful Summit", "CGI Peaceful Summit", "Abstract Mountain", "Summit Outline"

Logo: On a black background, we see a moving blue ribbon. The ribbon slowly floats down, and it falls. The ribbon then moves up to become an outline of a mountain. The mountain moves back, and the words:

S U M M I T
E N T E R T A I N M E N T

in Trajan Pro fade in below.

FX/SFX: The ribbon floating down and moving up forming the mountain. Great CGI.

Music/Sounds: A whoosh sound on some sort of flute, then a dreamy synth tune with a tympani beat at the end and a synthesized flute. For Summit's post-2000 films, the logo was silent.

Music/Sounds Variants:

On Splendor, some prints of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and Wrong Turn, it uses wind sounds followed by a different sounding flute.
On Bound (which was the first movie to use this logo) and Keeping Mum, it uses a dramatic orchestral fanfare.

Availability: Uncommon. It appears on some Universal, Touchstone, Fox, Alcon, and Warner Bros. releases internationally, such as Racing Stripes and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. The last movie to have this logo was Michael Clayton.

Editor's Note: This logo is well liked by most people who have seen it.

2nd Logo (November 9, 2007-August 17, 2018; June 21, 2019)

Nicknames: "Peaceful Summit II", "CGI Peaceful Summit II", "Summit Outline II"

Logo: On a black background, a light shines, showing the outline of a mountain. The resulting mountain outline gradually zooms out, and the light gradually gets brighter until there is something akin to a flash on the screen. The background becomes an ice blue, the mountain's outline becomes white, and this zooms out until the logo becomes an ice blue rectangle with a mountain outline. The light fades out in the distance, and the ice blue rectangle is on a blue/white gradient background. The words:

S U M M I T
E N T E R T A I N M E N T

in the same font as the previous logo, fade in below the mountain on the ice blue rectangle.

Bylines:

November 9, 2007-February 24, 2012: (Bylineless)
July 27, 2012-June 21, 2019: "A LIONSGATE COMPANY"

Trivia: This was done by Intralink Film Graphic Design. It is possible, though unconfirmed, that someone named Jamie Anderson was involved in production as well.

Variants:

A still version exists, sometimes on a black background.
- Fly Me to the Moon has the background in blue with "presents" and without the mountain.
An enhanced variant debuted on The Cold Light of Day, released on September 7, 2012. In it, the light in the beginning is more blue, the flash is brighter and more realistic, the logo zooms out further, the gradient background has been replaced with a white gradient background, and a Lionsgate byline fades in (which previously debuted on Step Up: Revolution).
Starting in 2014, the Lionsgate byline is larger and zooms in.

FX/SFX: The light shining and the background changing. The CGI is once again amazing, and really shows how a simple design can be very effective.

Music/Sounds: A soft and dramatic orchestral fanfare that gradually becomes more majestic. But most films with this logo have it silent or the opening theme of the movie is used.

Availability: Common. It appears on all of Summit's films from the era, such as Fly Me to the Moon, P2, Sex Drive, Astro Boy, and Warm Bodies. The still variant can be seen at the end of some films and also appears on the Scene It: Twilight video game. The last film to use this logo was Down a Dark Hall, released on August 17, 2018, but it later appeared on Anna, which was intended for release in 2018 but delayed following sexual misconduct allegations against its director.

Editor's Note: Same as above, but the next logo is a different story...

3rd Logo (April 19, 2018-February 8, 2019)

Nicknames: "The Lionsgate Sky", "Lionsgate Summit", "Summit in the Clouds", "Bland Summit", "The Summit/Lionsgate Transition" "Mountainless Summit"

Logo: On a sky background in the middle of several moving clouds, the stacked text "SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT" floats in the middle of the screen, in blue. The text then rotates to reveal the stacked text "A LIONSGATE COMPANY", with "LIONSGATE" in its corporate font.

FX/SFX: The clouds and the text. This was done by Devastudios.

Music/Sounds: Same as the previous logo, but sometimes the opening theme plays over it.

Availability: Rare. First seen on the trailer for Blindspotting. The fully animated version debuted on Escape Plan 2: Hades, and it appears on most new releases from the studio such as Uncle Drew. However, on the trailer for John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, it did not show the Summit Entertainment logo.

Editor's Note: It has gained criticism due to the simple and uninspiring animation, the removal of the mountains, and also the fact that the Lionsgate byline takes up more time than the company name. This logo is no longer used, however it is credited at the end of Summit-produced movies.