Paramount Logo

Continuing with the major Hollywood studios, we arrive on Paramount Pictures.  Founded in 1912, the mountain logo has been around since the beginning.  Nicknamed the Majestic Mountain, the 24 stars circling it originally represented the 24 contract players.  Musically, they aren't known for their fanfares like other studios.  But for many films starting in the 1930s, the fanfare was Paramount on Parade.  New fanfares have been used sparingly in the 1980s and 2010s.

Here is a brief history of the studio and some fun film logo variations.

Paramount Logo (1926-1950)
Seen here in Follow Thru (1932)

Paramount Logo (1952-1975) 
Featured a matte painting updated for widescreen and VistaVision
VistaVision fanfare by Nathan Van Cleave
Seen here in The Carpetbaggers (1964)


Paramount Logo (1975-1984)
Often faded to the blue Gulf+Western era design
Fanfare by Jerry Goldsmith (later used prominently in Paramount Television)
Seen here in Airplane (1980)


Paramount Logo (1985-2002) 
Updated matte painting with subtle CGI
75th Anniversary - Seen here in Fatal Attraction (1987)


Seen here in Black Rain (1989)

Paramount Logo (2002-2011)
90th Anniversary - Seen here in Changing Lanes (2002)


As seen in Iron Man 2 (2010)


Paramount Logo (2011-Current)
100th Anniversary - First seen in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)
Fanfare by Michael Giacchino
As seen in Bumblebee (2018)


And now onto some fun variations:

Sullivan's Travels (1941) - Appearing as the seal opening into the credits


Sunset Boulevard (1950) - Logo appears over the street

The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

White Christmas (1954) - First VistaVision film

The Ten Commandments (1956) - Slightly changed mountain and color.  Cecil B. De Mille was involved if you didn't notice.

Psycho (1960) - Logo covered in lines, matching the Saul bass title sequence

Chinatown (1974) - Throwback to an older logo appearing in sepia tone

The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978) - Mountain turns into Mount Fuji

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - Throwback 1950s logo fades into South America

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) - Throwback 1950s logo fades into a gong

Coming to America (1988) - Zoom over the mountain to the kingdom of Zamudia 

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) - Throwback 1950s logo fades into US southwest

Event Horizon (1997) - Pan up past the logo to space.  Fanfare creepily extended by Michael Kamen

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) - Logo fades into the South Park mountain

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003) - Logos appear rippling under water

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) Throwback 1950s logo fades into a prairie dog mound

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) - Falling buttons form the logo

Watchmen (2009) - Logo appears in black and yellow

The Avengers (2012) - The 100 Years logo appears inside the blue Tesseract

Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) - Asteroids fly past the logo into the next scene

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) - Sonic's classic rings appear instead of the stars

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2 Comments

  1. Too bad nobody has posted on YouTube the Coming to America version of the Paramount logo, in which the camera zooms past the mountain to reveal Prince Akeem's homeland of Zamunda. That's my favorite.

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  2. That is a great one! I forgot all about it.

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