The Best Movies That Change the Studio Logo in the Credits

Every part of the ritual of a film can and should be used to further immerse the audience into its world. Hearing, for example, that Universal Pictures fanfare while the globe of their logo spins isn't technically part of the narrative, but it's literally part of the film. So why not take these studio logos, these overtures to the ritual of watching a movie, and go even further toward immersion?

To celebrate the times when movie studios have messed with their own imagery and traditions to get us into the purview of the film even quicker, here are 38 of our favorite logo variants — that is, times when a movie radically changed its studio logo in the credits. From mountains made of buttons to Batsignals made of water towers, you'll see the wide breadth of what can happen when well-known icons get a film-boosting twist.

2 Fast 2 Furious

The joie de vivre of the Fast and Furious franchise, here represented by the perfectly titled 2 Fast 2 Furious is so strong, so tantalizing in its siren song, that it causes the entire friggin' globe to transform into a spinning hubcap on a car. How would you react were you alive when the earth suddenly transformed into a spinning hubcap on a car? I'd be like, "AHHHHHHH actually this is pretty cool, I get it."

The Adventures of Robin Hood

One of, if not the first, movie studio logo variants presented to audiences, 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn as the classic character, begins with an ornate, medieval, and simply exquisite rendering of the Warner Bros. logo. This thing is beautiful, stylishly adorning the aesthetics of the period while also laying the benchmark for what "classic Hollywood" would mean many years later. Why not just make this the official logo?

Alien 3

Bah-bah-bah-baaaah! Bah-bah-bah-baaaaah! Bah-bah-baaaaaaaHHHHWHHHWHHZHZHZHWHWHWHZ!

You know the 20th Century Fox fanfare like the back of your hand. And Alien 3 understands that the quickest way to get under your skin before the official horrors of the film even start is to corrupt this iconic, catchy, bombastic fanfare, cruelly unallowing it to resolve, sliding the minor fourth (already a spooky chord) into a tidal wave of disquieting dissonance. This must've been very fun for the orchestra to play!

American Made

What a disruptive set of logos! To delve us back into the politically incendiary 1970s, a time of gas shortages and broken wars and Jimmy Carter telling his constituents they were all very sad, American Made hard cuts into the retro versions of its various movie studios (some of which had to make retro versions, given that they didn't exist back then) while interrupting them with actual archival television footage of the era. "A Fifth of Beethoven" underscores the whole thing, giving it all a queasy but intoxicating vision of American excess persevering among such American squalor. The sequence might actually make its points better than the movie that follows?

Another You

Goddammit, Richard Pryor is so funny. To open his Another You, Pryor simply comments on the Pegasus at the center of the Tri-Star Pictures logo as if it's a regular white horse coming to cause chaos and havoc. It's such perfect, simple voice of reason work, and it ends with about the funniest distillation of the myth of Pegasus that I've ever heard.

Batman Forever

Batman Forever squishes the Warner Bros. logo into a Bat symbol using strange morphing effects that do not hold up. It remains a perfect movie, no notes.

The Cannonball Run

Another 20th Century Fox interruption, this time from the cops and outlaws and steel-laden car chases centering the rebellious road comedy The Cannonball Run. The fanfare slows down like some smashed stop on an old reel-to-reel tape recorder, and a cartoon car literally drives into the 0 of 20th to outrun a nefarious cop car. The Cannonball Run 20th Century Fox logo variant said ACAB!

Cat Ballou

Yee-haw! The Columbia Pictures Torch Lady drops her shining pinnacle of class and dignity to turn into a cartoon, pick up a six-shooter, and start spewin' bullets left and right. It's a chaotic but invigorating start to Cat Ballou, a comedic western starring Jane Fonda, one that mixes up classic mythologies with a modern sense of muckraking.

Constantine

Ready for a quick trip to Hell? To represent the gritty trappings of Constantine, our Keanu Reeves-played detective of all things demony, the Warner Bros. logo fades to a murky red before dissolving away in decrepit dust, ash, and hellfire. Cheesy? Perhaps. Unbelievably metal in its mood-setting? Hell yeah.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

A simple idea rendered with intriguing visuals and surprising class. If your film is called The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, presenting the studio logos in literal buttons might feel a bit cartoonish on paper. But in practice — and especially underscored to an orchestra tuning up the way they would at a live concert — the result is just so, so lovely and elegant. What else would you expect from master craftsman David Fincher?

George of the Jungle 2

George of the Jungle 2 does not star Brendan Fraser, which is an unfortunate downgrade. But it does feature a wild Disney logo variant in which George accidentally swings from a vine into the Magic Kingdom castle, causing the entire structure to collapse. And that kind of messing with such a pristine piece of wholesome iconography is something worth celebrating, no matter who plays the title role.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Gremlins 2: The New Batch is in many ways a live-action Looney Tunes film, with a sour shot of madcap horror to top it off. So to start the picture, veteran animator Chuck Jones designed a logo sequence in which the actual Looney Tunes fight over status, iconography, and who should actually present the feature film we're about to watch. In all of this, the Warner Bros. logo itself is used in all kinds of irreverent ways, which is exactly what you want from all of these creatively anarchic forces.

The Grudge 2

The Grudge 2 tries so, so hard to scare you right from the jump, but the result is just so, so silly. Near the end of the classic Columbia Torch Lady logo, her hair suddenly grows, affecting that classic J-horror scraggly ghost hair worn by the tortured ghouls of the Grudge franchise (but because her hair stays luxuriously red, she looks more like a screen test for Brave than a spooky ghost). But that's not all — the word "COLUMBIA" actually flickers and distorts behind her, becoming, of course, "GRUDGE 2," effectively turning its pre-title title sequence into a Wheel of Fortune puzzle solution. What a wild, wild thing to do to a major studio logo.

Incredibles 2

Incredibles 2 is a stylish piece of animation, leaning hard into the swingin' '60s aesthetics while heightening its red/black color scheme, too. So its opening studio logos, scored by the inimitable Michael Giacchino, simply had to follow suit, rendering the Disney Magic Kingdom castle and the Pixar lamp in a retro-futurist style that gives me Soviet propaganda vibes in the best way possible. The sunglasses emoji as studio logos.

JCVD

To announce its status as a hard-hitting, violent piece of self-aware action-comedy, JCVD (about and starring Jean-Claude van Damme, of course) opens by kicking the shit out of a child. Specifically, the child in the Gaumont studio logo, usually meant to instill a classy, cosmopolitan film affair. Here, this child gives an adult a gift, only to be absolutely roundhouse devastated for his troubles. I nearly spit-take every time I watch it.

La La Land

La La Land wanted to open with its heart fully communicating with classic movie musicals of yesteryear. Vintage CinemaScope logo? Easy. Vintage Summit Entertainment logo? Harder, given that the company has only existed since 1991. So, they made a new, er, "old" one, in the old-fashioned 4:3 aspect ratio, in black and white, and with charmingly homemade effects that give me some strong Orson Welles vibes. You just wanna reach out and grab it!

The LEGO Movies

Thus far, there have been four movies in the LEGO-verse, and every single one of them messes with the Warner Bros. logo in goofy, appealing ways. The LEGO Movie parts one and two renders it in LEGO, of course, strung down by what looks like dental floss. The LEGO Batman Movie features Will Arnett as a particularly macho version of the Caped Crusader roasting the hell out of the edginess and classiness delivered by a Christopher Nolan-esque WB logo. And The LEGO Ninjago Movie gives the logos classic kung fu, Shaw Brothers-esque flavors, reminding me a bit of a family-friendly Kill Bill (it also promises it's in LEGO-Scope, delightfully).

Lilo & Stitch

In keeping with the film's retro '50s kitsch culture vibes, which includes the way media of that time produced aliens, Lilo & Stitch begins with a spooky green line outlining our darker than usual Disney castle — right before the aliens up and tractor beam the whole thing! Forget Independence Day, this is the scariest thing an alien has done to a notable American white house.

Live Free or Die Hard

AKA the last good one, Live Free or Die Hard puts our charmingly analog John McClane (Bruce Willis) into a contemporarily digital conspiracy thriller, involving hacking, data corruption, and the eventual blackout of New York City. So, the film opens with the 20th Century Fox logo, eternally lit by those skylights, blacking out and shutting down. If one of our most recognizable symbols of filmmaking can't survive Timothy Olyphant, what chance does Justin Long have?