Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Background
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is the home entertainment distribution arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment, part of the Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation.

It was first established in November 1979 by Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. as "Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment", to distribute films from Columbia Pictures on VHS, Beta, LaserDisc, and Super 8mm, with Warner Bros. titles being released by them on the latter format. It was later renamed as "RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video" (or "RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video" for international distribution, "RCA/Columbia Pictures/Hoyts Video" (in conjunction with Hoyts) in Australia and "Gaumont Columbia RCA Video" (in conjunction with Gaumont) in France) in 1981 as a joint venture with RCA, the then-parent company of NBC, "Columbia TriStar Home Video" on August 23, 1991, after acquiring RCA's shares from General Electric; in the same year, they moved its headquarters to 3400 Riverside Drive at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. In 1995, CTHV relocated its headquarters to the Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. On February 28, 1999, Universal Studios Home Video signed a multi-year deal with Columbia TriStar Home Video to allow the latter to distribute Universal's DVD releases outside North America. The company was renamed "Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment" in 1999 before the name was made official in early 2001, and to its current name on November 18, 2004.

It is responsible for the distribution of the Sony Pictures library for home entertainment, mainly releases from Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures, but also releases products from Sony Pictures Classics, Screen Gems, Triumph Films, Destination Films, Stage 6 Films, Affirm Films, Revolution Studios, its television library, selected miscellaneous output from independent companies, the CBS Films theatrical releases co-distributed by CBS Home Entertainment, Morgan Creek Entertainment and Lionsgate. Since June 20, 2007, SPHE now handles the former Sony BMG kids label, Sony Wonder.

(March 24, 2005-)
Logo: Over a set of purple clouds, we see a bright light with rays shooting outward which start to create some lens flares. A set of white lines of light appear and zoom out to solidify into the 1991 Sony Pictures Entertainment logo, which gives off rays of light. As this happens, the background turns black. The rays die down and we see "Times New Roman" in the Sony font appear below the bars, a line fades in underneath that, and "Times New Roman"fades in underneath word-by-word.

Trailer Variants: On 2005-2006 VHS releases by SPHE, one of the following phrases would fade in during the clouds portion of the animation with a male announcer (Nick Tate) saying the phrase. Afterward, the rest of the animation plays as normal.


 * Coming Soon to Theaters
 * Now Playing in Theaters
 * Coming Soon to DVD and Video
 * Now Available on DVD and Video

Afterward, a trailer with one of the following features would be played.

Variants:
 * On all Blu-rays until 2017 and some DVDs from December 26, 2005 to late 2011, the logo is much more contrasted.
 * On Flight of Fury, the logo has a slightly dark blue tint.

Technique: CGI animation by Brian Castleforte and Sean Koriacan for Imaginary Forces.

Music/Sounds: Two timpani drumbeats, followed by an uplifting horn/string arrangement. Composed by Lee Sanders.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * Sometimes, the theme is played in a low tone.
 * On the double feature set of Annie/Annie: A Royal Adventure!, disc 1 (Annie), on both sides, has this logo with the music from the 3rd CTHV logo. That disc is likely a modified reprint of the original 1997 flipper DVD that has both widescreen and full-screen versions, which may explain this plaster oddity.
 * On the U.S. DVDs of The Fog (2005, full-screen only) Zathura, The Squid and the Whale, and most PAL releases, the theme is in a high tone.

Availability: Very common and current.
 * Can be found on all videos released by the company from 2005 onward.
 * The print SPHE logo goes back to November 30, 2004 (first appearing on the DVD of Spider-Man 2), and these early SPHE releases (including reprints) still have either the 1993 CTHV logo, the 2000 CTHV logo, or the 2001 CTHE logo.
 * The animated SPHE logo made its debut on the PSP UMD of Spider-Man 2 in the spring of 2005.
 * The first DVD to have this logo was Are We There Yet?, released on May 24, 2005, and this has been present on every single Blu-ray released by Sony going back to the launch lineup on June 20, 2006.
 * The trailer variants can be considered very rare, as this logo debuted shortly before SPHE discontinued releasing titles on VHS, but they appear on VHS releases by SPHE that were released between 2005-2006 and made its final appearance on Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild. (though they continued to release VHS releases in South Korea until late 2010)
 * This logo also appears on TV airings of Open Season 2 and Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild and many direct-to-DVD releases on any television network.
 * However, it is also absent on the 2017 DVD releases of Morgan Creek films.
 * Can also be found on Dragon Tales and The Berenstain Bears VHS and DVDs of the era.
 * It also surprisingly appears at the end of Easy A if aired on any Corus Entertainment network, like Slice.
 * Does not appear on Disney Archives, Shout! Factory or Mill Creek Entertainment releases of Sony content until 2024.