Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Modified Screens

Note: The modified screens listed on this page, shown on videocassettes and DVDs as well as on non-premium television, are used in the United States of America and Canada. They are also used in some international countries.

June 29, 1994-December 12, 1995; 1999; November 19, 2002-December 26, 2005

Modified Screen: Same as Paramount and Universal's modified screen.

Variants:

• On the 1997 VHS of Masterminds, the text is in a different font and split into two lines.
• On the 1999 VHS of Marie Baie des Anges, the text is in a rounder font.
• On the 2002 VHS of Sunshine State, the screen is squeezed.
• On the 2005 VHS of Little Black Book, "this" is replaced with "your TV."
• On the 2005 VHS of Lords of Dogtown, the text is in all-caps and somewhat rearranged.

FX/SFX: A fade in and fade out.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Appears on some 1994-95 Sony tapes such as Philadelphia (the first tape to use it), My Girl 2, I'll Do Anything, Legends of the Fall, Princess Caraboo, The Road to Wellville, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and First Knight. This screen reappeared on the 1999 releases of Cat Ballou and Marie Baie des Anges, and a decent number of 2002-05 tapes such as Sunshine State (the first tape in its second run to have it), Trapped, Auto Focus, Maid in Manhattan, Basic, Spider-Man 2, The Forgotten, Christmas with the Kranks, Stealth, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, and Into the Blue (the last overall tape to use it). This also appeared on prints of Sony movies offered for free via Comcast On Demand in the early-2000s.

January 17, 1995-October 9, 2007/2009/2010

Modified Screen: A black screen fades in reading: "This film has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit this screen." It fades out after a few seconds.

Variant: On DVDs, a "frozen" version of the modified screen is used.

FX/SFX: Just the simple fade in and fade out.

Music/Sounds: None usually, but on the 2002 DVS VHS of Spider-Man, Miles Neff reads the text.

Availability: Common.

• This can be found on a large variety of Sony Pictures VHS tapes from Wolf until their second-last release, Zathura, in 2006 (specifically most Columbia and TriStar movies, as features released outside of them use no modified screen), and many full-screen DVD releases (including titles that were solely available in the full-screen format, such as The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, 84 Charing Cross Road, both the 1997 and 2005 DVD editions of Matilda, The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking, Stuart Little: Deluxe Edition, and The Trouble with Angels, among many others).
• However, while prints of Panic Room that feature opening previews contain the screen, it doesn't appear on prints without them.
• It makes surprise appearances on Paramount's 2001 VHS of Enemy at the Gates and the PlayStation Portable UMD video of The Karate Kid (2010), also bundled with LittleBigPlanet.
• It also appears on the fullscreen disc of Anchor Bay's DVD of Last Chance Harvey.
• This also appeared on prints of Sony movies offered for free via Comcast On Demand in the mid-2000s, likely because of VHS-based transfers being used.
• Curiously, while it does appear on side B of the 2000 DVD of All About My Mother, the version on there is matted to 1.66:1, which is still a form of widescreen.

April 1-July 22, 1997

Modified Screen: Same as the Warner Home Video modified screen.

FX/SFX: A fade-in and fade-out.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on the 1997 Turner/Columbia TriStar video releases of Hamlet, Lone Star, and The Spitfire Grill.

October 14, 1997

Modified Screen: Same as the New Line Home Video modified screen.

FX/SFX: A fade-in and fade-out.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on the 1997 Columbia TriStar VHS of The Whole Wide World, a film which Fine Line Features distributed.

February 21, 2006-present

Modified Screen: The screen in Times New Roman Bold font reads "The following film has been modified from its original version. It has been..."

• "...formatted to fit this screen."
• "...formatted to fit this screen and edited for content."
• "...formatted to fit this screen and edited to run in the time allotted."
• "...formatted to fit this screen and to run in the time allotted."
• "...formatted to fit this screen, to run in the time allotted, and edited for content."
• "...formatted to fit this screen, edited to run in the time allotted and for content."
• "...formatted to run in the time allotted and edited for content."
• "...formatted to run in the time allotted."
• "...edited to run in the time allotted and for content."
• "...edited to run in the time allotted."
• "...edited for content."

FX/SFX: Just the simple fade in and fade out.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: On some full-screen DVDs of the era (without the fade in and fade out). The other variants appear on syndicated and network prints of Sony movies as well as MGM and Trifecta-owned Starz movies. It debuted on Rent and Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild. This also appeared on prints of Sony movies offered for free via Comcast On Demand starting in the late-2000s.