HBO’s New Feature Presentation Intro Puts a Fresh Spin on Its Iconic ’80s Intro (VIDEO)
You know the rebooting trend that has swept movies and TV is really catching fire when even a short intro to a program is now getting a “reimagining.” HBO has announced that starting this weekend, with Saturday’s premiere of X-Men: Apocalypse on the premium network, an iconic piece of the channel’s past—its 1980s intro to its feature-film presentations—will be seen by viewers in a revised form.
While the original feature presentation intro focused on one family gathering in their home to watch HBO, before the camera zoomed out across the world, the new intro zooms through a city full of homes with people watching HBO on a variety of devices. Both in the people featured as well as in the technology, the new intro is certainly more diverse than the old-school one.
The ’80s intro clearly must still have its fans—probably those who remember it from long-ago days before HBO had original series like Game of Thrones or Westworld, or those who appreciate its retro cheesiness ironically—as HBO says that classic clip is still used before the feature presentation each week during the HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival. (Apparently, some festival-goers even get up and dance to it.)
Here’s a clip of the new HBO feature presentation intro, followed by a side-by-side comparison of it with the 1980s intro:
HBO’s new feature presentation intro debuts March 4 ahead of the network premiere of X-Men: Apocalypse at 8/7c.