20th Century Studios Home Entertainment Modified Screens

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

April 26, 1994-November 11, 2014

Modified Screen: We see the words "The following film has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit this screen." on a black background.

Variants:

• On the 1994 VHS release of Mrs. Doubtfire (the first tape to use this screen), the text is in a bold, sans-serif typeface.
• On BET's print of The Five Heartbeats, the last part of the text reads "...formatted to fit this screen and edited for content."
• On syndicated airings of Doctor Dolittle, the last part of the text reads "...formatted to fit this screen and edited to run in the time allotted."
• On some fullscreen DVDs such as the fullscreen release of Unfaithful, the screen is stretched into a 16:9 ratio.
  • Conversely, the fullscreen side of the 2003 DVD of Sleeping with the Enemy features a "squished" version of the screen.
• On colorized tapes of Shirley Temple films originally shown in B&W, the text reads either "The following is a colorized version of the original black-and-white film." or "This is a colorized version of a film originally marketed and distributed to the public in black and white. It has been altered without the participation of the principal director, screenwriter, and other creators of the original film."
  • On the 2004 DVD of Night of the Living Dead, the text is in a different font and slightly altered.
• On the 2002 DVD of My Neighbor Totoro, the text is in quotation marks and a different font, and "This" and "your TV" respectively replace "The following" and "this screen."
• VHS tapes from 2005, as well as some Fox Cinema Archives DVD-Rs, feature the text in a different font.
• On the fullscreen side of the 2006 Unrated Special Edition DVD of The Boondock Saints, the text is in another different font.
• UMDs feature the text in yet another different font.
• On the 1994 colorized VHS of The Longest Day, "...and colorized from the original black-and-white film." has been added to the text.

FX/SFX: Just the simple fade in and fade out. Fullscreen DVDs just cut in and out, except for the My Neighbor Totoro and Boondock Saints variants and the full-screen DVD of Independence Day.

Music/Sounds: None usually.

Music/Sounds Variants: On DVS tapes, a voiceover is heard reading the full text, preceded by any of the following:

• On The Full Monty, a female voiceover (Rena Baskin) says "A message."
• On Speed, a male voiceover (Peter Haydu) says "Now, a message."
• On The Sound of Music, a different male voiceover (Peter Haydu again) says "Now, a message appears."
• On Cheaper by the Dozen (2004), a different female voiceover (Kim Mai-Guest) says "A message appears."
• On Big, another female voiceover (Wendie Sakakeeny) says "Now, a message appears" over the end of the Fox Video logo.

Availability: Very common.

• Seen on all Fox releases during the era (mostly VHS, the exceptions being tapes with the below screen, Canadian prints of Kiss of Death and Blood and Wine, some 1995-97 Selections tapes, and 1998 reissues of The Paper Chase and Tales from the Crypt, which use no modified screen at all), including Ghost in the Machine (the first tape to have the regular version), Sugar Hill, Bad Girls, Baby's Day Out, True Lies, Courage Under Fire, Home Alone 3, Never Been Kissed, Ice Age, Robots, Garfield: The Movie, Antwone Fisher, earlier prints of Men of Honor, Just Married, The Passion of the Christ, Man on Fire, What the Bleep Do We Know!?, Sideways, and Roll Bounce.
• Strangely, this appears on the 2003 VHS releases of Finding Nemo, Shanghai Knights, and Rabbit-Proof Fence, the 1998 pan-and-scan VHS/Laserdisc of Titanic, the 1999 VHS releases of 200 Cigarettes and The Birds, the 2006 demo VHS of Failure to Launch, the 2007 full-screen DVDs of Dreamgirls, Norbit, and Blades of Glory, and the Anchor Bay tapes of Army of Darkness, Manhunter, and Maximum Overdrive.
• Also seen on some full-screen DVDs and full-screen sides of double-sided DVDs of the era, as well as some Fox Cinema Archives DVD-Rs, such as The Sweet Ride and Alex & the Gypsy. This makes a surprise appearance on both sides of the 2005 DVD of Beyond the Gates of Splendor, even though the feature was shot in fullscreen to begin with.
• Strangely enough, this did not appear on some copies of Alien: Resurrection, which instead use the 1994 MGM/UA modified screen.
• It also appears on a Peruvian VHS of Anastasia.

April 4, 1995-May 25, 2004

Modified Screen: Just the same modified screen used on Trifecta/Universal/DreamWorks/Paramount home video and television releases.

FX/SFX: Same as the Paramount modified screen.

Music/Sounds: Same as the Paramount modified screen.

Availability: Rare. It can be seen on the VHS editions of The Pagemaster, Secrets and Lies, Paradise Road, The Secret Agent, Ever After: A Cinderella Story (as well as a Premiere Series reissue), and Woman on Top (retail and demo versions), as well as THX-certified copies of Die Hard with a Vengeance, 1997 Selections reissues of The Verdict, Unlawful Entry, Big Jake, and Commando, the 1999 Millennium Collection reissue of An Affair to Remember, a Spanish subtitled print of The Siege, a 2001 reissue of One Fine Day, a timecoded screener of X-Men, the demo tapes of The Great White Hype, The Thin Red Line, Dude, Where's My Car?, Here on Earth, Kiss of the Dragon, and Kung Pow! Enter the Fist, later prints of Men of Honor, and full-screen DVDs of Cast Away (also seen on the VHS), The Sound of Music, Digimon: The Movie, and Nora's Hair Salon.

November 18, 2014-present

Modified Screen: TBA.

FX/SFX: TBA.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Current, debuted on the 2014 DVD of Free Birds.