Cinemax
Encyclopedia
Cinemax, sometimes abbreviated as simply "Max", is a collection of premium television networks
Pay TV
Pay television, premium television, or premium channels refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by both analog and digital cable and satellite, but also increasingly via digital terrestrial and internet television...

 that broadcasts primarily feature film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

s, along with softcore erotica, original action series, documentaries
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...

 and special behind-the-scenes features. Cinemax is operated by Home Box Office, Inc., a subsidiary of Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...

. The channel's name is a portmanteau of "cinema" and "maximum". As of August 2011, Cinemax's programming is available to 16.7 million subscribers in the United States.

History

Cinemax launched on August 1, 1980 as HBO's answer to The Movie Channel
The Movie Channel
The Movie Channel is an American premium channel owned by Showtime Networks, Inc., a subsidiary of CBS Corporation, which shows mostly movies, as well as special behind-the-scenes features, softcore adult erotica and movie trivia....

 (at the time, The Movie Channel was owned by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment
Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment
Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment Company was a joint venture owned and operated by Warner Communications and American Express that developed and worked on interactive television systems in the late 1970s and initiated several successful cable...

, a joint venture between Time Warner predecessor Warner Communications
Warner Communications
Warner Communications or Warner Communications, Inc. was established in 1971 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....

 and American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...

; that channel is now owned by CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...

 through its Showtime Networks
Showtime Networks
Showtime Networks, Inc. is the corporate division of media conglomerate CBS Corporation.The company was established in 1983 as Showtime/The Movie Channel, Inc. after Viacom and Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment merged their premium channels, Showtime and The Movie Channel respectively, into one...

 unit). Unlike HBO (and most cable and over-the-air broadcast channels already on the air at the time it launched), Cinemax broadcast 24 hours a day from the day it signed on the air (HBO had only broadcast about nine hours of programming a day from 3 p.m. to midnight ET until September 1981, when it began broadcasting a 24-hour schedule on weekends until midnight ET on Sunday nights; it did not start airing 24 hours on weekdays until December 28 of that year).
On-air spokesman Robert Culp
Robert Culp
Robert Martin Culp was an American actor, scriptwriter, voice actor and director, widely known for his work in television. Culp first earned an international reputation for his role as Kelly Robinson on I Spy , the espionage series in which he and co-star Bill Cosby played a pair of secret agents...

 told viewers that Cinemax would be about movies, and nothing but movies. At the time, HBO featured a wider range of programming, including some news, documentaries, children's entertainment, sporting events, and entertainment specials. Movie classics were a mainstay of the channel at its birth, "all uncut and commercial-free" as Culp said on-air. A heavy schedule of films from the 1950s to the 1970s made up most of Cinemax's program schedule.

Cinemax succeeded in its early years because cable subscribers typically had access to only about three dozen channels. Movies were the most sought-after program category by cable subscribers, and the fact Cinemax would show classics without commercials and editing made the channel an attractive add-on for HBO subscribers. In many cases, cable operators would not sell Cinemax to non-HBO subscribers. The two channels were typically sold as a package, usually at a discount for subscribers choosing both. A typical price for HBO in the early 1980s was $12.95 per month, while Cinemax typically could be added for between $7–10 extra per month.
In 1983, Cinemax's parent company Time-Life Inc.
Time Inc.
Time Inc. is a subsidiary of the media conglomerate Time Warner, the company formed by the 1990 merger of the original Time Inc. and Warner Communications. It publishes 130 magazines, most notably its namesake, Time...

 (which merged with Warner Communications in 1989 to form the present-day Time Warner), had filed a federal trademark infringement lawsuit against then-independent station KOKI (channel 23, now a Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 affiliate) in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...

 and its owners Tulsa 23, Ltd. over the use of the slogan "We Are Your Movie Star" (which was Cinemax's slogan at that time). However, Cinemax lost the case in Federal District Court to KOKI. As additional movie-oriented channels launched on cable, Cinemax's programming philosophy began to change to try and maintain its subscriber base. First, the channel opted to carry more violent fare that HBO would only show at night, and then Cinemax decided it could compete by airing more adult-oriented movies that contained nudity and strong sexual content.
During the network's first decade on the air, Cinemax had also aired some original music programming, during the mid-to-late 1980s, upon the meteoric rise in popularity of MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

, Cinemax tried its hand at airing music videos by airing an interstitial between films called Max Tracks, it also ran music specials under the banner Cinemax Sessions during that same time period. The mid and late 1980s also saw Cinemax include a very limited amount of television series on its schedule including the sketch-comedy series Second City Television
Second City Television
Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...

(whose U.S. broadcast rights Cinemax had acquired from NBC in 1983) and the science fiction series Max Headroom
Max Headroom (TV series)
Max Headroom is a British-produced American science fiction television series by Chrysalis/Lakeside Productions that aired in the United States on ABC from March 1987 to May 1988. The series was based on the Channel 4 British TV pilot Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future...

(which had also aired on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 from 1987 to 1988). Despite these programming additions, Cinemax had remained foremost a movie channel. In February 1988, the premiere broadcast of the 1987 action-comedy film Lethal Weapon
Lethal Weapon
Lethal Weapon is a 1987 American buddy cop action film and the first in a series of films, all directed by Richard Donner and starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as a mismatched pair of LAPD detectives, and Gary Busey as their primary adversary...

became the highest rated telecast in Cinemax's history at that time, averaging a 16.9 rating and 26 share.

Later on starting in 1992, Cinemax re-entered into the carriage of television series with the addition of adult-oriented scripted series similar in content to the adult films that are featured in the late night timeslots, such as the network's first original adult series Erotic Confessions, and later series entries such as Hot Line, Passion Cove
Passion Cove
Passion Cove is an erotic anthology drama series that aired from March 2000 to April 2001 on Cinemax.-Season 1:-Season 2:-In popular culture:...

, Lingerie
Lingerie (TV series)
Lingerie is a softcore pornographic television series, created by John Quinn, that has been airing on Cinemax since its premiere in July 2009. The second season premiered in October 2010.-Synopsis:...

and Co-Ed Confidential
Co-Ed Confidential
Co-Ed Confidential is a softcore pornographic cable program that is Cinemax's erotic remake of National Lampoon's Animal House , it is shown on Cinemax After Dark. The series made its premiere in 2007 and has currently had four seasons and 52 episodes and 6 compilations.-Plot:The dean of students...

. From 1992 to 1997, Cinemax aired one movie each day of the week that would be centered around a certain genre, represented by various pictures that would play in a specialized feature presentation bumper before the start of the movie; the symbols included: Comedy (represented by an abstract face made up of various movie props, with the mouth open to look like it is laughing), Suspense (represented by a running man silhouette), Premiere (represented by an exclamation point caught in spotlights), Horror (represented by a skull), Drama (represented by abstract comedy & tragedy masks), Vanguard (represented by a globe), Action (represented by a machine gun) and Classic (represented by a classic movie-era couple embracing and kissing). The particular film genre that played on what day (and time) varied by country.

In the United States:
  • Monday, 8 p.m. ET: Comedy
  • Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET: Suspense
  • Wednesday (originally Friday), 8 p.m. ET: Vanguard
  • Thursday, 8 p.m. ET: Drama (originally Horror)
  • Friday (originally Wednesday), 8 p.m. ET: Premiere
  • Saturday, 10 p.m. ET (originally 11:30 p.m. ET): Action
  • Sunday, Noon ET: Classic


In Latin America:
  • Monday: Comedy
  • Tuesday: Classic
  • Wednesday: Drama
  • Thursday: Horror / Suspense
  • Friday: Vanguard
  • Saturday: Premiere
  • Sunday: Action


These genre-based movie presentations ended upon the channel's 1997 rebranding, when Cinemax's only themed movie presentation became a featured movie every night at 8 p.m. ET and a primetime movie nightly at 10 p.m. ET. Upon their launches in 1998, Cinemax offered viewers "sneak preview" blocks of programming that could be seen on ActionMax and ThrillerMax in primetime on Saturdays and Sundays, respectively. By the mid-2000s, the classic films from the 1960s and earlier that had been broadcast on Cinemax from its launch were relegated to some of its multiplex channels, and have become prominent on its multiplex service, 5StarMax. Today, a large majority of mainstream films featured on Cinemax are from the 1990s to present, with some films from the 1970s and 1980s included on the schedule. In 2001, Cinemax began to change its feature film focus from a channel that airs second-run feature films that previously were broadcast by sister channel HBO before their Cinemax debut, to one that premieres select blockbuster and lesser-known theatrical films before their HBO debut.

In February 2011, it was announced that Cinemax will begin to offer mainstream original programming to compete with sister channel HBO, and rivals Showtime and Starz; the channel is slated to develop action-oriented original mainstream series aimed at males ages 18-49. The decision is also in part due to competition from other on-demand movie services such as Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...

, and to change Cinemax's image from a channel mostly known for its softcore pornographic series and movies. The channel's adult programming will remain, however, continuing to appear on its late night schedule.

Channels

Cinemax operates eight multiplex
Multiplex (TV)
A multiplex or mux is a group of TV channels that are mixed together for broadcast over a digital TV channel and separated out again by the receiver...

 channels. All channels (with the exception of Wmax) have separate "East/West" feeds for the Eastern and Central time zones and Pacific and Mountain time zones of the United States, respectively. Cinemax also packages the East and West feeds of the primary and multiplex channels together, allowing viewers a second chance to watch the same program three hours later or earlier depending on their geographic location (for West Coast viewers, this gives viewers a chance to see a program as it airs on the East Coast before it airs on the West Coast feed).

List of channels

ActionMax redirects here. For the 1980s video game system, see Action Max
Action Max
Action Max is a console using VHS tapes for games. It was created in 1987 by Worlds of Wonder.The system required its owner to also have a VCR, as the console did not have a way to play tapes itself. Using a light gun players would shoot at the screen. The gaming was strictly point-based and...

.


In 1991, HBO and Cinemax became the first premium services to offer multiplexed services to cable customers as companions to the main network, offering multiplex services of HBO and Cinemax to three TeleCable systems in Racine, Wisconsin
Racine, Wisconsin
Racine is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city had a population of 82,196...

, Overland Park, Kansas
Overland Park, Kansas
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 149,080 people, 59,703 households, and 39,702 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,627.0 people per square mile . There were 62,586 housing units at an average density of 1,102.9 per square mile...

, and Richardson
Richardson, Texas
Richardson is a city in Dallas and Collin Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 99,223. In 2011 the population was estimated to be 107,684. Richardson is an affluent inner suburb of Dallas and home of the Telecom Corridor with a high...

 and Plano, Texas
Plano, Texas
Plano is a city in the state of Texas, located mostly within Collin County. The city's population was 259,841 at the 2010 census, making it the ninth-largest city in Texas and the 71st most populous city in the United States. Plano is located within the metropolitan area commonly referred to as...

. A year later, research from Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...

 showed that multiplex delivery of HBO and Cinemax had positive impact on subscriber usage and attitudes, including subscribers’ retention of pay cable subscriptions. Cinemax 2 was launched as a multiplex channel, launching on these three systems.

Cinemax currently operates eight multiplex channels:
  • Cinemax: The main "flagship" feed; blockbuster movies, first-run films, favorite movies and erotica; premieres new movies on Saturday nights at 10 p.m. ET as part of "See It Saturday", and broadcasts a featured movie Sunday through Fridays at 10 p.m. ET.
  • MoreMax: a secondary channel with similar content to Cinemax, also includes foreign films, indie flicks and arthouse releases; broadcasts a featured movie every night at 9 p.m. ET; originally known as "Cinemax 2" from 1991 until 1998.
  • ActionMax: Action movies including blockbusters, westerns, war pictures and martial arts films; features "Heroes at 8", a featured action movie nightly at 8 p.m. ET; originally known as "Cinemax 3" from 1995 to 1998.
  • ThrillerMax: Mystery, suspense, horror and thriller movies; features "When the Clock Strikes 10", a different featured mystery, suspense or thriller, nightly at 10 p.m. ET; launched in 1998.
  • @Max: Targeted to the 18-34 demographic, features contemporary films, movies with an attitude exemplified and films with unique ideas; features a choice movie every night at 11 p.m. ET; launched in 2001.
  • OuterMax: Sci-fi, horror and fantasy films; features "Graveyard Shift", a featured sci-fi or horror movie every night at 12 a.m. ET; launched in 2001.
  • Wmax: Targeted at women, features dramas, mysteries and classic romance pictures; broadcasts a featured movie appealing to women every night at 10 p.m. ET.; launched in 2001. One of only two Cinemax channels that does not air Max After Dark content.
  • 5StarMax: Modern classics, featuring award-winning films and timeless treasures; broadcasts a featured classic every night at 9 p.m. ET; launched in 2001. One of only two Cinemax channels that does not air Max After Dark content.


The Cinemax Multiplex was known as "MultiMax" for several years, but now has no "official" name. However, HBO and Cinemax's respective multiplex packages are referred collectively as the "HBO/MAX Pak". Subscribers of DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...

, Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...

 and some cable providers can get the Cinemax networks without subscribing to HBO, though most cable providers offer the two services and their respective multiplexes as a single package.

Cinemax HD

All eight Cinemax multiplex channels are simulcast in 1080i
1080i
1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...

 high definition, and the flagship network began transmitting its programming exclusively in high definition on September 1, 2008. Cinemax HD is available on Dish Network, DirecTV, Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...

, Cox Communications
Cox Communications
Cox Communications is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television, telecommunications and wireless services in the United States...

, Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...

, AT&T U-verse, Verizon FiOS
Verizon FiOS
Verizon FiOS is a bundled Internet access, telephone, and television service which operates over a fiber-optic communications network. It is offered in some areas of the United States by Verizon Communications. Verizon was one of the first major U.S...

 and other major cable providers, although few providers offer all eight multiplex channels in HD.

Cinemax On Demand

Cinemax On Demand is the video-on-demand counterpart to Cinemax. It offers movies, original series and special features previously seen on the network. It is available on most cable and satellite providers at no additional cost to subscribers of Cinemax.

Max Go

On September 13, 2010, Cinemax launched Max Go, a website which features 700 hours of content available for streaming in standard or high definition, at no additional charge to Cinemax subscribers. Content includes feature films, documentaries, and late night adult programming featured on Cinemax's Max After Dark block. It is available to Cinemax subscribers of AT&T Uverse, Cox Communications
Cox Communications
Cox Communications is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television, telecommunications and wireless services in the United States...

, DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...

, Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...

, Suddenlink Communications
Suddenlink Communications
Suddenlink Communications, formerly Cebridge Connections, is a top-10 cable broadband services provider in the United States with approximately 1.4 million subscribers. Suddenlink operates in 18 states in primarily medium-sized communities. With its corporate headquarters in St. Louis, MO,...

, and Charter Communications
Charter Communications
Charter Communications is an American company providing cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to more than 4.7 million customers in 25 states. By revenues, it is the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States, behind Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications...

. The Max Go iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

, iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

, and Android app was released on August 11, 2011.

Movie library

, Cinemax (through sister network HBO) has exclusive deals with DreamWorks Animation
DreamWorks Animation
DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. is an American animation studio based in Glendale, California that creates animated feature films, television program and online virtual worlds...

, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

, Rogue Pictures
Rogue Pictures
Rogue is a subsidiary of Relativity Media. The company has about 25 titles in its library.- Background :In 1997, Rogue Pictures was formed as a division of PolyGram Pictures but the name was dropped in 2000 after Universal Pictures bought PolyGram...

, Focus Features
Focus Features
Focus Features is the art house films division of NBC Universal's Universal Pictures, and acts as both a producer and distributor for its own films and a distributor for foreign films....

, and network sister companies New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...

 and Warner Bros. Pictures (which are both owned by the Warner Bros. Entertainment subsidiary of Cinemax corporate parent Time Warner).

Cinemax (through HBO) also shows sub-runs (runs of films that have already received broadcast network/syndicated television releases) of theatrical films from Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

 (usually those released prior to 1997), Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...

, Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group (including Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...

, Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures is an American film production label and is one of several film labels of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group. Established in 1984, its releases typically feature more mature themes and darker tones than those that are released under the Walt Disney Pictures banner.Touchstone...

 and Miramax), Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...

 (including Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

 and TriStar Pictures
TriStar Pictures
TriStar Pictures, Inc. is an American film production/distribution studio and subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, itself a subdivision of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, which is owned by Sony Pictures...

), Twentieth Century Fox (select films from all five studios are shared with Starz and Encore), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

, DreamWorks Pictures (those made prior to the 2010 shift of film distribution rights from Paramount to Touchstone Pictures), and Lionsgate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...

.

Usually films which HBO has pay-cable rights to will also run on Cinemax during the period of its term of license, although some feature films from the aforementioned studios that Cinemax and HBO have broadcast rights to make their premium television debut on Cinemax several weeks before its premiere on HBO.

Cinemax had for some time continued to air films from the 1950s, '60s and '70s in the morning hours, but these movies for the most part have since been relegated to MoreMax and 5StarMax. Cinemax rarely airs G-rated films during the morning hours, instead opting to air R, PG-13 or PG rated films. Max also produces documentary programming under the banner Max Reel Life. Cinemax has also ran since 1992, an annual film festival called The Summer of 1000 Movies, in which the channel claims to run 1000 films (many with a similar subject) over the course of each summer.

Max After Dark

Max After Dark is a late night adult programming block featuring original softcore
Softcore
Softcore pornography is a form of filmic or photographic pornography or erotica that is less sexually explicit than hardcore pornography. It is intended to tickle and arouse men and women. Softcore pornography depicts nude and semi-nude performers engaging in casual social nudity or non-graphic...

 erotic films, and original softcore comedy and drama series. There are no set start or end times for the block, as they vary depending on the mainstream feature films that precede it and which programs are scheduled to air within the block. The main Cinemax channel generally does not air any adult programming before 11:30 p.m. ET, a policy enacted by the network in 1993. All programs featured in the block are given a "TV-MA" or "R" rating, primarily for nudity, and simulated intercourse or other simulated sexual acts (due to the softcore nature of the programs featured in the block, genitalia, fellatio
Fellatio
Fellatio is an act of oral stimulation of a male's penis by a sexual partner. It involves the stimulation of the penis by the use of the mouth, tongue, or throat. The person who performs fellatio can be referred to as the giving partner, and the other person is the receiving partner...

, cunnilingus
Cunnilingus
Cunnilingus is an oral sex act performed on a female. It involves the use by a sex partner of the mouth, lips and tongue to stimulate the female's clitoris, vulva, or vagina...

 and ejaculations
Ejaculation
Ejaculation is the ejecting of semen from the male reproductory tract, and is usually accompanied by orgasm. It is usually the final stage and natural objective of male sexual stimulation, and an essential component of natural conception. In rare cases ejaculation occurs because of prostatic disease...

 are not shown). The block originally debuted on May 4, 1984 as a once-a-week block called "Cinemax Friday After Dark"; by the late 1990s, these adult programs were expanded to seven-night-a-week airings.

The original series that currently air first-run episodes are Co-Ed Confidential
Co-Ed Confidential
Co-Ed Confidential is a softcore pornographic cable program that is Cinemax's erotic remake of National Lampoon's Animal House , it is shown on Cinemax After Dark. The series made its premiere in 2007 and has currently had four seasons and 52 episodes and 6 compilations.-Plot:The dean of students...

, Forbidden Science
Forbidden Science
Forbidden Science is a Cinemax "After Dark" series that premiered on January 9, 2009, it is about a world in which people fulfill erotic desires with androids. It is a combination of film noir and sexploitation...

, Lingerie
Lingerie (TV series)
Lingerie is a softcore pornographic television series, created by John Quinn, that has been airing on Cinemax since its premiere in July 2009. The second season premiered in October 2010.-Synopsis:...

, Life on Top
Life on Top
Life on Top is a softcore television series about four young women living in Manhattan. The show has aired on Cinemax since its premiere in October 2009.-Cast and characters:...

, Femme Fatales
Femme Fatales (TV series)
Femme Fatales is an anthology TV series based on the men's magazine of the same name and produced by Cinemax.-Episodes:-External links:*...

, Chemistry
Chemistry (TV series)
Chemistry is a softcore pornographic series that debuted on Cinemax as a part of its Max After Dark lineup on August 19, 2011. It follows the affair of an attorney and a police officer, which begins after the officer saves the attorney from a car wreck....

and Skin to the Max. Adult films also typically air alongside the adult series, though depending on the Cinemax multiplex channel and which programs are scheduled that night on each channel, this may not always be the case. The program block has often been the subject of both scrutiny in the media and a source of humor in popular culture, with references to Cinemax's late night programming having been featured in various films and TV shows. Because of the block's presence, Cinemax is most commonly given the jocular nickname outside the network, "Skinemax". The network itself has acknowledged this by using a play on this term for its 2011 documentary series, Skin to the Max.

Adult programming is not limited solely to the main Cinemax network: MoreMax also airs adult movies and series, sometimes airing an hour earlier than the main Cinemax channel would allow, airing at times as early as 10:30 p.m. ET; ActionMax, ThrillerMax and OuterMax also occasionally feature some adult films featured on the "Max After Dark" block, despite the fact that those channels are genre-based multiplex services and not all softcore adult films and series featured on Max After Dark fit those networks' respective formats. Conversely, Wmax and 5StarMax generally do not run adult films of any kind due to those channels' respective formats: Wmax is aimed at women, while 5StarMax features a format of largely critically acclaimed, mainstream feature films. Some of the adult films featured on the Max After Dark block also air late nights on sister channel HBO Zone, which is the only HBO channel to feature pornographic film content.

Mainstream original programming

On August 12, 2011, Cinemax expanded its original programming content outside of the Max After Dark programming, with the addition of action-oriented series targeted at males 18-49, to its primetime schedule; on that date, Cinemax debuted its first mainstream original program, the U.S. premiere of the British action series Strike Back
Strike Back (TV series)
Chris Ryan's Strike Back is a six-part British television series based on the novel of the same name written by best-selling author and former soldier of the Special Air Service, Chris Ryan. It was produced by Left Bank Pictures for Sky1...

(first-run episodes of the series aired by Cinemax during its 2011 season were from the show's second season
Strike Back: Project Dawn
Strike Back: Project Dawn, as it is known in the United Kingdom is a ten-part British-American action television serial, and is the second series of Strike Back. However the only cast member to return from the original series was Richard Armitage in the first episode...

, the series originally debuted on Sky1 in the United Kingdom, which Home Box Office, Inc./Cinemax partnered with to produce the series after the conclusion of its first season, in 2010). Series scheduled to premiere in 2012 and/or are currently in development include Transporter: The Series
Transporter: The Series
Transporter: The Series is an upcoming action television series, based on the Transporter film series by Luc Besson. It is co-produced by HBO, HBO Canada, French TV-channel M6 and German television company RTL, which, with the exception of HBO, will also air the series...

, Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...

 and Tony Scott
Tony Scott
Anthony D. L. "Tony" Scott is an English film director. His films include Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable...

's The Sector
The Sector
The Sector is an upcoming Action Science-Fiction television series executive produced by Ridley and Tony Scott and written by Matthew and Aaron Benay. The series will follow the commander of a paramilitary unit who pursues a dangerous new race of genetically enhanced humans...

, Alan Ball's
Alan Ball (screenwriter)
Alan E. Ball is an American writer, director, actor and producer for film, theatre and television.-Early life:Ball was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Frank and Mary Ball, an aircraft inspector and a homemaker...

 Banshee
Banshee (TV series)
Banshee is an upcoming drama television series executive produced by Alan Ball, Jonathan Tropper, David Schickler and Peter Macdissi and written by Tropper and Schickler...

and Steve Kronish's Sandbox
Sandbox (TV series)
Sandbox is an upcoming Military Action Drama television series executive produced by Andre Fabrizio, Jeremy Passmore, Steve Kronish , Larry Gordon and Chuck Gordon and written by Fabrizio and Passmore. The series revolves around a group of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who return home to the...

.

Branding

Cinemax's original 1980 logo featured the channel's name with first letter in mixed case letters in Avant Garde typeface on a semi-circular rectangle; the "Coming Up Next" bumpers and graphics were similar to parent network HBO's graphics of the concurring time. In 1985, the channel adopted a new logo rendered in lowercase italicized Universe Condensed type with each letter on a slanted square sized to fit each letter. Variants of the logo used different coloring, and updated "Coming Up Next" bumpers between 1985 and 1997; this logo was used in print ads and during bumpers for a short time while the original 1980 opening bumpers were used, before a new feature presentation opener was added in the fall of 1985. In 1997, the network rebranded and implemented a logo rendered in lowercase Impact
Impact (typeface)
Impact is a realist sans-serif typeface designed by Geoffrey Lee in 1965 and released by the Stephenson Blake foundry. Its ultra-thick strokes, compressed letterspacing, and minimal interior counterform are specifically aimed, as its name suggests, to "impact". Impact has a high x-height, reaching...

 type with a circle placed behind the 'max' (as with Showtime's highlighting of 'SHO' in their logo, the use of 'MAX' as the logo focal point comes from the channel's former TV Guide abbreviation in the magazine's local listings era). Slight modifications of the logo's coloring were made during this period; the logo was often shown with just the circle 'max'.

In February 2008, a new sparse and bare branding campaign was introduced, with voiceovers for movie promotions and ratings bumpers fully withdrawn from all Cinemax networks. The promotions featured Adult Swim
Adult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...

-style introductions with white text on black screens, while 'up next' screens just featured the film name and stars with only sound effects and small snippets of music playing instead of full interstitial music. All channel logos were redesigned -- and most notably, the main Cinemax channel became visually referred to as simply "max", though in some ads, cast members from the network's "After Dark" series continued to refer the network vocally as Cinemax, and ads promoting Cinemax outside the channel continued to use the original 1997 logo design (though a variant without the circle behind the 'max' was used from 2010 to 2011).

In August 2011, Cinemax introduced a new logo in line with promotional efforts for Strike Back, with a diagonal-cut yellow line with uppercase black "CINEMAX" lettering; only the "MAX" portion is used for Cinemax on Demand and Max Go (for both services, a tilted black box is added next to the yellow/black "MAX" to fit either "OD" [for "on demand"] or "GO"), along with the linear multiplex channels (for the multiplex channels, the prefix titles for each channel are added before it with no line treatment). It was originally unveiled in on-air promos for its upcoming original programming, on its Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

 and Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

 accounts and on its YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

 channel in May 2011. The official and Max Go websites continued to use the 2008 version of the 1997 logo until August 11, 2011, when the two sites got an extensive redesign. Despite the rebrand, Cinemax's multiplex channels (with the exception of the main channel and MoreMax, which do not use any on-screen watermarking whatsoever) confusingly continue to feature logo bugs using the 1997-era logo during films and other programs.

Network slogans

  • 1980–1982: The 24-Hour Movie Network
  • 1982–1983: We Are Your Movie Star
  • 1983–1984: Our Difference is Our Movies
  • 1984–1986: We Take You to the Stars
  • 1986–1989: Entertainment to the Max
  • 1988–1989: See the Light, See Cinemax
  • 1989–1991: More Movies, More Choice
  • 1989–1997: Cinemax, The Most Movies on Pay TV (used as a secondary slogan)
  • 1991–1993: Cinemax, If You Like Movies
  • 1993–1997: The Best Network for Movies on TV
  • 1997–2000: The Movie Service for the Movie Fan
  • 2000–2003: Best! Most! Max!
  • 2003–2008: Take It to the Movies
  • 2008–2011: Take It to the Max
  • 2011–present: We Are Your Movie Channel

International versions

In Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

, the channel is controlled by the HBO Latin America Group
HBO Latin America Group
HBO Latin America Group is a company which owns several cable networks in the region of Latin America. It is owned by Time Warner.In Latin America, the channels owned by Time Warner are broadcast by two different subsidiaries, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America and HBO Latin...

. A sister channel, "Max Prime", is also available. In 2010, the premium Cinemax channel was converted into an ad-supported basic cable movie channel, while two new premium channels (Max and Max HD) followed Cinemax's league by airing independent films, European movies, etc. A European version of Cinemax is known as Cinemax 2
Cinemax 2
For the American premium movie service, see Cinemax.Cinemax 2 is a European movie channel which is broadcast in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and in first quarter of 2009., Cinemax 2 will be available in Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. - Cinemax 2 HD :Cinemax 2 HD is a...

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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