History
Cinemax launched on August 1, 1980 as HBO's answer to The Movie Channel (at the time, The Movie Channel was owned by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, a joint venture between Time Warner predecessor Warner Communications and American Express; that channel is now owned by CBS Corporation through its Showtime Networks 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 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.
Fourth logo, 2008–2011 variant of original 1997 logo.In 1983, Cinemax's parent company Time-Life Inc. (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 affiliate) in Tulsa, Oklahoma 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, 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 (whose U.S. broadcast rights Cinemax had acquired from NBC in 1983) and the science fiction series Max Headroom (which had also aired on ABC 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 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, Lingerie and Co-Ed Confidential. 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.
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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, 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.
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