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96-471: The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion ) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A de facto subsidiary of arthouse film distributor Janus Films , Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinephiles and public and academic libraries. Criterion has helped to standardize certain aspects of home-video releases such as film restoration ,

192-489: A VCR , and those who did tended to rent rather than buy videos. The late 1980s saw the emergence of a great many small companies which specialized in producing special-interest home videos, also known as "nontheatrical programming" and "alternative programming". These new video programs differed radically from earlier forms of video content in that they were never intended for theatrical exhibition nor television broadcasting. They were created specifically for niche audiences in

288-726: A cult following, due to their collectability. Lionsgate Studios#Home Entertainment Lionsgate Studios Corp. , simply known as Lionsgate Studios , is a Canadian-American film and television production and distribution conglomerate owned by Lionsgate , domiciled in Vancouver , British Columbia , and primarily based in Santa Monica, California . It was formed on May 14, 2024, after Lionsgate spun out its film and television businesses. Lionsgate Studios' portfolio includes Lionsgate Canada (formerly known as Entertainment One), 3 Arts Entertainment , Pilgrim Media Group , and

384-449: A special-purpose acquisition company named Screaming Eagle Corporation to form a separate publicly traded company called Lionsgate Studios Corporation . The deal was closed on May 7, 2024, with the transaction setting a $ 4.6-billion value on Lionsgate Studios. The company launched a week later on May 14, and began trading on Nasdaq via the stock symbol LION. Lionsgate remains its controlling shareholder, owning around 87% of it following

480-564: A DVD can be played on a computer. Due to all these advantages, by the mid 2000s, DVDs had become the dominant form of prerecorded video movies in both the rental film and new movie markets. In the late 2000s, stores began selling Blu-ray discs, a format that supports high definition . Blu-ray is a digital optical disc data storage format, designed to supersede the DVD format, and is capable of storing several hours of video in high definition (HDTV 720p and 1080p). The main application of Blu-ray

576-573: A Danish film company), which released American low-budget movies on video and DVD in the late 1990s. In June 2000, Lions Gate bought Trimark Pictures and merged its in-house home video unit with those of Avalanche and Sterling to form Lions Gate Home Entertainment the following year, i.e. in 2001. After the acquisition, Sterling Home Entertainment was then renamed Studio Home Entertainment, which later folded into Lionsgate. Lions Gate bought Artisan Entertainment in 2003 and folded it into its Family Entertainment section of its Home Entertainment division

672-502: A VCR was $ 811, and the percentage of television-owning households with a VCR was unknown but probably just above zero. By 1992, the respective numbers for each of these categories were 105,502,000, $ 239, and 75.6%. During the 1980s, video rental stores became a popular way to watch home video. Video rental stores are physical retail businesses that rent home videos such as movies and prerecorded TV shows (sometimes also selling other media, such as video game copies on disc). Typically,

768-513: A blog post that it was "trying to find ways we can bring our library and original content back to the digital space as soon as possible". A month later, Criterion announced their own standalone subscription service, The Criterion Channel available to subscribers in the United States and Canada. The service began on April 8, 2019. The Channel's offerings include rotating playlists, temporarily licensed films (and some television offerings) from

864-760: A deal with DIC Entertainment to distribute their back catalogue of animated titles on video and DVD in the United States, replacing DIC's long time partner Buena Vista Home Entertainment . The partnership only lasted a year, as in 2003 DIC started to distribute their shows through the Sterling Entertainment Group (unrelated to the ex-Lionsgate subsidiary Sterling Home Entertainment) and later other distribution companies like Shout! Factory (now Shout! Studios ), 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (now 20th Century Home Entertainment ) and NCircle Entertainment. In 2008, Lionsgate Home Entertainment contracted with HIT Entertainment for DVD distribution in

960-526: A deal with Lionsgate to build a new production facility in Yonkers, New York , with Lionsgate becoming a long-term anchor tenant and investor. As the anchor tenant, Lionsgate will have naming rights to the studio. Construction on the site will start in November, and the facility will be running in late autumn 2020. The $ 100 million complex will include three 20,000-square-feet and two 10,000-square-feet stages,

1056-528: A deal with Lionsgate to release its audiovisual content on DVD after its deal with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment ended, with the exception of Strawberry Shortcake , as it was a prior deal made in 2003 between 20th Century Fox and American Greetings. Until 2012, Lionsgate also distributed most of the theatrical properties held by Republic Pictures on DVD under license from Paramount Pictures . The deal also expanded to include some non-marquee films originally released by Paramount themselves. Recently, with

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1152-577: A distribution deal with SDS to handle the physical distribution of titles from Sony Pictures ( Columbia Pictures , TriStar Pictures , Screen Gems , Crunchyroll, LLC , etc.) as well as Criterion, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment ( Walt Disney Pictures , Marvel Studios , Lucasfilm Ltd. , 20th Century Studios , etc.) and Lionsgate Home Entertainment ( Lionsgate Films , Summit Entertainment , eOne Films , Roadside Attractions , etc.) through their existing distribution deals with SPHE. In 1986, Charles Benton founded Home Vision Entertainment (HVE),

1248-532: A few years longer, but exited at some point during World War I . After the quick failures of these early attempts at home viewing, most feature films were essentially inaccessible to the public after their original theatrical runs. For most of the 20th century, the idea that ordinary consumers could own copies of films and watch them at their convenience in their own homes "was beyond the grasp of reasonable expectations." Some very popular films were given occasional theatrical re-releases in urban revival houses and

1344-497: A film streaming service from Turner Classic Movies , succeeded Hulu as the exclusive streaming service for the Criterion Collection. Some Criterion films were streamed by Kanopy . On October 26, 2018, Warner Bros. Digital Networks and Turner announced that FilmStruck would shut down on November 29. Criterion stated in a blog post that it was "trying to find ways we can bring our library and original content back to

1440-448: A first-look television development agreement with Universal Music Group . With the acquisition of Entertainment One on December 27, 2023, Lionsgate restructured eOne's television assets and folded them into Lionsgate Television, creating in the process Lionsgate Alternative Television on January 14, 2024, which produces and distributes Lionsgate's unscripted television shows. On September 5, 2019, Great Point Capital Management signed

1536-582: A fully operational back lot and the opportunity to create a location-based entertainment property. The studio, will be built next to the former Otis Elevator Company building in Getty Square and is expected to provide 420 new jobs in Yonkers, the developers said. They received numerous tax breaks and exemptions to build the project. National Resources will be an investment partner and project developer, responsible for all phases of design and construction of

1632-452: A hard disk or flash storage – became available to purchase and rent. Despite the mainstream dominance of DVD, VHS continued to be used, albeit less frequently, throughout the 2000s; decline in VHS use continued during the 2010s. The switch to DVD initially led to mass-selling of used VHS videocassettes, which were available at used-goods stores, typically for a much lower price than

1728-407: A magnetic soundtrack, but in comparison to modern technologies, film projection was still quite expensive and difficult to use. As a result, home viewing of films remained limited to a small community of dedicated hobbyists willing and able to invest large amounts of money in projectors, screens, and film prints, and it therefore made little revenue for film companies. In 1956, Ampex pioneered

1824-776: A mixture of NTSC-standard Region 0 (region-free) and Region 1 DVDs. Blu-ray discs are Region A -locked in North America or Region B -locked in the United Kingdom (though there are exceptions). However, when SPHE stopped distributing Criterion's releases in the UK, the distribution moved to Spirit Entertainment. On August 11, 2021, Criterion announced that it would begin publishing titles in Ultra HD Blu-ray format in November 2021. All Criterion Ultra HD Blu-ray releases will include both an Ultra HD Blu-ray copy and

1920-522: A regular Blu-ray copy of a film (with all the special features on the regular Blu-ray), with select releases including Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos . The first such releases were announced on August 16 for a November 21 release: Citizen Kane (#1104, returning to the collection for the first time since 1992), Mulholland Drive and Menace II Society . The company also released The Red Shoes , A Hard Day's Night and The Piano on Ultra HD Blu-ray disc. The film Uncut Gems (#1101), which

2016-402: A rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms agreed upon in a rental agreement or contract , which may be implied, explicit, or written. Many video rental stores also sell previously viewed movies and/or new unopened movies. In the 1980s, video rental stores rented films in both the VHS and Betamax formats, although most stores stopped using Betamax tapes when VHS won

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2112-407: A rocket, Fox bought Magnetic Video in 1978 and turned the company into its home video division . The home video market grew rapidly along with the widespread acquisition of affordable videocassette recorders by the majority of households during the 1980s. For example, in 1978, total number of VCRs purchased to date at wholesale in the United States was only 402,000, the average wholesale price of

2208-555: A single disc, which is spun at high speed, while VHS videocassettes had several moving parts that were far more vulnerable to breaking down under heavy wear and tear. Each time a VHS cassette was played, the magnetic tape inside had to be pulled out and wrapped around the inclined drum head inside the player. While a VHS tape can be erased if it is exposed to a rapidly changing magnetic field of sufficient strength, DVDs and other optical discs are not affected by magnetic fields. The relative mechanical simplicity and durability of DVD compared to

2304-564: A stake of joint venture Amblin Partners . Through the namesake Lionsgate Films studio, the company's filming division also releases films under the Summit Entertainment and eOne Films labels. Following the completion of acquisition of Entertainment One from Hasbro on December 27, 2023, Lionsgate revealed its intention to split its film and television assets into its own company, whose Studios division would merge with

2400-561: A time every few months and active shows to be released on DVD after the end of each season. Prior to the television DVDs, most television shows were only viewable in syndication , on limited "best of" VHS releases of selected episodes or released slowly in volumes with only two or three episodes per tape. These copyrighted movies and programs generally have legal restrictions on them preventing them from, among other things, being shown in public venues, shown to other people for money, or copied for other than fair use purposes (although such ability

2496-539: A variety of studios and rights holders alongside streaming editions of Criterion Collection releases replete with special features. The Channel also hosts some original content, including academic overviews and curated introductions as well as featuring some Janus-owned titles that have yet to be released on physical media. Criterion maintains a close relationship with Warner Bros. Discovery 's streaming platform Max , which frequently also houses Criterion-released titles. Home video Released in 1978, LaserDisc (LD)

2592-497: Is another home video format, which never managed to gain widespread use on North American and European retail markets due to high cost of the players and their inability to record TV programs (unlike the VHS ), although it retained some popularity among videophiles and film enthusiasts during its lifespan; the format had greater prevalence in some regions of Southeast Asia such as Japan , Hong Kong , Singapore and Malaysia where it

2688-580: Is as a medium for video material such as feature films and for the physical distribution of video games. The plastic disc is the same size as DVDs and compact discs . Blu-ray was officially released on June 20, 2006, beginning the high-definition optical disc format war , in which Blu-ray Disc competed against the HD DVD format. Toshiba , the main company supporting HD DVD, conceded in February 2008. Blu-ray has competition from video on demand (VOD) and

2784-663: Is limited by some jurisdictions and media formats – see below). After the passage of the Video Recordings (Labelling) Act of 1985 in the United Kingdom, videotapes and other video recordings without a certification symbol from the British Board of Film Classification on their covers – or on the tapes themselves – were no longer allowed to be sold or displayed by rental shops. These tapes are called "Pre-Certs" (i.e. Pre-certification tapes). Recently these tapes have generated

2880-521: Is the television arm of Lionsgate and Lionsgate Studios established in July 1997 and has produced such series as Nashville , Anger Management , The Dead Zone , 5ive Days to Midnight , Weeds , Nurse Jackie , Boss , Tyler Perry's House of Payne and Mad Men . Lionsgate later acquired TV syndication firm Debmar-Mercury on July 12, 2006 with CBS Media Ventures , at the time known as CBS Television Distribution , handling ad-sales, with

2976-601: Is usually required to elapse between theatrical release and availability on home video to encourage movie theater patronage and discourage copyright infringement . Home-video releases originally followed five to six months after theatrical release, but since the late 2000s, most films have begun being distributed on video after three to four months. As of 2019, most major theater chains mandate an exclusivity window of 90 days before home-video release, and 74–76 days before electronic sell-through . Christmas and other holiday-related movies are sometimes not released on home video until

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3072-468: The Zatoichi boxset (spine #679), all future releases would be in dual format (DVD and Blu-ray packaged together) rather than as individual releases. This decision also applied to most upgrade re-releases introduced after November 2013. After customer feedback revealed some reluctance to this approach, All That Jazz (#724) became the last chronological spine number released as a dual-format edition, and

3168-518: The HD format wars between Blu-ray and HD DVD . Once Blu-ray had emerged as the industry-standard high-definition home-video format, Criterion began to release Blu-ray editions of select films from its collection, beginning with the Blu-ray release of Wong Kar-wai 's Chungking Express (#453; currently out of print) on December 16, 2008. In late 2013, Criterion announced that with the November release of

3264-857: The Library of Congress . The company later became known for pioneering the "special edition" DVD concept containing bonus materials such as trailers , commentaries, documentaries, alternate endings and deleted scenes . The success of these releases established the special-edition version in the DVD business. In 2006, taking advantage of advanced film-transfer and film-restoration technologies, Criterion published higher-quality versions, with bonus materials, of early catalog titles such as Amarcord (1973), Brazil (1985) and Seven Samurai (1954). Originally, Criterion released art, genre and mainstream movies on LaserDisc such as Halloween (1978), Ghostbusters (1984), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Armageddon (1998) and The Rock (1996). Increasingly,

3360-766: The PSP through Universal Media Disc . Their releases are currently distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment , who released the company's content on home video since 2021, following the expiration of their deal with 20th Century Home Entertainment . Audiovisual releases from or by Lions Gate were previously distributed by Universal Studios Home Video (now Universal Pictures Home Entertainment ) and Columbia TriStar Home Video (now Sony Pictures Home Entertainment ). Lions Gate Films would eventually create two home video labels: Avalanche Home Entertainment, which released smaller Canadian B-movies on video and DVD; and Sterling Home Entertainment (a joint venture with Scanbox International,

3456-511: The format war late in the decade. The shift to home viewing radically changed revenue streams for film companies, because home renting provided an additional window of time in which a film could make money. In some cases, films that performed only modestly in their theater releases went on to sell significantly well in the rental market (e.g., cult films ). During the 1980s, video distributors gradually realized that many consumers did want to build their own video libraries, and not just rent, if

3552-538: The letterboxing format for widescreen films and the inclusion of bonus features such as scholarly essays and documentary content about the films and filmmakers. Criterion most notably pioneered the use of commentary tracks . Criterion has produced and distributed more than one thousand special editions of its films in VHS , Betamax , LaserDisc , DVD , Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray formats and box sets. These films and their special features are also available via The Criterion Channel, an online streaming service that

3648-551: The Beast (1946), M (1931), The Wages of Fear (1953) and Seven Samurai (1954). As of October 2023, over 200 of the 384 titles from the List of Criterion Collection Laserdisc releases have been re-released. Another example is the film Charade (1963), which had become a public-domain property for lacking the legally-required copyright notice. Criterion produced a restored edition under license from Universal Pictures for

3744-484: The Body Snatchers (1956), Criterion introduced the letterbox format, which added black bars to the top and bottom of the 4:3 standard television set in order to preserve the original aspect ratio of the film. Thereafter, Criterion made letterboxing the standard presentation for all its releases of films shot in widescreen aspect ratios. The Criterion Collection's second LaserDisc title, King Kong (1933),

3840-455: The Criterion Collection company, which has a business partnership with Janus Films and had one with Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) until 2005, when Image Entertainment bought HVE. On November 4, 2013, it was announced that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment would handle distribution. In May 2024, Janus Films and Criterion were acquired by Steven Rales . On June 24, 2024, it was reported that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment had entered into

3936-503: The Criterion Collection has also focused on releasing world cinema , mainstream cinema classics and critically successful obscure films. Using the best available source materials, the company produced technologically improved and cleaner versions, such as those for The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), M (1931), Children of Paradise (1945), The Third Man (1949), Seven Samurai (1954) and Amarcord (1973). Almost every title contains film-cleaning and film-restoration essays in

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4032-561: The US after its contract with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment expired, which ended in 2014 and got transferred to Universal Pictures Home Entertainment . On August 4, 2008, Lionsgate announced a deal with Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment to acquire the distribution rights to several Touchstone Television/ABC Studios (now ABC Signature ) shows including According to Jim , Reaper , Hope & Faith , 8 Simple Rules and Boy Meets World . In 2009, American Greetings struck

4128-511: The United Kingdom. The first six titles were released on April 18, 2016. The Criterion Collection video company pioneered the correct aspect-ratio letterboxing presentation of films, as well as commentary soundtracks, multi-disc sets, special editions and definitive versions. These ideas and the special features introduced by the Criterion Collection have been highly influential, and have become industry-wide standards for premium home video releases. With its eighth LaserDisc release, Invasion of

4224-737: The United States, and over 154 million subscriptions total, including free trials. It is available worldwide except in mainland China (due to local restrictions), Syria, North Korea, and Crimea (due to U.S. sanctions). The company also has offices in India , the Netherlands , Brazil , Japan , and South Korea . Netflix is a member of the Motion Picture Association . Netflix began producing media itself in 2012 and since then took more of an active role as producer and distributor for both films and television series. Following

4320-593: The acquisition of a 49% stake in Miramax by PHE's parent company Paramount Global (at the time known as ViacomCBS ). With Lionsgate acquiring Summit Entertainment in 2012, its home entertainment division took over its home video releasing rights. On December 8, 2016, Lionsgate acquired Starz Inc. , which includes the North American branches of Manga Entertainment and the first incarnation of Anchor Bay Entertainment . Shortly after acquisition, Anchor Bay

4416-520: The booklets, while some even have featurettes comparing the restored and unrestored images. Some previously licensed Criterion Collection titles, such as The Harder They Come (1972), are now commercially unavailable as new product, and are only available in resale (used) form. Titles such as RoboCop (1987), Hard Boiled (1992), The Killer (1989) and Ran (1985) became unavailable when their publishing licenses expired or when Criterion published improved versions, such as those for Beauty and

4512-481: The brief foray into dual-format releases). Moreover, the company's standalone line of Eclipse releases are currently only made available in the standard DVD format. Aside from the core catalog, the company has also released films through its Essential Art House, Eclipse, Merchant Ivory and Janus Contemporaries lines, as well as a few releases outside of any product line. Many of these releases have also been collected and sold in various box sets. In early 2016 for

4608-493: The chapter-indexed commentaries are exclusive to the Criterion releases and their initial DVD reissues; they became collectors' items when the original studios reissued titles previously licensed to Criterion, regardless of whether new commentary tracks were produced. The Criterion Collection began in 1984 with the releases of Citizen Kane (1941) and King Kong (1933) on LaserDisc, the latter's source negatives courtesy of

4704-428: The company operates. The Criterion Collection is considered the leading boutique Blu-ray label . Their releases are currently distributed by Studio Distribution Services , a joint venture between Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment , via a distribution deal with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment , who released the company's content on home video from 2013 to 2024. The company

4800-414: The company's early titles ( The 39 Steps , The Lady Vanishes and The Third Man ) were also issued on VHS and Betamax. These were Criterion's only releases on those formats—other Janus/Criterion titles were often released to VHS through Home Vision Entertainment. Criterion entered the DVD market in 1998 with a reset numbering system, beginning with Seven Samurai , spine #2 ( Grand Illusion , #1,

4896-437: The continued sale of DVDs. As of January 2016, 44% of U.S. broadband households had a Blu-ray player. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, though, people continued to use VCRs to record over-the-air TV shows, because they could not make home recordings onto DVDs. This problem with DVD was resolved in the late 2000s, when inexpensive DVD recorders and other digital video recorders (DVRs) – which record shows onto

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4992-456: The decision was reversed to release separate discs for titles beginning in September 2014. Despite the emergence of Blu-ray as the industry-standard high-definition format, Janus/Criterion continues to support the DVD format. Not only are all their new Blu-ray releases accompanied by a standard-definition DVD version, but revised and upgraded releases are also released on both formats (barring

5088-614: The digital space as soon as possible". On November 16, 2018, Criterion announced the launch of the Criterion Channel as a standalone service, wholly owned and operated by the Criterion Collection, in the United States and Canada. Some of the VOD service's offerings are also available on the Max streaming platform. British film magazine Sight & Sound revealed in its April 2016 issue that Criterion would be expanding its releases to

5184-516: The equivalent film on a used DVD. In July 2016, the last known manufacturer of VCRs, Funai , announced that it was ceasing VCR production. One of streaming's largest impacts was on DVD, which has become less popular with the mass popularization of online streaming of media . Media streaming's popularization caused many DVD rental companies, such as Blockbuster , to go out of business. In July 2015, The New York Times published an article about Netflix 's DVD-by-mail services. It stated that Netflix

5280-462: The exception of Meet the Browns , which was rather co-distributed by Turner Television/ Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution and Disney–ABC Domestic Television rather handling its ad-sales). In March 2013, Lionsgate signed with Mars One, a Dutch nonprofit with space agency and aerospace backers intent on colonizing Mars, to produce a reality TV show. On August 6, 2018, Lionsgate signed

5376-495: The first commercially practical videotape recording system. The Ampex system, though, used reel-to-reel tape and physically bulky equipment not suitable for home use. In the mid-1970s, videotape became the first truly practical home-video format with the development of videocassettes , which were far easier to use than tape reels. The Betamax and VHS home videocassette formats were introduced, respectively, in 1975 and 1976, but several more years and significant reductions in

5472-492: The first time in its history, Criterion announced it would begin releasing its catalogue outside of the US and Canada (earlier international Criterion titles such as the Japanese LaserDisc of Blade Runner were licensed to other companies). In partnership with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment , releases began to be distributed with the launch of six titles in the U.K. during the month. Criterion's DVD releases are

5568-546: The folding of Republic, Lionsgate's function was transferred to Olive Films (and later Kino Lorber ). On February 11, 2011, Lionsgate and StudioCanal made an agreement to release 550 films from Miramax globally, replacing long time partner Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment at the time when Miramax was owned by the Walt Disney Company. It was transferred to Paramount Home Entertainment in April 2020 after

5664-800: The following year, when the holiday occurs again. Major studios have made films available for rental during their theatrical window on high-end services that charge upwards of $ 500 per rental and use proprietary hardware. Exceptions to the rule include the Steven Soderbergh film Bubble , which was released in 2006 to theaters, cable television, and DVD only a few days apart. Netflix has released some of its films, such as Roma and The Irishman , in limited theatrical release followed by streaming availability after less than 30 days. Many television programs are now also available in complete seasons on DVD. It has become popular practice for discontinued TV shows to be released to DVD one season at

5760-470: The following year. With a library of more than 8,000 films and although founded to distribute in-house productions, LGHE also previously distributed productions featuring Barbie from Mattel and Clifford the Big Red Dog from Scholastic Corporation , Stickin' Around videos from Nelvana and MGA Entertainment productions. Lionsgate Home Entertainment also previously distributed videos from

5856-659: The four founders each retained a 20% owner's share. In 1997, the Voyager Company was dissolved (Aleen Stein founded the Organa LLC CD-ROM publishing company), and Holtzbrinck Publishers sold the Voyager brand name, 42 CD-ROM titles, the Voyager web site and associated assets to Learn Technologies Interactive, LLC (LTI). Stein sold 42 Voyager titles to LTI from his Voyager/Criterion company share. The remaining three partners, Aleen Stein, Becker and Turell owned

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5952-420: The fragility of VHS made DVDs a far better format from a rental store's perspective. Though DVDs do not have the problems of videocassettes, such as breakage of the tape or the cassette mechanism, they can still be damaged by scratches. Another advantage from the perspective of video rental stores is that DVDs are physically much smaller, so they take less space to store. DVDs also offer a number of advantages for

6048-700: The home entertainment division of the Jim Henson Company until 2012 when Henson signed a deal with Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment . With the acquisition of Artisan, LGHE also released the back catalog of ITC Entertainment until 2013, when ITC's successor-in-interest ITV Studios Global Entertainment signed a deal with Shout! Factory (now Shout! Studios ). In 2001, in Quebec it was renamed Crystal Films, and in Ontario and other provinces, Maple Pictures . In August 2001, Lions Gate Home Entertainment signed

6144-401: The home video market, and through its home video division, Buena Vista Home Entertainment , the company did just that during the 1980s and 1990s. This spectacular success "catapulted the head of Disney's video division, Bill Mechanic , into executive stardom." In 1994, Mechanic left Disney to become head of Fox Filmed Entertainment . Another executive, Bob Chapek , would later ascend through

6240-533: The home-video division of Public Media Inc. (PMI), which he had previously founded in 1968. The HVE company sold, advertised, marketed and distributed Criterion Collection DVDs, and also sold its own HVE brand of DVDs (co-produced with Criterion), including The Merchant Ivory Collection and the Classic Collection, a joint venture between Home Vision Entertainment and Janus Films. The latter enterprise published HVE imprint films, for which Janus Films owned

6336-471: The initial edition and for the later anamorphic widescreen re-release edition of the film. Periodically, Criterion releases material on DVD and Blu-ray disc licensed from the studios with whom the company had previously dealt (such as Universal's and Terry Gilliam 's 1985 film Brazil ); these new releases are generally undertaken on a case-by-case basis. Criterion released its first Walt Disney Pictures title, Andrew Stanton 's WALL-E , in 2022. This

6432-666: The largely obsolete videotape medium. As of 2006 , the Video CD format remained popular in Asia. DVDs have been gradually losing popularity since the late 2010s and early 2020s, when streaming media became mainstream for the audiences, with most media consumers in urban areas globally having domestic Internet access. As early as 1906, various film entrepreneurs began to consider the business potential of home viewing of films, and in 1912, both Edison and Pathé started selling film projectors for home use. Because making release prints

6528-813: The launch of various streaming services during the early 2020s, in particular those operated by the major Hollywood studios, home video continued to decline. One of the most prominent examples of this effect was with Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment which, following the launch of Disney+ in 2019 and its international expansion in the following years, began to discontinue physical distribution entirely in certain regions such as Latin America, Asia (excluding Japan), Australia, New Zealand, Portugal and Hungary, or to outsource its activities to other regional distributors (like Divisa Home Video for Spain, Eagle Pictures for Italy, Leonine Studios for Germany, and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment for North America. A time period

6624-845: The libraries of Anchor Bay Entertainment , Overture Films , the pre-2015 Film Roman library and in-house content by Starz and it's predecessor IDT Entertainment), the library of Hearst 's entertainment division, Tribune Entertainment (through Debmar-Mercury ), American Zoetrope (distribution deal in 2010, with certain exceptions), Modern Entertainment (library acquired in 2005), the assets of The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films (post-2005 titles only; through its 18.9% stake in Spyglass Media Group ). Lionsgate Studios' complete ownership depends on various and/or specific global licensing. Lionsgate's movies have been released on DVD , Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray , as well as on

6720-461: The merger of its former existence as Alliance Communications and Atlantis Communications ), Salter Street Films , Cineplex Odeon Films and Phase 4 Films . Lionsgate Studios' library features titles from several defunct studios, including: Trimark Pictures (acquired in 2000), Artisan Entertainment (acquired in 2003 and with it Vestron Pictures which Artisan acquired in 1991), Starz Distribution (acquired by Lionsgate in 2016, which includes

6816-430: The number of topics, including "...dog handling videos, back pain videos and cooking videos", which were not previously thought of as marketable. Next, even "golf and skiing tapes* started selling. Contemporary sources noted, "new technology has changed the territory" of the home video market. In the early 2000s, VHS gradually began to be displaced by DVD . The DVD format has several advantages over VHS. A DVD consists of

6912-403: The physical distribution of titles from Sony Pictures ( Columbia Pictures , TriStar Pictures , Screen Gems , Crunchyroll, LLC , etc.) as well as Lionsgate, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment ( Walt Disney Pictures , Marvel Studios , Lucasfilm Ltd. , 20th Century Studios , etc.) and The Criterion Collection through their existing distribution deals with SPHE. Lionsgate Television

7008-453: The price was right . Rather than sell a few thousand units at a wholesale price of $ 70 into the rental channel, video distributors could sell hundreds of thousands of units at a wholesale price of $ 15-20 into the retail " sell-through " channel. The "ultimate accelerant" for the rise of the "sell-through" home video market was the development of children's home video. The pre-1980s conventional wisdom that consumers had no interest in watching

7104-495: The prices of both equipment and videocassettes were needed before both formats started to become widespread in households. The first company to duplicate and distribute feature films from major film studios on home video was Magnetic Video . Magnetic Video was established in 1968 as an audio and video duplication service for professional audio and television corporations in Farmington Hills, Michigan . After Betamax

7200-452: The public could purchase a film projector for one of those film formats and rent or buy home-use prints of some cartoons, short comedies, and brief "highlights" reels edited from feature films. The Super 8 film format, introduced in 1965, was marketed for making home movies, but it also boosted the popularity of show-at-home films. Eventually, longer, edited-down versions of feature films were issued, which increasingly came in color and with

7296-453: The ranks of Disney's home video division to become chief executive officer of the entire company in 2020, and for that reason (before his sudden 2022 departure) was called "the home entertainment industry's single biggest success story." Until the mid-1980s, home video was dominated by feature film theatrical releases such as The Wizard of Oz , Citizen Kane , and Casablanca from major film studios . At that time, not many people owned

7392-467: The same films again and again at home turned out to be entirely wrong with respect to children. Many harried parents discovered that it was a good investment to pay $ 20 to purchase a videocassette that could reliably keep their children riveted to the television screen for over an hour—and not just one time, but many, many times. The Walt Disney Company recognized that its flagship animation studio's family-friendly films were superbly positioned to conquer

7488-507: The screening rooms of a few archives and museums. Beginning in the 1950s, most could be expected to be broadcast on television, eventually. During this era, television programs normally could only be viewed at the time of broadcast . Viewers were accustomed to the fact that there was no easy way to record television shows at home and watch them whenever desired. In 1924, Kodak invented 16 mm film , which became popular for home use, and then later developed 8 mm film . After that point,

7584-491: The small community of film buffs who for decades had willingly paid hundreds of dollars to purchase release prints. Therefore, in 1977, Magnetic Video originally priced its videocassettes at $ 50 to $ 70 each—a princely sum at a time when the average price of an American movie ticket was $ 2.23—and sold them only to wholesalers capable of handling a minimum order of $ 8,000. When the American home video market suddenly took off like

7680-583: The so-called "sell-through" channel, to be purchased at retail or ordered directly by consumers and viewed exclusively as home videos. It was pointed out at the time that [L]imitations within the video marketplace may be gone tomorrow. More people are finding innovative ways to create visually stimulating entertainment and information for the video tape player... Like contemporary book publishing, you can produce and distribute yourself to very narrow markets or seek broad-based distributors for mass-oriented appeal. Special-interest video increased to larger audiences

7776-458: The split. Lionsgate Studios operates through its filming division, Lionsgate Films ; which consists of its own in-house productions, as well as films under the Summit Entertainment label, and from its Lionsgate Canada subsidiary. The latter company, which was known as Entertainment One prior to its sale to Lionsgate, also houses the libraries of defunct production companies such as Koch Entertainment , Christal Films , Alliance Atlantis (from

7872-450: The studio complex. On April 8, 2020, it was announced that the developers locked down $ 60 million in financing while the rest of the $ 40 million in the second phase of the project will be anchored by entertainment firm Lionsgate. In 2022, the city of Newark, New Jersey announced that a major new film and television production studio overlooking Weequahic Park and Weequahic Golf Course , Lionsgate Newark Studios would open in 2024 on

7968-506: The video rights, but which were unavailable from the Criterion Collection; however, Criterion published the Classic Collection films. In 2005, Image Entertainment bought HVE making it the exclusive distributor of Criterion Collection products until 2013. The Criterion Collection began to provide video-on-demand (VOD) in partnership with Mubi (formerly The Auteurs ) in 2008. In February 2011, Criterion began switching its VOD offerings exclusively to Hulu Plus . In November 2016, FilmStruck ,

8064-473: The viewer: DVDs can support both standard 4:3 and widescreen 16:9 screen-aspect ratios, and can provide twice the video resolution of VHS. Skipping ahead to the end is much easier and faster with a DVD than with a VHS tape (which has to be rewound). DVDs can have interactive menus, multiple language tracks, audio commentaries, closed captioning, and subtitling (with the option of turning the subtitles on or off, or selecting subtitles in several languages). Moreover,

8160-430: Was (and still is) very expensive—as of 2005, the cost of making a release print was still at least $ 1,000 —early projector owners rented films by mail directly from the projector manufacturers. The Edison company's business model was fundamentally flawed because it had started with phonographs and did not differentiate home viewing from home listening. Edison exited the home viewing business in 1914; Pathé remained active

8256-516: Was better supported. Film titles were released in LD format until 2001, production of LD players ceased in 2009. The home video business distributes films , television series , telefilms and other audiovisual media to the public in the form of videos in various formats, either bought or rented and then watched privately in purchasers' homes. Most theatrically released films are now released on digital media (both optical and download-based), replacing

8352-521: Was born, initially, as a rental business. Film studios and video distributors assumed that the overwhelming majority of consumers would not want to buy prerecorded videocassettes, but would merely rent them. They felt that virtually all sales of videocassettes would be to video rental stores and set prices accordingly. According to Douglas Gomery , studio executives thought that the handful of consumers actually interested in purchasing videocassettes in order to watch them again and again would be similar to

8448-484: Was continuing their DVD services with 5.3 million subscribers, which was a significant decrease from the previous year, but their streaming services had 65 million members. Netflix's primary business is its subscription-based streaming service , which offers online streaming of a library of films and television programs, including those produced in-house. As of April 2019, Netflix had over 148 million paid subscriptions worldwide, including 60 million in

8544-422: Was delayed for a year while restoration was underway on a then-newly-found camera negative). As with its laserdiscs, Criterion's early DVD editions of widescreen films were presented in the letterbox format, but Criterion did not anamorphically enhance its discs for 16:9 monitors until mid-1999 with its release of Insomnia (#47). Criterion was slow to expand into high-definition releases, partly because of

8640-472: Was folded into Lionsgate Home Entertainment and Manga is planned to be relaunched in the near future. Anchor Bay Entertainment would be revived by co-founders of Umbrelic Entertainment, Thomas Zambeck and Brian Katz, on February 15, 2024, as a production company for "genre films, undiscovered treasures, cult classics and remastered catalog releases". On June 30, 2021, Lionsgate's North American distribution deal with 20th Century Home Entertainment expired and

8736-681: Was founded in 1984 by Robert Stein , Aleen Stein and Joe Medjuck , who later were joined by Roger Smith. In 1985, the Steins, William Becker and Jonathan B. Turell founded the Voyager Company to publish educational multimedia CD-ROMs (1989–2000), and the Criterion Collection became a subordinate division of the Voyager Company, with Janus Films holding a minority stake in the company, and decided to expand its product on videocassettes and videodiscs. In March 1994, Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH bought 20% of Voyager for US$ 6.7 million;

8832-558: Was launched in the United States in 1976, Magnetic Video chief executive Andre Blay wrote letters to all the major film studios offering to license the rights to their films. Near the end of 1977, Magnetic Video entered into a first-of-its-kind deal with 20th Century Fox . Magnetic Video agreed to pay Fox a royalty of $ 7.50 per unit sold and a guaranteed annual minimum payment of $ 500,000 in exchange for nonexclusive rights to 50 films, which had to be at least two years old and had already been broadcast on network television . Home video

8928-814: Was not the result of an ongoing deal between Disney and Criterion, but rather licensed as a one-off, with Stanton approaching Criterion and "wanting to be part of the club". All Criterion titles are numbered, which is shown on the bottom of the spine of the packaging. Though the bulk of Criterion's catalog is of live-action films, they have also released animated films ( Akira , Fantastic Planet , Fantastic Mr. Fox and WALL-E ), television series ( Tanner '88 , Fishing with John and select episodes of I Love Lucy and The Addams Family ) and music videos ( Beastie Boys Video Anthology ). The Criterion Collection began publishing LaserDiscs on December 1, 1984, with its release of Citizen Kane , until March 16, 1999, with Michael Bay 's Armageddon (#384). Three of

9024-653: Was previously planned for Blu-ray and DVD release in October 2021, was delayed until November in order to also give the film an Ultra HD Blu-ray release. After forays in providing titles from the Collection as streaming video-on-demand (VOD) in partnership with other companies – Mubi (formerly The Auteurs , 2008), Hulu Plus (2011–2016) and TCM 's FilmStruck (2016–2018) – Criterion titles found themselves without an online home when FilmStruck announced it would be shutting down on November 29, 2018. The company stated in

9120-432: Was taken over Sony Pictures Home Entertainment as of July 1, 2021. After Lionsgate completed its acquisition of Entertainment One (eOne), now Lionsgate Canada , on December 27, 2023, its home entertainment division started distributing its physical releases worldwide. On June 24, 2024, it was reported that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment had entered into a distribution deal with Studio Distribution Services to handle

9216-541: Was the debut of the scene-specific audio commentary contained in a separate analog channel of the LaserDisc, in which American film historian Ronald Haver spoke about the production, cast, screenplay, production design and special effects. He also provides commentary on the LaserDisc editions of Casablanca (1942), Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Singin' in the Rain (1952) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). Typically,

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