Criterions Out of Print (OOP)

[Zardoz]

Does anyone know the status of the Pearls of the Czech New Wave Eclipse set? On the website, rather than "Out of Stock" or "Out of Print" it reads "Not Available".

[fdm]

Seems to be out of stock mostly everywhere (that I just looked), though B&N will sell you one for $67.13 today. Walmart has one left of 55.99. A couple on ebay.

[ftsoh]

Likewise for The Taking of Power by Loius XIV.

[fdm]

Pretty good chance if "Not Available" that they're just temporarily out of print. Criterion would have the real answer.

[danieltiger]

Pearls of the Czech New Wave now says "back-order". The Taking of Power by Louis XIV still says "Not Available".

[Noiradelic]

A couple on ebay.

None on eBay from U.S. sellers. Copies on AZ are already going for $160.

[Gregory]

As long as B&N still has it in stock for roughly MSRP, aren't the third-party listings with inflated prices easily avoided?

[brundlefly]

Criterion site currently says the Pearls set will be "available Mar 28, 2019."

[fdm]

A couple on ebay.

None on eBay from U.S. sellers. Copies on AZ are already going for $160.

That's because they both sold after I posted that.

[yoloswegmaster]

I tried to find the page for Z on the Janus website but it's not there anymore, plus it's been removed from the listings on Hollywood Suite. Could this mean that they lost the rights to it?

[Brian C]

The DVD is OOP on the Criterion site so guess so.

[yoloswegmaster]

When the DVD went OOP, the page on the Janus website was still up (went OOP in August and the page was still up in October according to Wayback Machine). People assumed that there was going to be an upgrade, but now I'm not so sure.

[Blutarsky]

Z was on TCM during 31 Days of Oscars and I recall it looking much more clean and having more depth than the DVD. It opened with the Janus logo and everything. However, TCM also showcases OOP Criterions on their channel with the Janus/StudioCanal logo which has always confused me (I.E. The Third Man, Nights of Cabiria, Grand Illusion)

[dwk]

Z is still available digitally to rent or own from Criterion on both iTunes and Amazon.

[Robespierre]

Is Eraserhead OOP? It's fetching high prices on amazon.

[Big Ben]

Is Eraserhead OOP? It's fetching high prices on amazon.

I imagine that's Amazon being Amazon. Criterion's page still lists both versions for their respective prices of $31.96 for the Blu-Ray and $23.96 for the DVD.

[David_kuznicki]

People on FB seem to think that The Samurai Trilogy may now be OOP. Criterion store shows it as not being available.

[KJones77]

People on FB seem to think that The Samurai Trilogy may now be OOP. Criterion store shows it as not being available.

Not available does not mean OOP.

If a title is OOP, it just says "OUT OF PRINT" on their page. Not available seems to mean out of stock. The DVD is still available so there is no chance it is OOP.

There seem to be quite a few titles with this issue now and every time, rumors start that the title is OOP. I don't know why the Blu-ray version of these titles is not available right now but none are OOP.

[ptatler]

Not available does not mean OOP.

Same thing is happening with the Blu for 3 Women. Not to worry, though: Amazon has a copy available for $1,615.21.

[KJones77]

Putney Swope appears to be coming to AGFA next year for the film's 50th anniversary. The Janus site still lists all of the other Downey Sr films, except Putney Swope.

I'm inclined to believe they probably don't have the rights anymore; and the Eclipse set may be going OOP in the near future. The only other possibility I can think of is whether AGFA only have theatrical or Blu rights; not DVD rights.

I sent AGFA an email after reading this post about whether or not they had the home video rights. Here's what they responded:

[T]hanks for reaching out. [...]

Currently AGFA does not have home video rights to the film. To our knowledge, our upcoming theatrical release does not affect Criterion's home video rights.


cheers
bret

So it looks as if Putney Swope is safe.

The Eclipse set is still in print but Putney Swope is coming from Vinegar Syndrome on Blu-ray in June.

[agnamaracs]

Is anybody keeping track of former Criterions that have since been acquired/released by other labels? I'm thinking this would be useful especially given the recent Kino/Canal acquisitions (Alphaville et al).

[yoloswegmaster]

Is anybody keeping track of former Criterions that have since been acquired/released by other labels? I'm thinking this would be useful especially given the recent Kino/Canal acquisitions (Alphaville et al).

Go to the first page of this thread. It's being updated constantly.

[agnamaracs]

But there's no distinction between titles owned, licensed, or released. And it doesn't include titles where Criterion's version is still in print, but there's another Region A/1 release (like Sony's Life of Brian or Flicker Alley's Most Dangerous Game)

[yoloswegmaster]

You only mentioned Kino/Canal deal, so I just responded to that.

[Minkin]

But there's no distinction between titles owned, licensed, or released. And it doesn't include titles where Criterion's version is still in print, but there's another Region A/1 release (like Sony's Life of Brian or Flicker Alley's Most Dangerous Game)

In most all of the cases available, this doesn't matter / affect Criterion's rights in anyway.

Most Dangerous Game / Nanook of the North / Things to Come / Night of the Living Dead / etc etc etc etc - are all Public Domain. Flicker Alley's release of Nanook does not in anyway affect Criterion's long-promised/gestating edition, despite the Criterion being OOP.

Most Universal licensed films still have their Universal-released Blu edition still in print, which also doesn't affect Criterion; see Do the Right Thing / Breakfast Club / etc.

Life of Brian - it had been in print last time I checked; or it had a little notice saying "this title is not OOP, just not available at Criterion.com" (I'll mention here that this notice does not appear yet on their new website for probably coding reasons, so I still wouldn't panic about many of these supposed OOP editions.)

It can honestly be difficult to know what actually is OOP from Criterion. There's the obvious "it says OOP on their website" - but clearly this isn't an entirely accurate measure. When something gets a new print run, it can be listed as OOP on their website, even for many years (see Vampyr); or if a new forthcoming edition is planned to be coming eventually (Do the Right Thing); or if they still own the rights but aren't really sure what to do with it yet (Pygmalion). So, is Z / Life of Brian / The Confession really OOP now? We can't answer that yet, and oftentimes can't until some other company announces it. Otherwise there will be panic over every time the Criterion website decides to change some text. But if people don't like my approach to this, y'all can let me know!

If you come up with more examples, I can respond with what info we have, but I don't quite see the need for this info on the first post (mostly because we don't quite know what all is going on). Maybe if Criterion actually gave actual responses to email inquiries, rather than a boilerplate "sorry, this is OOP" email when people ask, we wouldn't have this issue. But once again - Criterion's lack of transparency with fans just leaves them forced to make best guesses.

Though I did make a note about cases where a different company has Blu rights, while Criterion maintains DVD rights (which are still in print) - on the first post. Let me know if I missed anything else.