The Criterion Collection, Inc. 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, 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 the company operates.
Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. is the American home video distribution division of Warner Bros. Discovery.
20th Century Home Entertainment is a home video distribution arm that distributes films produced by 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Blue Sky Studios, and 20th Century Animation and several third-party studios, as well as television series by 20th Television, Searchlight Television, 20th Television Animation, and FX Productions in home entertainment formats.
A film distributor is a person responsible for the marketing of a film. The distribution company may be the same as, or different from, the production company. Distribution deals are an important part of financing a film.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Inc. is the home entertainment distribution division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony.
MGM Home Entertainment LLC is the home video distribution arm of the American media company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). It is owned by the Amazon MGM Studios subsidiary of Amazon.
United International Pictures (UIP) is a joint venture of Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures that distributes their films outside the United States and Canada. UIP also had international distribution rights to certain Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and United Artists (UA) films when MGM was part of the venture and also distributed Disney films in certain territories until 1987. In 2001, MGM left UIP, and signed a distribution deal with 20th Century Fox's overseas arm. The company formerly distributed DreamWorks Pictures releases internationally as well until late 2005.
Shout! Factory, LLC, doing business as Shout! Studios is an American home video and music distributor founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases, issued in DVD or Blu-ray format, include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy specials. Considered a boutique Blu-ray label, Shout! Studios, in addition to its mainline home video releases, also releases films under the sublabels Scream, Shout! Select, and Shout! Kids. Shout! Studios owns and operates Westchester Films, Timeless Media Group, Biograph Records, Majordomo Records, and Video Time Machine. 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 formed by the two companies.
Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc. is the home entertainment distribution arm of the Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films, television series, and other audiovisual content across digital formats and platforms.
Vestron Video was the main subsidiary of Vestron, Inc., a home video company based in Stamford, Connecticut, that was active from 1981 to 1993, and is considered to have been a pioneer in the home video market.
Arrow Films is a British independent film distributor and restorer specialising in world cinema, arthouse, horror and classic films. As Arrow Video, it sells Ultra HD Blu-rays, Blu-rays and DVDs online; it also operates its own subscription video on-demand service, Arrow Player. Since 2017, Arrow have had a dedicated podcast hosted by film-makers Sam Ashurst and Dan Martin. Arrow Video is considered a boutique Blu-ray label.
Film distribution, also called film exhibition or film distribution and exhibition, is the process of making a movie available for viewing to an audience. This is normally the task of a professional film distributor, who would determine the marketing and release strategy for the film, the media by which a film is to be exhibited or made available for viewing and other matters. The film may be exhibited directly to the public either through a movie theater or television, or personal home viewing. For commercial projects, film distribution is usually accompanied by film promotion.
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment LLC is the home video distribution division of Universal Pictures, an American film studio, owned by NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast.
New Line Home Entertainment was the home entertainment distribution arm of the film production studio of the same name, founded in 1990. According to New Line's website, Misery was the first New Line Home Video release.
The Ghibli Museum Library is the collection of animated films which have been dubbed or subtitled and released in Japan by Studio Ghibli under the Ghibli ga Ippai label, in collaboration with Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment and Cinema ANGELIKA. Three of the current titles were previously released as part of the now mostly defunct Ghibli Cinema Library. The collection is named after the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka.
Roadshow Entertainment is an Australian home video, production and distribution company that is a division of Village Roadshow that distributes films in Australia and New Zealand. Their first release was Mad Max. Roadshow Entertainment is an independent video distributor in Australia and New Zealand.
Home video is recorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. In a different usage, "home video" refers to amateur video recordings, also known as home movies.
StudioCanal Limited, doing business as StudioCanal UK, is a British film distribution division and the official British branch of the French film & television production and distribution company StudioCanal in the UK. The company releases many films, including foreign, anime, independent, art, British, Irish and American films in the United Kingdom.
Lightyear Entertainment, headquartered in Studio City, California, is a distributor of independent motion pictures in theaters, on DVD, Blu-ray, Video On Demand, as well as a distributor of music and music videos on CD, DVD, and digital distribution.
