The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...

is a video distribution company which specializes in licensing and selling "important classic and contemporary films" in "editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements." Janus Films and the

Voyager Company The Voyager Company was a pioneer in CD-ROM production in the 1980s and early 1990s. In partnership with Janus Films, the company published The Criterion Collection, a pioneering home video collection of classic and important contemporary films on ...

established The Criterion Collection in 1984 as a

privately held company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

concentrating exclusively upon the

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

n home video market. Aside from three early rare titles on VHS and

Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, ...

cassette, between 1984 and 1998 Criterion published home video releases exclusively on the

LaserDisc The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diameter typical ...

format, pioneering now standard features such as letterboxing, audio commentary tracks, and other supplemental content. In 1998, Criterion shifted from LaserDiscs into the then fledgling DVD market, and has since issued over 1,000 DVD and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

releases. In 2021, 4K Ultra HD releases were announced to launch starting with ''

Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American drama film produced by, directed by, and starring Orson Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J. Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles' first feature film. ''Citizen Kane'' is frequently cited ...

'' in November. All of Criterion's LaserDisc releases have since gone out of print.

DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD releases

^I ''Floating Weeds'' has been released on LaserDisc and the Essential Art House series, but ''A Story of Floating Weeds'' has not.
^II Akira Kurosawa's 1957 adaptation of ''The Lower Depths'' is included in the ''25 Films by Akira Kurosawa'' box set, but Jean Renoir's 1936 adaptation is not.
^III Included as extra on ''The Seventh Seal'' Blu-ray and 2-DVD release.
^IV The ''By Brakhage: An Anthology, Volumes One and Two'' box set has only been released on Blu-ray.
^V The ''Pina'' Blu-ray release features both 2D and 3D versions.
^VI Included as extra on the ''Grey Gardens'' Blu-ray release.

Additional feature films

A related feature film (not a documentary related to the film's production or theme) is included as a bonus feature:
¹''

Crook's Tour ''Crook's Tour'' is a 1941 black and white British film directed by John Baxter featuring Charters and Caldicott. It is adapted from a BBC radio serial of the same name. Plot Charters and Caldicott are touring the Middle East (Saudi Arabia) ...

''
² ''

It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books ''It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books'' is a 1988 American road film written, produced, and directed by Richard Linklater, who also stars in it. Plot The protagonist (played by Linklater) receives a cassette tape from a friend, with ...

''
³ ''Neapolitan Diary''
⁴ '' Permanent Vacation''
⁵ '' Berlin Alexanderplatz (1931)''
⁶ '' The Lion Has Wings''
⁷ '' Magnificent Obsession (1935)''
⁸ ''

Bucking Broadway ''Bucking Broadway'' is a 1917 American silent Western film directed by John Ford, probably his sixth feature film. Long thought to be lost, along with about 60 of Ford's 70 silent films, it was found in 2002 in the archives of the CNC (the F ...

''
⁹ '' The Traveler''
¹⁰ ''

Cathy Come Home ''Cathy Come Home'' is a 1966 BBC television play about homelessness. It was written by Jeremy Sandford, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Ken Loach. A 1998 ''Radio Times'' readers' poll voted it the "best single television drama" an ...

''
¹¹ ''

Murder a la Mod ''Murder a la Mod'' is a 1968 American film directed by Brian De Palma in his first feature film as a director and writer. An experimental, low-budget murder-mystery, it was shot on black-and-white 16mm film. Following its limited theatrical relea ...

''
¹² ''

Killer's Kiss ''Killer's Kiss'' is a 1955 American crime film noir directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by Kubrick and Howard Sackler. It is the second feature film directed by Kubrick, following his 1953 debut feature ''Fear and Desire''. The film stars J ...

''
¹³ '' Twelve Angry Men (1954)''
¹⁴ ''

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! is a 1956 ''kaiju'' film directed by Terry O. Morse and Ishirō Honda. It is a heavily re-edited American localization, commonly referred to as an "Americanization", of the 1954 Japanese film '' Godzilla''. The film was a Japanese-American c ...

''
¹⁵ ''Creative Nonfiction''
¹⁶ '' The Report''
¹⁷ '' The Last Performance''
¹⁸ ''

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

''
¹⁹ ''

Kapurush ''Kapurush'' ( bn, কাপুরুষ), English title ''The Coward'', is a 1965 Indian drama film directed by Satyajit Ray. Plot Amitabha Ray is a Calcutta-based scriptwriter who is driving around in the country to collect material for a ...

''
²⁰ '' The Underneath''
²¹ ''

Stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

''
²² ''Homesdale''
²³ ''On purge bébé''
²⁴ ''The Front Page (1931 film), The Front Page (1931)''
²⁵ ''I Was Born, But...''
²⁶ ''Filming Othello''
²⁶ ''Downhill (1927 film), Downhill''
²⁷ ''Holiday (1930 film), Holiday (1930)''
²⁸ ''Spite Marriage''
²⁹ ''Game of Death II''
³⁰ ''Colorado Territory (film), Colorado Territory''
³¹ ''Shaft's Big Score!''
³² ''Calendar (1993 film), Calendar''

April Fool's pranks

*On April Fool's Day 2011, spine #573, which was not yet issued, was assigned to the 1984 movie ''C.H.U.D.'' *On April Fool's Day 2012, spine #620, which was not yet issued, was assigned to the 1990 movie ''Kindergarten Cop''.

Essential Art House-only releases

^VII ''Floating Weeds'' was released by the Criterion Collection with ''A Story of Floating Weeds''. ^VIII ''The Great Chase'' and ''The Love Goddessess'' were released by the Criterion Collection under the title ''Three Documentaries'' along with '' Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist''.

Merchant Ivory Collection

The Merchant Ivory Collection was released between 2003 and 2005 in DVD format. The entire Collection is currently out of print. The list is presented in order of release by Criterion.

Other releases

Boxed sets

LaserDiscs

Criterion Collection released

s from 1984 to 1998. These are now out of print.

VHS and Betamax cassettes

In 1985 and 1989, Criterion Collection released three titles on VHS,

and LaserDisc: ''The 39 Steps (1935 film), The 39 Steps'' (1935), ''The Lady Vanishes'' (1938) and ''The Third Man'' (1949), with spine numbers 003–005 respectively. However, they did not sell well, and no more were issued, but they are now collectors' items.

References

;General * * * * ;Specific

External links

* – official site
Criterion Collection
– release library (by spine#)
Criterion LaserDisc Collection
at Criterion Collection via Archive.org (archive; no longer appears on site) {{DEFAULTSORT:List of Criterion Collection DVD and Blu-ray Releases Lists of films by home video label, Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection