What video-distribution company known for standardizing features like letterbox ratio, bonus features, and special editions started in 1984 with the releases of Citizen Kane and King Kong?
"The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video distribution company which focuses on licensing ""important classic and contemporary films"" and selling them to film aficionados. Criterion is noted for helping to standardize a number of new ideas, such as the letterbox format for widescreen films, adding bonus features, commentary tracks, doing film restoration, and releasing special editions for home video. The Criterion Collection company 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"
"legally required copyright notice. The Criterion company produced a digitally cleaned edition under license from Universal Pictures for the initial edition, and for the later anamorphic widescreen re-release edition of the film. Periodically, Criterion does release material on DVD/Blu-ray licensed from the studios they previously dealt with, for example Sony, Fox, MGM/UA, Disney, and Universal; these new releases are generally done on a case-by-case basis. The Criterion Collection began publishing laserdiscs on December 1, 1984 with its release of ""Citizen Kane"". In 1998, Criterion began publishing DVDs as well. On March 16, 1999, Criterion issued its final laserdisc release, Michael"
"game. Game quality improved over time, most notably with ""Vanguard"" (1981), a side-scrolling space shooter that many consider the precursor to modern classics such as ""Gradius"" and ""R-Type"". SNK licensed the game to Centuri for distribution in North America, who ultimately started manufacturing and distributing the game itself when profits exceeded expectations. Around 1980, it took the initial letters from Shin Nihon Kikaku' as the company's nickname, ""SNK (S·N·K)"". The copyright notation of the alphabet was also ""SNK CORP."". It established itself in Sunnyvale, California, with the intent of delivering its own brand of coin-operated games to arcades in North"
"Kong"" (1933) on laserdisc, the latter's source negatives courtesy of the Library of Congress. The company later became notable for pioneering the “special edition” DVD concept, containing bonus materials (trailers, commentaries, documentaries, alternate endings, deleted scenes, et cetera), ""a film school in a box"", as it were, the success of which established the special edition version in the DVD business. In 2006, taking advantage of better film-transfer and film-restoration technologies, Criterion published improved-image versions, with bonus materials, of early catalog titles such as ""Amarcord"" (1973), ""Brazil"" (1985), and ""Seven Samurai"" (1954). Originally, the Criterion company released art, genre, and mainstream"
"title which had sold a few hundred copies at $99 might sell tens or even hundreds of thousands of copies at $19.99 or $9.99. The first company to duplicate and distribute home video was Magnetic Video in 1977. Magnetic Video was established in 1968 as an audio and video duplication service for professional audio and television corporations in Farmington Hills, Michigan, United States, although Avco's 1972 Cartrivision system preceded Magnetic Vision's expansion into home video by a few years. Until the mid-1980s feature film theatrical releases such as ""The Wizard of Oz"", ""Citizen Kane"" and ""Casablanca"" were the mainstay of"
"label Diamond Entertainment (Hong Kong) Co Ltd in 1979 with the release of films on Beta and VHS including . In late 1980 both the Laserdisc sister label U Best Laser World and the VHS/Beta label U Best Corporation (Hong Kong) Co Ltd were consolidated into a single entity Fitto Production (Hong Kong) Co Ltd alternating with the Charles Entertainment (Hong Kong) Co Ltd name until 1984. In 1990 with the 20th anniversary of Ocean Shores it became Ocean Shores Video (Hong Kong) Co Ltd alternating company vent by created added on new various company names including Win's Entertainment (Hong"
"the name ""Casino TV Games"" at the start of 1979. Atari, Inc., which released the Atari Video Computer System in North America some months prior to the Olympian 2600's street date, went on to dominate the video game console market in North America until the North American video game crash of 1983. Unisonic Products Corporation Unisonic Products Corporation was an American manufacturer and distributor of consumer electronics from the 1970s to the 1990s. Although headquartered in New York City, Unisonic outsourced its manufacturing operations to various facilities in East Asia (especially in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan). Unisonic developed"
"films, including ""Killer Instinct"", ""Watchers II"", ""Time Trackers"", and ""The Drifter"", and has distributed over 144 films, including ""Avalanche Alley"", ""The Sea Wolf"", ""Humanoids from the Deep"", ""Star Hunter"", and ""Wizards of the Lost Kingdom"". New Concorde New Concorde (NC) is an American Los Angeles, California based film distribution company founded by Roger Corman. NC got its start in 1983 when Corman formed the production and distribution Concorde-New Horizons (CNH) as one of the first production companies to develop and take advantage of video as a distribution tool. The company was originally Concorde-New Horizons, which was itself created when Corman"
"Collection edition of ""Citizen Kane"" is generally credited as being the first ""Special Edition"" release to home video, and for setting the standard by which future SE discs were measured. The disc provided interviews, commentary tracks, documentaries, still photographs, and other features for historians and collectors. Despite the advantages over competing technology at the time (namely VHS and Betamax), the format does have drawbacks. The discs are heavy (weighing about 250 grams (half a pound) each), cumbersome, more prone than a VHS tape to damage if mishandled, and manufacturers did not market LD units with recording capabilities to consumers. Also,"
"their initial home-video release. In 2013, there was an incident where a kids movie (The Smurfs 2) was swapped with porn. After several calls to Redbox, they said that this was an accident. In 2017, Disney sued Redbox, accusing them for violating copyrights by allowing customers to download Disney movies such as """" and ""Beauty and the Beast"". Redbox Redbox Automated Retail LLC is an American company specializing in DVD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD and video game rentals via automated retail kiosks. Redbox kiosks feature the company's signature red color and are located at convenience stores, fast food restaurants, grocery stores,"
"and six million Coleco cartridges, and ""Mario Bros."" which sold 1.72 million Famicom cartridges. Mario (franchise) The franchise is a media franchise, published and produced by video game company Nintendo, starring the fictional Italian character Mario. It is primarily a video game franchise, with the franchise's other forms of media including several television series and a feature film. It was originally created by game designer Shigeru Miyamoto with the arcade game ""Donkey Kong"", released on July 9, 1981. The games have been developed by a variety of developers including Nintendo, Hudson Soft, and AlphaDream. Most ""Mario"" games have either been"
"repackaging of the main disc from the 70th Anniversary Edition. In the 1980s, ""Citizen Kane"" became a catalyst in the controversy over the colorization of black-and-white films. One proponent of film colorization was Ted Turner, whose Turner Entertainment Company owned the RKO library. A Turner Entertainment spokesperson initially stated that ""Citizen Kane"" would not be colorized, but in July 1988 Turner said, """"Citizen Kane?"" I'm thinking of colorizing it."" In early 1989 it was reported that two companies were producing color tests for Turner Entertainment. Criticism increased when filmmaker Henry Jaglom stated that shortly before his death Welles had implored"
"as well as new Warner titles. The deal came into effect as of January 1, 2011. In Japan, Warner Home Video had assumed Japanese home entertainment distribution of the Miramax catalog in 2012 until it expired on December 31, 2014. Warner Home Video Warner Home Video is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros., subsidiary of WarnerMedia. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video (for Warner Communications, Inc.). The company launched in the United States with twenty films on Betamax and VHS videocassettes in late 1979. The company later expanded its line to include additional titles throughout"
"Carrere Group D.A. Founded in December 1995, CARRERE is an entertainment and media company specializing in TV movies, series, feature films and animation globally. The company has also produced documentaries in the past. It created and produced such properties as Flash Gordon, The Nest, Princess Scheherazade, The 3 Wise Men, , Moby Dick, Malo Korrigan, My Dad the Rockstar, Milo, etc. and built a library of totally nearly 600 hours. It also distributed such properties as Hello Kitty, The Incredible Hulk, Bionic Woman, Sea Quest, Will and Grace, Dungeons and Dragons, Detective and Judge, Research Unit, Charley and Mimmo etc."
"In July 1987, Alfred Kahn, former Executive Vice President of Marketing at Coleco, who was credited for bringing the Cabbage Patch Kids to the Mainstream, joined the company as Vice Chairman and a Member of the Board of Directors. On December 17, 1987, LCI signed a licensing deal with Nintendo of America, Inc. to market the software products that went along with its increasingly popular gaming systems. Nintendo had already introduced The Legend of Zelda for its home video game system, a software product that went on to sell more than one million copies during the year. Some time in"
"Communications Group. Canyon Records was financially backed at 60% by Pony Inc. and at 40% by Pony's parent company Nippon Broadcasting System.. In 1982, Pony ventured into interactive content by producing personal computer game software under the name ""Ponyca"". In 1984, the company entered license agreements with major overseas companies, MGM/UA Home Video, Vestron Video International, Walt Disney Home Video and BBC Video (the company also entered license agreements with major overseas companies, RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video in 1986), and in 1985, they established offices in New York and London. In 1986, Pony signed licensing agreements with A&M Records and"
"""Citizen Kane"". RKO was also responsible for notable co-productions such as ""It's a Wonderful Life"" and ""Notorious"", and it also distributed many celebrated films by animation producer Walt Disney (from 1937 to the mid-50s) and leading independent producer Samuel Goldwyn. Maverick industrialist Howard Hughes took over RKO in 1948. After years of disarray and decline under his control, the studio was acquired by the General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955. The original RKO Pictures ceased production in 1957 and was effectively dissolved two years later. In 1981, broadcaster RKO General, the corporate heir, revived it as a production subsidiary,"
"with other players via a code. Jackbox Games Jackbox Games, Inc. (formerly Jellyvision Games, Inc.) is an American video game developer based in Chicago, Illinois, best known for the ""You Don't Know Jack"" (""YDKJ"") series of quiz-based party video games. Founded as a subsidiary of Jellyvision in 1995, the company was formerly incorporated as Jellyvision Games, until both companies formally separated in 2001. After seven years of dormancy, in 2008, Jellyvision Games was revived and rebranded Jackbox Games. Jellyvision created its division Jellyvision Games to publish numerous versions of ""You Don't Know Jack"" for personal computers from 1995 to 1998."
"enjoying considerable success in Japan since 1983. Renamed the Nintendo Entertainment System, it would claim 90% of the American video game market by 1989. The 1980s are considered to be the decade when video games achieved massive popularity. In 1980, Pac-Man was introduced to the arcades, and became one of the most popular video games of all time. Also in 1980, Game & Watch was created; it was not one of the most well known game systems, but it facilitated mini-games and was concurrent with the NES. ""Donkey Kong"", released in 1981, was a smash arcade hit and market breakthrough"
"New Concorde New Concorde (NC) is an American Los Angeles, California based film distribution company founded by Roger Corman. NC got its start in 1983 when Corman formed the production and distribution Concorde-New Horizons (CNH) as one of the first production companies to develop and take advantage of video as a distribution tool. The company was originally Concorde-New Horizons, which was itself created when Corman combined his two new companies Concorde Pictures (CP) and New Horizons Pictures in 1983. The company is now officially known as New Horizons Picture Corp. Corman founded New World Productions (NWP) in 1970, and had"
"the Republic library. The video rights, in turn, shifted from Lionsgate to Olive Films (under license from Paramount). However, both the Republic name and its logo are still being used on its in-house reissues on DVD and Blu-ray through Olive, as they remain licensed trademarks of Viacom. Republic Pictures Republic Pictures Corporation was an American motion picture production-distribution corporation in operation from 1935 to 1967, that was based in Los Angeles, California. It had studio facilities in Studio City and a movie ranch in Encino. It was best known for specializing in Westerns, serials and B films emphasizing mystery and"
"overseas distribution. Modern techniques were used to produce a pristine print for a 50th Anniversary theatrical reissue in 1991 which Paramount released for then-owner Turner Broadcasting System, which earned $1.6 million in North America. In 1955, RKO sold the American television rights to its film library, including ""Citizen Kane"", to C&C Television Corp. In 1960, television rights to the pre-1956 RKO library were acquired by United Artists. RKO kept the non-broadcast television rights to its library. In 1976, when home video was in its infancy, entrepreneur Snuff Garrett bought cassette rights to the RKO library for what United Press International"
"and the animator, Don Bluth, this material sat unused for years, eventually becoming part of the """" game in the 1990s. About 1984, Cinematronics released ""Express Delivery"" and other raster games based on a new hardware platform called the ""Cinemat System"", which was designed to be reusable with replaceable software, control panels, and cabinet artwork. About 1987, Cinematronics was acquired by Tradewest and renamed the Leland Corporation and continued to make arcade and PC game software. Tradewest was bought out by WMS in 1994 to become their console division. Cinematronics Cinematronics Incorporated was a pioneering arcade game developer that had"
"of Nintendo's most famous video games and become one of the most recognisable figures in the video game industry. In 1975, Nintendo moved into the video arcade game industry with ""EVR Race"", designed by their first game designer, Genyo Takeda, and several more games followed. Nintendo had some small success with this venture, but the release of ""Donkey Kong"" in 1981, designed by Miyamoto, changed Nintendo's fortunes dramatically. The success of the game and many licensing opportunities (such as ports on the Atari 2600, Intellivision and ColecoVision) gave Nintendo a huge boost in profit and in addition, the game also"
"rates after the days allocated are exceeded. Blockbuster LLC Blockbuster LLC, formerly Blockbuster Entertainment, Inc., and also known as Blockbuster Video or simply Blockbuster, is an American provider of home movie and video game rental services through video rental shops, DVD-by-mail, streaming, video on demand, and cinema theater. Blockbuster became internationally known throughout the 1990s. At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster employed 84,300 people worldwide, including about 58,500 in the United States and about 25,800 in other countries, and had 9,094 stores in total, with more than 4,500 of these in the US. Competition from the Netflix mail-order service, Redbox"
"Entertainment (which merged with Lionsgate in 2003). This deal later expanded to include some of Paramount's own post-1949 films, typically lesser-known or lesser-performing titles. Also, as a result of this deal, Lionsgate has released in 2007 ""triple features"" of their own library of films on DVD using the package design originated by Paramount. With Republic's folding, Lionsgate's duty has been transferred to Olive. Films from Rysher Entertainment are also distributed by PHMD due to a previous distribution deal from 1999. PHMD have developed a trademark by giving their Special Edition/Director's Cut editions different names rather than the usual ""Special Edition,"""
"On October 5, 1992, Charter changed its name to Spelling Entertainment Group Inc. and updated its NYSE ticker symbol to SP. On October 5, 1993, Blockbuster, Inc. acquired a controlling stake in Spelling Entertainment Group. On April 28, 1994, Spelling Entertainment acquired Republic Pictures for $100 million. In August 1994, a syndicated package of shows was produced by Spelling TV for Worldvision's Spelling Premiere Network. These shows included 22 episodes of ""Robin's Hoods"", 13 episodes of ""Heaven Help Us"", and 9 episodes of ""University Hospital"", ""Heaven""'s midseason replacement. On September 29, 1994, Blockbuster merged with Viacom. Blockbuster by then owned"
"success include ""Tau Ceti"" and ""Academy"". The 1984 game of the series ""Terrahawks"" was one of the first video games based on a TV show. ""Hercules"" was a re-release of a 1984 video game by Interdisc</small><br> CRL Group CRL Group plc is a defunct British video game development and publishing company. Originally CRL stood for ""Computer Rentals Limited"". It was based in King's Yard, London and run by Clem Chambers. They released a number of notable adventure games based on horror stories. ""Dracula"" and ""Frankenstein"" were rated 15 certificate by the British Board of Film Censors for their graphics depicting"
"17 June 2003 aged 84. Their first big success was ""Teen Wolf"" (1985) starring Michael J. Fox. Entertainment also released films for Empire Pictures and New World Pictures. Most notably, between 1990 and 2010, Entertainment distributed films made by New Line Cinema along with films from other independent production companies. One of the most notable series of films distributed to date is ""The Lord of the Rings"" trilogy. Beginning in 2008, Entertainment Film Distributors become The Weinstein Company's main United Kingdom distributor up until 2017. In 2010, distribution rights for New Line Cinema films in the UK and Ireland were"
"subsidiary, Konami of America, Inc. in 1982. It was during this period that Konami began expanding their video game business into the home consumer market following a brief stint releasing video games for the Atari 2600 in 1982 for the U.S. market. The company would release numerous games for the MSX home computer standard in 1983, followed by the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. Numerous Konami franchises were established during this period on both platforms, as well as the arcades, such as ""Gradius"", ""Castlevania"", ""Twin Bee"", ""Ganbare Goemon"", ""Contra"" and ""Metal Gear"". Due to the success of their NES games,"
"and scenario. Sheinberg also learned of a licensing agreement between Nintendo and Coleco, a producer of home video game consoles. Sheinberg scheduled a meeting with Coleco president Arnold Greenberg on April 27, 1982, ostensibly to discuss possible investment in Coleco. Instead, Universal admonished Greenberg for copyright infringement and threatened to sue if the ColecoVision shipped with ""Donkey Kong"" as planned. The next day, Universal telexed Coleco and Nintendo giving them 48 hours to cease marketing ""Donkey Kong"", to dispose of all ""Donkey Kong"" inventory, and to hand over all records of profits made from the game. On May 5, Greenberg"
"Lionsgate through Anchor Bay Entertainment, under The Weinstein Company, due to the Weinsteins' previous ownership of 25% of Starz Media, which was Anchor Bay's parent. Before the transaction, they were distributed by Genius Products and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Beginning in 2008, Dimension introduced the ""Dimension Extreme"" label, which released primarily international and indie horror titles on DVD. Dimension Films Dimension Films is an American film production company and independent film distribution label formerly owned by The Walt Disney Studios and The Weinstein Company and now owned by Lantern Entertainment. It was formerly used as Bob and Harvey Weinstein's label"
"8-bit, 1984), focuses on traversing all of the platforms in the level, or collecting scattered objects, instead of climbing to the top. There were so many games with multiple ladder and platforms stages by 1983 that ""Electronic Games"" described Nintendo's own ""Popeye"" game as ""yet another variation of a theme that's become all too familiar since the success of ""Donkey Kong"""". That year Sega released a ""Donkey Kong"" clone called ""Congo Bongo"" in arcades. Although using isometric perspective, the structure and gameplay are similar. In April , Sid Sheinberg, a seasoned lawyer and president of MCA and Universal City Studios,"