picture distribution founded 1956 founder bryant haliday cyrus harvey jr. headquarters new york city new york usa key people saul j. turell william j. becker revenue 6.1 million usd 2007 website www.janusfilms.com janus films is a film distribution company . the distributor is credited with introducing numerous films now considered masterpieces of world cinema to american audiences including the films of michelangelo antonioni sergei eisenstein ingmar bergman federico fellini akira kurosawa fran ois truffaut yasujir ozu and many other well regarded directors . ingmar bergman s the seventh seal 1957 was the film responsible for the company s initial growth . 1 janus has a close relationship with the criterion collection regarding the release of its films on dvd and is still an active theatrical distributor . the company s name and logo come from janus the two faced roman god . contents 1 history 2 recent releases 3 references 4 external links history edit janus films was founded in 1956 by bryant haliday and cyrus harvey jr. in the historic brattle theater a harvard square landmark in cambridge massachusetts . prior to the conception of janus haliday and harvey began screening both foreign and american films at the brattle and proceeded to regularly fill the 300 seat venue . having purchased the theater haliday together with harvey converted the brattle into a popular movie house for the showing of art films . 2 perceiving potential in the film business haliday and harvey moved into the new york city market and commenced running the 55th street playhouse . janus films was subsequently launched in march 1956 and the playhouse was used as the primary location for exhibiting janus distributed films . the two owners eventually sold janus films in 1965 following a decline in the american art film market 3 and in 1966 haliday also sold the brattle whilst harvey continued to manage the theater into the 1970s . janus was later acquired by saul j. turell and william j. becker . their sons jonathan b. turell and peter becker who also own the criterion collection are still involved in the business with turell serving as company director in 2006 . 3 recent releases edit on october 24 2006 in celebration of 50 years of business the criterion collection released 50 of the films that janus distributed in a large boxset containing 50 dvds and a 200 page essay on the history of art house films . the package was called essential art house 50 years of janus films . a.o. scott chose the set as his dvd pick when he co hosted at the movies with ebert & roeper . as part of its 44th festival in 2006 the new york film festival presented a series called 50 years of janus films a tribute to the company . in 2009 janus films released revanche its first first run theatrical release in 30 years . then in 2010 janus acquired domestic theatrical and home video rights to the charlie chaplin library under license from the chaplin estate and worldwide distribution agent mk2 . the criterion division handles the chaplin library for re issue on dvd and blu ray in addition to theatrical release . janus also currently manages part of the caidin film company library for westchester films and the faces distribution john cassavetes library for jumer productions both companies successors in interest to castle hill productions . references edit roger fristoe 2012 . introduction to janus films 50th anniversary . tcm turner classic movies . turner entertainment networks inc. a time warner company . retrieved 26 april 2012 . a history of janus films . brattle theater . brattle film foundation . 2001 2007 . retrieved 26 april 2012 . a b andrea shea 3 november 2006 . janus films the face of art and foreign film . npr . npr . retrieved 26 april 2012 . external links edit janus films homepage janus films the face of art and foreign film v t e the criterion collection lists of releases dvd and blu ray eclipse dvds laserdisc related topics janus films voyager company eclipse retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title janus films & oldid 741836964 categories film distributors of the united statesentertainment companies based in new yorkcompanies based in new york cityentertainment companies established in 19561956 establishments in massachusettsprivately held companies based in new york navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages portugu s edit links this page was last modified on 29 september 2016 at 23 49 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view