privately held company industry motion picture video production founded 1984 headquarters new york city new york u.s. 1 key people jonathan b. turell ceo 1 peter becker president 2 products laserdiscs 1984 98 dvds 1998 present blu ray discs 2008 present vod select titles 2008 present revenue us 6.1 million 2007 1 owner the voyager company 1985 97 number of employees 40 1 parent janus films divisions eclipse from the criterion collection essential art house website www.criterion.com the criterion collection 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 . 3 criterion is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for widescreen films bonus features commentary tracks and special editions for home video . contents 1 history 1.1 home vision entertainment 1.2 online ventures and marketing 2 contributions and influence 2.1 letterboxing 2.2 commentary soundtracks 2.3 special editions 2.4 film restoration 2.5 licenses 3 formats 3.1 laserdisc and dvd 3.2 video on demand services 3.3 high definition format 3.4 eclipse 4 product pricing 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit 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 founded the voyager company 4 to publish educational multimedia cd roms 1989 2000 4 5 during which time the criterion collection became a subordinate division of the voyager company . in march 1994 verlagsgruppe georg von holtzbrinck gmbh bought 20 percent of voyager for us 6.7 million ; the 4 founders each retained a 20 percent owner s share . 4 in 1997 the voyager company was dissolved aleen stein founded the organa llc cd rom publishing company and holtzbrinck publishers sold the voyager brand name 42 cd rom titles the voyager web site and associated assets to learn technologies interactive llc lti . 6 robert stein sold 42 voyager titles to lti from his voyager criterion company share . the remaining 3 partners aleen stein william becker president and jonathan turell ceo owned the criterion collection company 6 which has a business partnership with janus films and had one with home vision entertainment hve until 2005 when image entertainment bought hve . 7 on november 4 2013 it was announced that sony pictures home entertainment will now handle distribution . 8 home vision entertainment edit in 1986 charles benton founded home vision entertainment hve the home video division of public media inc. pmi which he had previously founded in 1968 . the hve company sold advertised marketed and distributed criterion collection dvds and also sold its own hve brand of dvds co produced with criterion including the merchant ivory collection 9 and the classic collection a joint venture between home vision entertainment and janus films . the latter enterprise published hve imprint films for which janus films owned the video rights but which were unavailable from the criterion collection ; however criterion published the classic collection films . in 2005 image entertainment bought hve thus it became the exclusive distributor of criterion collection products . online ventures and marketing edit the criterion collection began to provide video on demand vod in partnership with mubi formerly the auteurs in 2008 . in february 2011 criterion began switching its vod offerings exclusively to hulu plus . 10 in q3 2016 filmstruck a film streaming service from turner classic movies will succeed hulu as the exclusive streaming service for the criterion collection . 11 criterion also maintain a youtube channel with which it markets its films . one notable feature is the three reasons playlist it has produced in which the company overlays in a few words or phrases three reasons presumably why the film is worth watching or has made it into the criterion catalogue . 12 in response other users in youtube have used the three reasons format to promote their own nominations . 13 14 as of july 2016 no new three reasons video has been released by criterion since june 30 2015 . 15 on march 4 2016 british film magazine sight & sound revealed in their april 2016 issue that criterion will be expanding its releases to the united kingdom releasing the first five titles on april 18 2016 . 16 17 contributions and influence edit commercially the criterion collection video company pioneered the correct aspect ratio letterboxing presentation of movies as well as commentary soundtracks multi disc sets special editions and definitive versions . these ideas and the special features introduced by the criterion collection have been highly influential and have become de facto industry wide standards for premium home video releases . letterboxing edit with its eighth laserdisc release invasion of the body snatchers criterion introduced the letterbox format which added black bars to the top and bottom of the 4 3 standard television set in order to preserve the original aspect ratio of the film . 18 thereafter criterion made letterboxing the standard presentation for all its releases of films shot in widescreen aspect ratios . 19 commentary soundtracks edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . march 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message the criterion collection s second catalog title king kong 1933 was the debut of the scene specific audio commentary contained in a separate analog channel of the laserdisc . it featured us film historian ronald haver reporting about the production cast screenplay production design and special effects . he also is the commentator for the casablanca 1942 here comes mr. jordan 1941 singin in the rain 1952 and the wizard of oz 1939 laserdiscs . typically the chapter indexed commentaries are exclusive to the criterion releases and their initial dvd reissues ; they became collector s items when the original owner studios re issued titles previously licensed to criterion with newly produced commentary tracks or not . special editions edit the criterion collection began in 1984 with the releases of citizen kane 1941 and king kong 1933 on laserdisc the latter s source negatives courtesy of the library of congress . 20 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 21 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 . film restoration edit originally the criterion company released art genre and mainstream movies on laserdisc . for example halloween 1978 ghostbusters 1984 bram stoker s dracula 1992 armageddon 1998 and the rock 1996 . increasingly the criterion collection has focused on releasing world cinema mainstream cinema classics and critically successful obscure movies . using the best available source materials the company produced technologically improved and cleaner versions . for example the passion of joan of arc 1928 m 1931 and the children of paradise 1945 discs contain film cleaning and film restoration demonstrations comparing the restored and un restored images . licenses edit some previously licensed criterion collection titles such as rebecca 1940 are now commercially unavailable as new product and are only available in resale used form . titles such as the silence of the lambs 1991 robocop 1987 hard boiled 1992 the killer 1989 and ran 1985 became unavailable when their publishing licenses expired or when criterion published improved versions such as beauty and the beast 1946 m 1931 seven samurai 1954 and the wages of fear 1954 . as of may 2014 188 of the 384 titles 49 percent constituting the list of criterion collection laserdisc releases have been re released . 22 another example is the film charade 1963 which had become a public domain property for lacking the 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 . citation needed 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 . citation needed formats edit laserdisc and dvd edit see also list of criterion collection laserdisc releases and list of criterion collection dvd and blu ray releases the original criterion logo 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 bay s armageddon . 23 as with its laserdiscs criterion s early dvd editions of widescreen films were presented in the letterbox format but criterion did not enhance its discs for 16 9 monitors until mid 1999 with its release of insomnia 1997 catalog number 47 . 24 video on demand services edit on november 25 2008 on its web site criterion began offering video on demand vod downloading services for us 5.00 per select movie marking the beginning of a cross promotional vod service from the criterion and the auteurs web sites . 25 in early 2011 many criterion titles also became available through the hulu plus premium subscription service . 26 in q3 2016 filmstruck a film streaming service from turner classic movies will succeed hulu as the exclusive streaming service for the criterion collection . 11 high definition format edit see also list of criterion collection dvd and blu ray releases a criterion collection logotype blu ray criterion label dates from the first movies released on december 16 2008 . criterion began publishing on blu ray disc in december 2008 . 27 unlike its dvd releases which are a mixture of ntsc standard region 0 region free and region 1 dvds criterion collection blu ray discs are region a locked . eclipse edit see also eclipse company eclipse is a line started in 2007 separate from the criterion collection . it is described by criterion as a selection of lost forgotten or overshadowed classics in simple affordable editions . 28 they are sold in multi dvd sets only . product pricing edit the retail list prices for criterion collection releases typically range from us 30 to us 40 for one disc and two discs sets respectively . criterion typically releases shorter films for example night and fog 1955 below the company s usual price range . 29 janus films essential art house collection consists of janus owned criterion movies without many special features as lower cost alternatives to individual purchases of regular criterion titles . demand for out of print criterion collection releases has spawned the business of counterfeit bootleg copies often advertised as a criterion collection asian edition to disguise their bootleg nature . 24 the company s web site instructs buyers to shop carefully advises about identifying bootleg merchandise and notes that the criterion collection never published asian editions of its movie catalog . see also edit list of criterion collection dvd and blu ray releases list of criterion collection laserdisc releases list of eclipse releases references edit a b c d the criterion collection inc. from hoover s bachman justin 16 april 2014 . how hulu found a subscriber lure in obscure films . bloomberg business . bloomberg l.p. retrieved 29 july 2015 . criterion mission statement . retrieved march 30 2009 . a b c virshup amy july 1996 . the teachings of bob stein . wired . retrieved august 17 2007 . brockman john . bob stein the radical . digerati