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Originally Posted by Baseball Fury  Yep! Every single release Criterion have ever put out is locked to A for blu-ray, irrespective if other companies have released it region free or not. They also refuse to ship cross-region from their online store. They occasionally release a Region 0 DVD, but it's a rarity. |
This and this - Black Narcissus is a case in point. ITV put out a region free blu, while Criterion locked theirs. I don't doubt that in the majority of cases, Criterion has to lock due to requests by the rights' owners, but the fact that they have not put out one region free blu says it all - they cannot be bothered.
And dare I say it, but Criterion really is the play it safe label. It puts out the well known titles, puts out a few blockbusters to act as cash cows (fair enough!), and the few titles it does take a chance on - well, Tiny Furniture anyone?
One thing I will give it props for though, is the Eclipse boxset range. There have been some superb choices there - it's just a shame Criterion does not treat these titles with the due reverence that it's treated some of the more well known releases.