Rodney D'Armand

I can't understand why films should be available on DVD overseas but not in the US.

I'm not talking about foreign-made art films, either, but films that are either American-made or, if foreign, have a significant following in this country.

I keep tabs on projected releases, and am finding that films that are already released in other markets (Britain, Australia) are not yet scheduled for release in the US at all.

Can someone tell me the reasons for this? Thanks.

Cartload

I don't know any specific reasons, but I imagine it has to do with rights issues or maybe said movie isn't high on the priority list for DVD release.

Samuel

I think it 's done like this to encourage bootleggers.

Dragonslayer

Part of the reasoning was that Films are not released for their theatrical run in every country in the world at the same time. So the Region concept was developed to prevent people in say Germany (R2) from importing the R1 DVD of a film that had not had its theatrical run in Germany yet, & possibly killing the theatre attendance. Of course in this "perfect" world there would be no multi-regional DVD players to defeat the Region concept.

calhoun07

New movies like 28 Days Later and Bend It Like Beckham I fully understand, but catalogue titles and TV shows have no excuse, IMO. Both should hit the same sides of the pond at the same time. But they don't, and that's why I have a Malata DVD player.

Squirrel God

It's the same for us Brits too you know. There's loads of stuff available in the US that isn't available or even scheduled for release over here when there is a huge market for it.

In actual fact, you guys have a much larger DVD catalogue to us, so I could tell you to quit your whinging

No wonder I import so many Region 1 DVDs....

gutwrencher

it was like that with music for years, and still is....importing them is no big deal. actually, it's kinda cool for collectors. get a region free player and enjoy instead of going without.