What DVD's were released as 2 disc (or more) sets and then taken off the market and re-released with fewer discs? Also, if you know if any material was removed and/or added, what was it?

The ones I know that went from 2 disc to 1 disc versions, but I don't know what was changed:
Gladiator
Fight Club
Moulin Rouge
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Shrek

Usually what they do is just keep the disc with the movie, and drop the "Special Features" disc.

Shrek 2-disc had a Widescreen and a Fullscreen disc. They dropped the Widescreen for the 1-disc release.

I saw single-disc versions of Blade 2 and Se7en at Best Buy.

patton
the abbyss
sound of music
big trouble in little china


patton single disc is anamorphic and the 2 disc is not

most of these are getting rereleased in 2 disc form again

Se7en was originally released back in 1998 as a one disc flipper in a snapper, so that might have been what you saw. Though there could well be a one disc version of the SE now.

Of the ones listed above, 'Patton', 'Big Trouble In Little China', 'Gladiator', 'Shrek' and 'Rocky Horror' are all OOP, the others either never went OOP or came back in print (though I've heard it said that they're only back for Best Buys; whether that's true or not, I can't say, as I already have the ones I wanted).

'Independence Day' was reissued as a one disc, and is now being re-reissued as a two disc. The one disc dropped the director's cut and a lot of doc stuff. The new two disc will have a trailer for 'Day After Tomorrow' or something like that.

'Minority Report' was reissued as a one disc, but I believe the two-disc is still in print.

They did it for 'Lawrence of Arabia' too. Initially, it was a limited edition two-disc with a bad transfer (spread over both discs) and some cool doc stuff, then they reduced it to a one disc with a slightly worse transfer, then they put it out as a two-disc Superbit (my understanding is that it's the best transfer we've seen on DVD but not yet definitive, but I may be wrong on that as I don't own the disc). 'Bridge on the River Kwai' had a two disc with extras also, where the one disc is just the movie. I don't know how in-print the old two discs are in these cases, but they're fairly readily available in my experience.

I hadn't heard of a single disc of 'Seven' or 'Blade 2', but I wouldn't put it past 'em.

cast away

Not true. Both editions are anamorphic. However, the packaging on the OOP 2-disc edition does not mention it.

Memento

No. The "limited edition" coming out soon is a 1 disc with the director's cut.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...t=independence

patton single disc is anamorphic and the 2 disc is not

Not true, as an owner of the 2-disc edition of 'Patton' I can confirm that the two-disc set is, in fact, anamorphic.

I didn't think Gladiator and Shrek went out of print, as both are still readily available and we even occasionally get new stock in on both titles at Best Buy.

They exist. The Se7en disc is particularly lame, as they went from a one-disc to a two-disc to another one-disc, though the 2-disc isn't OOP, as far as I know.

K

yea Seven first came out as a flipper, then the 2 disc edition came out, very recently there has been a 1 disc non flipper version of Seven.

Did Snatch come out as a 2 disc? because I've seen the 1 disc here and there.

Memento came out as a single disc first, then later came out as a two-disc set.

Punch-Drunk Love now has a single disc version available.

The OOP Big Trouble in Little China 2-Disc set has a DTS Track - the single disc doesn't.

Yes, Snatch was originally released as a 2-disc set.

I saw the announcement for Gladiator going OOP when I joined this forum.

They may have brought back both 2-disc sets recently, but for a while now all I've seen are the 1-disc versions.

Haven't been in a Best Buy to look for them in the last 3 months, had a bad experience with the service department.

Yes, I've heard it said that Best Buy makes special deals with studios to get OOP two-disc stuff. I've definitely heard it said on these boards that 'Abyss', 'Fight Club', and a few other of the Foxes are only back in print at Best Buys, not widely available. (I don't think it's true, as I've seen the two-disc 'Fight Club' elsewhere, but not often.)

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure that they're out of print. However, I can tell you that it was announced (here, among other places) that they would be (but other places said they wouldn't), and that they're no longer widely available as two-discs in most stores (which I suppose is arbitrary, since somebody else can just claim they are, but I know they're not available in Circuit Citys, Virgins, J+Rs, or Entertainment Outlets in NYC, or the Best Buy on 23rd St, the one I go to; I know because I was looking for both and could only find the one-disc).

Chanster - thanks for the info Re: 'Independence Day'. I had read it closely enough to know the new one had both cuts and nothing new to it, but I had thought it was a two-disc. Not that it matters *that* much, I s'pose, but I'm glad to know.

And, yeah, 'Snatch' is another two-disc which seems out-of-print, as far as I can tell.

BTW, technically, 'Manhunter' should count, right?. At first, they released a one-disc version and a two-disc with a "director's cut" (and a few other minor extras) [actually, I forget which cut was on the initial one disc; the director's cut which isn't actually the director's cut, or the theatrical cut which isn't actually the theatrical cut] then they put out a new one disc version with a corrected director's cut and a commentary track. So the one-disc was better, but the two-disc came first, and has stuff the new one doesn't.

And I guess 'Halloween' would count; its releases (if memory serves) have been:
One disc - crap
Two disc - two different cuts, plus a doc
One disc - Disc one from that
One disc - Disc two from that
Two disc - the new version, with commentary, missing the TV cut, and with the questionable transfer (I won't get into that).

And they did a similar thing with 'Army of Darkness', right down to the questionable transfer on the current disc.

The 2-disc Patton is most certainly anamorphic. It's exactly the same transfer.

And a lot of the time the single disc is NOT exactly like the 2-disc. I don't just mean in cases like "Lawrence of Arabia" either (the original had the film split across the two discs, and the re-release had the film horribly compressed down to fit on a single disc). Often times a single disc re-release will also lose extra material, like commentaries or isolated music tracks.