Why are some movies never released to the public?

It is purely a question of economics :

If any vintage movie is to be re-released and marketed as a VCD or DVD, there must be a 'minimum guarantee' that at least 20,000 copies of the film-discs will be sold - for both the original producers of the movie, and the disc makers/sellers to 'break even'...

Otherwise, the entire exercise will have to be written-off as a total loss - and the unsold stocks privately disposed-of through a 'distress sale' !

...That is why certain all-time-greats from the 1930s and '40s are readily available on discs, while even some 1990's films are not !

...You could try directly contacting the films' producers (if they are still active) at their websites - and find out if they have any downloading options for the films that you wish to buy.

...A few producers will feel so happy that someone still cares to remember their long-forgotten film, that they might even present you with a custom-made DVD !

:-)

Happy hunting !

There are various reasons why companies don't release movies for the public. Probably the main reason is that the company doesn't believe that the movie would sell in stores so it wouldn't be worthwhile to spend money to produce and distribute the DVDs and pay any royalties if they are only able to sell a couple thousand copies. Another reason would be legal implications where somebody owns the rights to the movie and wants more money to release the rights than anyone is willing to pay. Then there are cases similar to how George Lucas refused to release Star Wars onto DVD until movie technology had caught up to the point where he could edit/touch up the films the way he wanted them to be.

There are a lot of 50 movie packs that have been coming out lately that contain a lot of older movies from the 30s to the 80s, so I would recommend checking them to see if they have what you are looking for. Here is a list of all the 50 movie packs available at Best Buy (they all appear to be between $20-25 and some are even cheaper on amazon.com):

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?_dyncharse...

Each link contains a list of all the movies available in each collection.

I think that a lot of the movies from the 60's were a little anti government, anti war, a lot were protest movies and someone doesn't want them released.

I could be totally wrong but I have noticed the same thing myself. It's kind of like some of the good T.V. programs that were on back then....they were taken off the air. The 60's was a very controversial time. No one dared slam the establishment , the war or the government.

I could be way off base about this, but it's something to think about. :)

Have a great day!

If the movies were never released to the public, then the rights were purchased and kept private. They won't be available to purchase or download for the very same reason. However, when I visited Rasputin Records yesterday I noticed many "B" classic movies from the 1960's I haven't seen in years. Some of these old rare movies must have finally made it from out of production videos to DVD's. They do have a web site and you can scan by genre. Check it out: http://www.thestore24.com/Movies/Dcs.aspx?DecadeMo... http://www.thestore24.com/Movies/default.aspx

Yea I agree Clint Eastwood has not made something good since Gran Torino. I'm saying this without watching J.Edgar or Hereafter. They both look like garbage. To answer your question yes I would go see a movie of my favorite director if it had bad reviews. Martin Scorcese Is my favorite director and I thought Hugo looked terrible from the trailer but when I saw it it was awesome!

Unfortuately not everything is made available to the public for any number of reasons. The only thing I can suggest is that you get in touch with the production company they may be able to put you onto a distributor or have a copy you can buy.

Good Luck.

They probably never made a enough money off of them so They did not want to make any copies or movies of it.But I know I have went to rent some that I seen on Tv and They never heard of them either.nor have I see it at the movies..The tv will always tell u when the movies will have it,but I have still not seen it on the movies or on dvd.so go figure.

There might be legal reasons that some movies are not released or it could also be someone involved in the movie(actor/director or producer) could think it might too similar to another movie and would be rejected by the public.

DVD con películas para cualquiera edad en internet, una variedad impresionante. Cualquier madre sabe que la mejor forma de tener a los niños ocupados es ponerlos los dibujos preferido y como casi todas mis DVD-s los he comprado de amazon también he comprado DVD-s con dibujos y son de la mejor calidad que podía pedir.

Sometimes the production company doesn't want to bother with them. If they aren't "cult" or really in-demand, they don't want to touch the films.