HALLOWEEN (1978) 40th Anniversary Edition | Lionsgate | Sep 24 2018

[cinescot]

Originally Posted by CouncilSpectre

The UK DVDs would undoubtedly have been released under license, the question is from where - I thought Universal, but looking at the back of the boxes it appears to be De Laurentiis. Not really sure why they'd sit with Universal in the US but De Laurentiis here though, but I'd guess it's right - you'd have to guess that if they WERE with Universal that one of the UK Boutiques would have gone after them by now...

Edit: looking more into this, the situation is as clear as mud. Looks like Sanctuary Records had the rights, which were licensed to Scanbox (who issued II on DVD) - Scanbox were then bought by High Fliers Films, who inherited the license and issued III. In the meantime Sanctuary Records were bought by Universal Music, but then later sold to BMG, who have since farmed out some of their catalogue to Warners.

All of the stuff I found about Sanctuary though, not one mention of them holding film rights or what might have happened to them.

Clear as mud.

After a bit of checking on previous releases, it seems De Laurentis productions around the era of Halloween II and III would sell the US distribution rights to one of the big studios but they would retain the worldwide distribution rights. A few of the titles are with Studio Canal here but most were released on DVD through Sanctuary, Scanbox, Castle or High Fliers. So in effect the rights to Halloween II and Halloween III are with De Laurentis in the UK. Not sure why more boutique labels have not picked up these titles although Plan B have recently released Firestarter so perhaps that is a sign that others could see a release soon.

I'm actually just about finished watching the 10 Halloween films as we approach the release of the new film (Although I realise that for the new film you only really need to watch the original). I actually had the pleasure of watching Halloween: Resurrection last night for the 1st time