Should We Worry About Criterion Collection's Sale?
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
Some news that has surprisingly been under-discussed this past week since it was initially reported on is the sudden sale of Criterion and Janus Films to Indian Paintbrush founder Steven Rales: an action that shouldn’t be all too surprising given the 2022 mass layoffs as an attempt to help the coveted company stay afloat post-pandemic woes and in the midst of an economic crisis. The Criterion Collection is one of the most respected and adored companies in film best known for their preserving, remastering, and reintroducing of classic, international, experimental, independent, and obscure films; in recent years, Criterion has catered to well known titles and contemporary releases to widen their audience. Criterion was once a LaserDisc company that catered to all kinds of releases (even the biggest blockbusters of the time) back in 1984 before pivoting to DVDs, Blu-rays, and — as of the last few years — 4k releases, so it goes without saying that Criterion is no stranger to adapting to change and adversity. Janus Films is a distribution company stemming back from 1956 once responsible for introducing world cinema to the masses (with Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal being a breakthrough film for the company). Janus Films has had a strong relationship with Criterion since the latter created a massive box-set release to commemorate the fifty year mark of the former’s existence.
Now both Criterion and Janus Films find themselves in the hands of Rales, best known for the production company Indian Paintbrush (who are best known for their independent films and their heavy affiliations with auteur Wes Anderson, who has a number of films in the Criterion Collection). Rales’ seven billion dollar fortune comes from the Danaher Corporation, founded with his brother Mitchell Rales. Danaher is a conglomerate known for its acquisitions, which makes sense given the move Steven Rales is making here (mind you, the purchase is by Rales himself and not in affiliation with either Danaher or Indian Paintbrush). Even though not much has been said about the private acquisition, Peter Becker, president of both Criterion and Janus Films, has expressed enthusiasm for the opportunities that now arise after this purchase and claims that the mission and leadership will remain as is.
With all of this preamble, we now get to the question: should we be worried about this sale? It was quiet enough to feel a little out of left-field, as if cinephiles were being bamboozled by this decision. It’s hard not to feel concerned given the similar bastardizations of companies of yesteryear who were bought out, promised to remain true to original modus operandi, and have backslided in disappointing ways, and this happens in the arts and entertainment realms so frequently. From Blizzard Entertainment to Pitchfork Media and many more (I don’t want to be here all day), we’ve seen trustworthy and honourable names in both art and entertainment become the very things they set out to stop.
The good news is that Rales appears to be an ally to film. Indian Paintbrush has never reneged on what it set out to accomplish and has stuck to its guns, with the company’s first Academy Award win arriving this year (in the form of The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar for Best Live Action Short Film). Rales also has money coming in from many other avenues, including being a partial stakeholder in the Indiana Pacers NBA team (a completely different venture for him, and one that — similarly — appears to have hard work put into it, with the team reaching the eastern conference finals of this year’s playoffs, despite being swept by the Boston Celtics due to injuries and fourth quarter slippage, but the point is that the Pacers have life breathed into them again). Like you probably are, I’m always going to be cautious of purchases of beloved properties like this because I can no longer blindly trust billionaire individuals and companies who promise to keep things as they are and reneging time and time again.
Without trying to be naive, something about this purchase feels a little different. With the little information I have to go off of, Rales’ purchase is indicative of two major reasons. Firstly, Criterion — despite their successes — needs the help. You don’t just lay off twenty percent of a company if you are in the black, no matter how well your flash sales are going (you should take note of the upped frequency of sales by the company, as a thirty percent, multi day sale just concluded at the end of May: a kind of sale that wouldn’t have existed a few years ago). Criterion is being transparent but not desperate about their clear issues, as they stick to releasing their usual run of titles while slowly incorporating films and moves that will help them fair better financially. We can’t pretend that Criterion is stable and unstoppable right now during a time where all things arts based are hurting, and so Rales’ purchase not being at the height of Criterion and Janus Films’ success means that such a move was necessary before matters got truly bad and irreversible. Believe me, the sale could have been to a far more nefarious person or company.
Secondly, film appears to be a side hobby of interest for Rales and not a primary source of focus. It doesn’t feel like he is trying to takeover all things cinema in some sort of monopolizing sort of way, which is something we see time and time again (imagine if, say, Disney bought Criterion and Janus). If anything, I can only assume that all of the correspondence Indian Paintbrush has had with Criterion to release a half-dozen Wes Anderson films means that there is some trust and faith in the relationship from both sides. If you see this as an excuse for Rales to try and force Indian Paintbrush titles into the collection, you’re not going to be getting much outside of the Anderson films we already have (and the couple of outstanding titles) outside of some other films by beloved directors like Park Chan-wook’s Stoker, the Duplass brothers’ Jeff, Who Lives at Home, Danny Boyle’s Trance, or Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Let’s pretend that this was the endgame: to shove Indian Paintbrush films into the collection and down our throats. There are so few that aren’t Wes Anderson titles, and, at their very worst, they are harmless and so-so (but some of these other works are quite something). I hardly think that they will affect the pool of what comes out of the Criterion Collection.
Either Rales will try to keep these companies separate, or — given the recent ramping-up of output by Indian Paintbrush — make them work together; maybe Indian Paintbrush and Janus Films will have a production-distribution tandem, while Criterion is left alone to do what it does best. It’s tough to say what is going to happen from this point on, but the assuring news is that this doesn’t seem like a malicious takeover or one driven by greed. If anything, Rales’ purchase was either to help friends out or to further his own obsession with film (and it’s a very genuine one: the kind that leads me to believe that he won’t want to destroy art in the name of profit). It’ll be impossible to not feel a bit concerned about any major shifts with a company we all love and cherish, but this may very well be as scot-free as such a maneuver can be. It was clearly going to happen because Criterion and Janus Films needed the help, and so let it be via a cinephile who clearly has the means and the passion, and doesn’t appear to have hidden agendas, rather than a conglomerate or mogul who only saw dollar signs and didn’t care about the integrity of what we love at all.
What happens next is that we pay close attention to new Criterion announcement titles, see if there’s any progress on those Janus Contemporary releases (which somewhat began as a surprise and have been releasing more films ever so slowly ever since), and take note of any business related moves afterwards (layoffs, shifts in power, even mass hiring). As it stands, we’re being assured that nothing will change after this acquisition (to be fair, it’s already been ten days since it was reported, and no major developments have taken place that we know of, but, then again, Rome wasn’t built in a day), but we shall see. I’d say let’s scrutinize until the upcoming flash sale (the second of the year usually takes place during autumn) to see if there are any major differences, if any of the newly announced films or box-sets feel out of place, and the like. If Janus Films is releasing works entirely out of its wheelhouse or Criterion is losing its prestigious touch, then we’ll know where to look first.
My problem is I never feel completely safe given what I’ve been through or seen in my near-thirty-five years on this planet, but I suppose this acquisition is as safe as I was ever going to feel about the Criterion Collection and Janus Films being purchased by someone else in their hour of need. I say don’t panic, but don’t not care, either. Even if Rales changes nothing, the sale happening at all means that both Criterion and Janus Films felt like they had no other choice. We can only hope for the best, because both companies clearly need it. My worry lays more with their struggles in general than with Rales’ purchase, and I’m wishing that this acquisition is what saves them from bankruptcy; I pray that it doesn’t render them unrecognizable, but it’s too late for that either way. I have a feeling that Criterion and Janus will be okay and remain the entities of film that we respect and love, but these first impressions of the Rales era matter the most. Let’s see what transpires.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.