Criterion Spine numbers

[ed rooney]

Just browsing around on Criterion's website and noticed that the future releases have gaps in the spine numbers.

Criterion catalogue (http://www.criterionco.com/asp/browse.asp?sort=spine)

Does this mean they hold back on announcing some of their upcoming releases?

[Michael Brooke]

Yes – sometimes titles take longer to prepare than was originally foreseen.

For instance, both <I>Spartacus</I> and <I>Grand Illusion</I> were several years overdue, the latter (which was supposed to be their first DVD release – it’s number 1 in the catalogue) because they managed to get their hands on the original negative and decided to redo it from scratch.

[Narshty]

Spine numbers are assigned to titles when production on them starts - some schedules take longer than others, and Criterion are notorious for not letting stuff out till they're completely happy with it, routinely rejecting many different disc pressings from various compression houses to see who can handle it the best.