UK Dvd releases are a weird thing. One moment blockbuster films like Titanic & Pulp Fiction are to be found in plentiful supply on Dvd in shops and online stores across the land and the next day they have disappeared into thin air. Then the price goes up and up and they suddenly become highly collectable.

There are many reasons that I can see for why titles are deleted. There maybe copyright issues; the manufacturer's licence for distributing the film may have elapsed; the film company may pull a title to re-release it at a later date with new packaging and new special features. By re-releasing it say 3-6 months down the line they hope to drum up more interest in the title. People tend to panic when they can no longer find a favourite Dvd and pay more for the release from 3rd party sellers that are found on auction sites and other online marketplaces.

Another reason a title is pulled is the film company may decide to release it on Blu-Ray for more money and pull the ordianary Dvd title. This was told to me by someone who worked at HMV though I have not personally come across it.

Of course, the deletion of obscurer films or world films or old films is pretty commonplace and very frustrating for buyers. Adding to the reasons above for the deletion would be that whoever owns the rights to distribute the title may have gone bust or they may simply feel that it may just not be financially viable to have more units made when their current stock has gone. That is understandable. Sales of these titles can be really poor. The figures would surprise many people, I'm sure. Just because it is in HMV or any other shop doesn't mean it actually sales.

These lack of sales were not helped by Carlton/ITV's decision to take the money from the Daily Mail when many of the British war Dvd titles were given away as a special promotion with the paper. Figures vary at how much Carlton received but I have heard from more than one source that it was above £1 million. Don't get me wrong: I love these Daily Mail releases and I think these free releases bring these films to many people who wouldn't of otherwise bought a war dvd. And the normal releases do, usually, well sometimes, have extra features (though Carlton are kind of thrifty with special features.

Distributors are notoriously slow in letting their buyers (shops and online retailers) know when titles are deleted. This means that many online stores and those selling on auction sites who prefer to order in a title only when they have a sale don't realise that what they are actually advertising something they can no longer get.

So you have to physically have a title in stock.

The titles below are deleted titles that I know of. Some of them I have in stock and a link will be next to each one I have in stock. I would also include the number of copies currently in stock.

If you know of any titles that have just been deleted please e-mail me here and I will add them to the list.

In my experience, the most requested out-of-print Dvd title is Hotel Sahara (1951) starring Peter Ustinov. Long time since I've actually seen one.

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