Well someone in the business could give a better answer than this one, but I think it just depends on which studio (or individual) owns the rights to the movie. They decide the answers to all those questions.
As for African Queen, you are correct, there is no official DVD out in R1, but since it airs on TV so often I never really noticed that. The studio Paramount is restoring it and will release it in the near future – probably even in BluRay format since it is quite a popular title and has not been available since VHS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_African_Queen
Oops double posted – I’m so trigger happy!
cole roulain
I was wondering if there is anyone out there that could enlighten us on how the process of DVD releasing works, specifically older/classic titles. how do titles get selected? who selects them? how long does the process take from proposing a title until it sits on our store shelves? does public demand for a title have any serious effect? that sort of thing.
I was thinking about “the african queen” and similar titles. obviously, these studios have released titles from the same era. the estates of the parties involved have released other titles. what keeps these films off of DVD? any insight is appeciated.