How the Criterion Collection is keeping physical media alive

I’ve been a physical media devotee since I was old enough to buy … well, anything. My first cassette tape: the Space Jam soundtrack. My first VHS: Goldeneye (also my first video game). My first CD: Will Smith’s Big Willie Style.

My first DVD was The Matrix–purchased after I got a PlayStation 2, my first DVD player. (I am really dating myself here.) But it was this physical media form that stuck for me. I became somewhat addicted to collecting DVDs, only pivoting away from them when I could finally afford a really good TV, which is when I started collecting Blu-Rays instead.

At some point, my collecting got hyper-focused, and I was almost exclusively purchasing Blu-Rays released by The Criterion Collection. Criterion is a distribution company that both restores and releases notable movies throughout the history of cinema and from around the world.

But these aren’t your garden variety home video releases. They’re loaded with thoughtfully curated special features. They’re released with beautiful, often original artwork and sometimes 100-pages-or-more booklets with essays about each movie. Some Criterion releases even come with the books their movie is based on.

I have more Criterion Collection DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4K UHD (its newest offering) releases than I care to admit in writing, but as there are signs of a physical media comeback, and with home theaters truly looking better than ever, I wanted to share some of my favorite Criterion release for your consideration. These movies are special to me, and each physical release only enhances my love for each title.

Signs of life in the physical media market

It’s been a rough decade-plus for physical media. Streaming music services replaced CDs and even devices like iPods. Netflix finally ceased its DVD rental service in 2023 and has amassed an impressive (in terms of quantity) library of original content that rarely sees the light of day as a physical product. Ditto the half dozen or so other streamers competing with them for eyeballs and monthly subscriptions.

But it’s not all doom and gloom for those who like to own proper copies of their favorite albums and films. While sales of physical albums peaked in 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reports that sales have increased every year since 2018, and 2025 was the best year on record in over a decade.

Meanwhile, when it comes to DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4K UHD sales, the Digital Entertainment Group, which has reported this data since 2011, found that what was once a sharp decline (at least 20 percent in annual sales) has leveled off. Sales declined just 9 percent in 2025, and 4K UHD sales actually increased by 12 percent after 7 consecutive years of declining sales.

The Criterion Collection is not just weathering the storm but helping lead the entire physical media industry through it. Criterion president, Peter Becker, told The Los Angeles Times earlier this year that the label is seeing “significant year-over-year increases” in sales, while Google search queries for the brand nearly doubled since 2024.

How to start your own Criterion collection (or take your collection to the next level)

The following are, in my humble opinion, must-owns not just for fans of the Criterion Collection, but for anyone who’s serious about cinema. They represent artists at the peak of their powers, telling stories that have stood the test of time. And the transfers–which are the process of taking an image from a film stock or digital file and actually placing the data on the DVD or Blu-Ray–are immaculate. Film noir shadows are more menacing. Western vistas are grander. And images from all films are maintained in the aspect ratio the filmmaker intended (unlike many streaming services).

These films also come with some of the most interesting special features I’ve come across on any home video release–from commentaries to making-of documentaries to interviews with cast, crew, and scholars.

Pop your popcorn, dim the lights, and fire one of these up on your next movie night.

The Before Trilogy

For better and worse, these are among the most romantic movies ever made, as we follow Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) as they meet (Sunrise), reconnect (Sunset), and struggle to stay connected (Midnight) over the course of nearly 20 years. The three films constitute one of the most ambitious and effective trilogies in movie history, and this box set delivers as much as you could conceivably hope for in terms of presentation and contextualization.

Along with the three films, this package includes two separate documentaries: one about the director, Richard Linklater, and the other about the making of Before Midnight. There is also an audio commentary with Linklater and the two main actors for Midnight and loads of interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of the three of them making the first two films. These are fascinating time capsules considering no one in the moment knew these characters would be revisited years later.

Stagecoach

This is a seminal film for me. Something about seeing John Wayne pull up on his horse with Monument Valley in the background stuck with me the first time I saw it about 20 years ago, and it remains a picture I revisit annually.

Criterion really breathed new life into this one, though. The version I watched in college was grainy and muddled. This Blu-Ray livens everything up with a clean image and crystal clear (or as close as you can expect considering it’s almost 90 years old) audio.

In terms of features, this one offers an entire second feature–an old silent picture from director John Ford called Bucking Broadway. There’s a cool radio dramatization of Stagecoach, which includes voice acting by Wayne. Interviews with Ford over the years and a short piece about Monument Valley on film fill out an impressive collection of supporting material.

M

I’m a sucker for German expressionist films. The harsh angles, the dramatic uses of light and darkness, and the way the stories find horror everywhere–I can’t get enough of it. And no one made better or more timeless German expressionist films than Fritz Lang. His masterpiece: M (short for “mörder,” or murderer).

This was Lang’s first film with sound, and he uses it to stage a truly frightening scene: A serial killer is targeting children in 1930s Berlin. The police are after him, as are the city’s petty criminals, who band together in the hopes that getting rid of this man will get the police to chill out a bit and let them get back to pickpocketing like gentlemen.

For years, there was no great print of M available, but several restorations over the years led to this beautiful version. All of that is chronicled in a special feature documentary. The disc also comes with a documentary about Lang by filmmaker William Friedkin (The Exorcist) and an English-language version of the film that was thought lost forever.

Barry Lyndon

Director Stanley Kubrick takes the stuffy historical drama and turns it into something only he could–a bitingly funny critique of the European nobleman. For all his castles and money and wigs (so many wigs), he is a slithering creature of little to no value.

It took Barry Lyndon a little while before it was properly reappraised. It was one of Kubrick’s somewhat forgotten titles (at least compared to his most beloved and admired films, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, and Dr. Strangelove, the latter of which also has a Criterion release).

But critics and film fans have embraced it, and this Blu-Ray gives the film’s admirers plenty of meat to chew on–most notably some really interesting interviews with the craftspeople who helped put the film together. There are some wonderful details about the way the film was edited, costumed, and shot (including that Kubrick used only natural light and leaned on lenses developed by NASA to capture his candlelit interiors.)