Criterion Collection Sale! Save Up To 50% On 4K Blu-rays, DVDs and More

If you’ve spent any time on Film Twitter or YouTube, you’ve likely seen one of your favorite celebrities enter the Criterion Closet, which is full of DVDs of films that have been added to the Criterion Collection since its inception in 1984.

Michael Shannon was one of the most recent to pick through the Criterion Closet (quickly becoming a TikTok meme in the process), which he called “one of the most amazing assemblages of film [he’s] ever seen.” Even though we’re just scrolling through the online shop, we’d have to agree with him.

Twice a year, Criterion holds a big sale where nearly all of their DVDs, Blu-rays, and 4K UHD Blu-rays are 50% off — which means, at most, you’ll pay $25 for a restored version of an “important classic or contemporary film.”

But it’s not just a disc. All Criterion DVDs include exclusive bonus features like behind-the-scenes documentaries, commentaries, supplemental material, exclusive essays, and more. The bonus contents vary per title, so we recommend checking out what exactly comes with the titles you’re considering purchasing. Still, no matter what it is, there is no doubt it will enrich the experience of watching the film.

Below, we’ve rounded up some of the movies included in the Criterion sale, from Team Decider favorites to films newly added to the collection to classics by auteur filmmakers.

1. After Hours (4K UHD + Blu-ray), $25, original price: $50

   Martin Scorsese’s cult classic from 1984 is in 4K and Blu-ray for the first time as one of the most recent movies to be inducted into the Criterion Collection. In the film, Paul (Griffin Dunne) ventures downtown in NYC for a hookup and begins what turns out to be one of the wildest nights of his life.

   If you’re looking for more Scorsese titles in the Criterion Collection, you can get Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, Raging Bull, The Irishman, The Last Waltz, The Age of Innocence, and The Last Temptation of Christ all for 50% off during the sale.

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2. Rushmore (Blu-ray), $20, original price: $40

   Some things never change, like Jason Schwartzman acting in Wes Anderson movies. The recent Asteroid City is their ninth collaboration, but right now, you can get a Criterion Blu-ray of their first collab (which was also Schwartzman’s acting debut), Rushmore.

   Other Wes Anderson titles in the Collection available for 50% off right now include The Grand Budapest Hotel, Bottle Rocket, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Darjeerling Limited, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and The Royal Tennenbaums.

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3. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Blu-ray), $20, original price: $40

   This 2019 French-language film from Céline Sciamma was a new addition to this year’s updated critics’ Sight and Sound poll — it’s ranked as the 30th greatest movie of all time there. The LGBTQ+ historical drama follows Marianne (Noémie Merlant), a painter discovering growing feelings for the subject she’s assigned to paint a wedding portrait for, Héloïse (Adele Haènel).

   Sciamma’s follow-up film Petit Maman is also available as part of the collection.

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4. The Before Trilogy (Blu-ray), $50, original price: $100

   Set over the course of nearly two decades, this set collects Richard Linklater’s three Before films: Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight. All three star Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as Jesse and Celine, whose relationship evolves over the course of the trilogy as they meet as young twentysomethings, then again as disillusioned middle-aged people.

   Other Linklater films on sale as part of the Criterion Collection are Boyhood, Dazed and Confused, and Slacker.

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5. It Happened One Night (Blu-ray), $20, original price: $40

   Named as one of Team Decider’s favorite rom-coms, Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night is also on the AFI 100 Years… 100 Movies list of all-time greats. The 1934 film, which stars Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable, features a lot of hallmarks of the rom-com genre.

   Capra’s Arsenic and Old Lace is also part of the Criterion Collection.

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6. The Power of the Dog (4K UHD + Blu-ray), $25, original price: $50

   As a Netflix original movie, Criterion is the only way to own a physical copy of The Power of the Dog, and right now, you can get 50% off the 4K Blu-ray. Jane Campion took home the Academy Award for Best Director for the psychological drama, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a cattle rancher who torments his brother’s new wife and her son until the possibility of love arises.

   Campion has three other films in the Criterion Collection: The Piano, Sweetie, and An Angel at My Table.

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7. In the Mood for Love (4K UHD + Blu-ray), $25, original price: $50

   Celebrated Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai’s melancholy romance stars Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung as neighbors who discover their spouses are having an affair with each other.

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8. Girlfriends (Blu-ray), $20, original price: $40

   Girlfriends follows Susan, adrift in life and love after her best friend Anne moves out to get married. It’s a 1970s take on feminism and friendship in New York City that feels particularly relevant for fans of Greta Gerwig‘s early work.

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9. WALL-E (4K UHD + Blu-ray), $25, original price: $50

   There are seven animated movies in the Criterion Collection — just seven in a collection of thousands! But one of those seven is WALL-E, the first Disney/Pixar movie to be inducted into the group. Andrew Stanton’s masterwork is a science-fiction love story between two robots set in a dystopian era. It begins as a nearly-silent film, and is also the first Pixar movie to incorporate live-action actors (the late, great Fred Willard) into the animation.

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10. Small Axe (4K UHD + Blu-ray), $50, original price: $100

    In 2020, director Steve McQueen released an anthology of five films that tell stories about London’s West Indian community from the 1960s to the 1980s. Mangrove, Lovers’ Rock, Red, White, and Blue, Alex Wheatle, and Education are collectively known as Small Axe, and all five films have been released as part of the Criterion Collection. Having aired in America exclusively on Prime Video, this is the only way to own a physical copy of Small Axe.

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11. Y tu mamá también (Blu-ray), $20, original price: $40

    Alfonso Cuaron’s road comedy from 2001 helped launch the international careers of lead actors Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal. The two starred as teenage best friends who take a summer road trip with a woman in her late twenties, set against political and economic unrest in Mexico.

    You can also get another Cuaron film, Roma, as part of the Criterion sale on Amazon.

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12. Mulholland Dr. (4K UHD + Blu-ray), $25, original price: $50

    Set in a dreamlike Los Angeles, David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. follows Rita, a woman left with amnesia after a car crash, who meets a “wholesome Midwestern blonde,” and the two attempt to piece together Rita’s true identity.

    Lynch has six other films in the Criterion Collection: The Elephant Man, Inland Empire, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, and Lost Highway. There’s also a documentary about the filmmaker, David Lynch: The Art Life.

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13. The Watermelon Woman (Blu-ray), $20, original price: $40

    The Watermelon Woman is another new July addition to the Collection. The first feature film by a Black lesbian filmmaker, director Cheryl Dunye also stars as Cheryl, a young Black lesbian who works at a video store while trying to make her first documentary about an actress from the 1930s known for playing stereotypical “mammy” roles in film.

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14. Parasite (Blu-ray), $20, original price: $40

    Bong Joon-Ho took home four Academy Awards in 2020 for Parasite: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Foreign Language Film (in doing this, it became the first Best Foreign Language Film winner to win Best Picture). The film follows a poor family in South Korea scheming to become employed by a wealthier family.

    Two more films from Joon-Ho’s filmography are available in the Criterion sale: Okja and Memories of Murder.

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15. Frances Ha (Blu-ray), $20, original price: $40

    The second collaboration between screenwriters and directors Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig is Frances Ha, which Baumbach directed from a script he co-wrote with Gerwig, who stars as Frances. Entirely in black and white, Frances Ha follows Frances, a dancer in her late twenties, trying to sort out her life in the aftermath of her best friend and roommate moving away. It also features another Baumbach regular, Adam Driver.

    During the sale, you can also save on three other Baumbach films: Marriage Story, The Squid and the Whale, and Kicking and Screaming.

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