Guide to Toho Film/TV Distributors

For the discussion of Toho DVDs, Blu-Rays, CDs, streaming services, VHS, and other formats where Toho films and soundtracks can be found.
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BabyG1975
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by BabyG1975 »

According to a recent chat I had with August Ragone, TOHO may not own all the English cuts we believe they do.

Classic Media now DreamWorks Classics OWNS the rights to the English versions of:

• Gojira/Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1954/56)
• Godzilla: Raids Again/Gigantis: The Fire Monster (1955/59)
• Mothra vs Godzilla/Godzilla vs The Thing (1964)
• Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster (1964)
• Invasion of Astro-Monster/Godzilla vs Monster Zero (1965/70)
• All Monsters-Attack/Godzilla's Revenge (1969/71)
• Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975/77)

These were all eventually bought by UPA either from TOHO or Henry G. Saperstein and when UPA went out of business Classic Media aquired their library and when Classic Media was bought out by DreamWorks then it was turned into DreamWorks Classics owned by Universal. This is why Criterion does not include those cuts/versions on their set. TOHO does not own those versions.

Universal owns:

• King Kong vs Godzilla (1962/63)

This was a deal made by TOHO and Universal that Universal owns the rights to the film indefinitely. But this also means that Universal owns majority of the Shòwa era.

MGM owns these cuts:

• Destroy All Monsters (1969)
• Godzilla vs The Smog Monster (1972)

All he answered for was "Destroy All Monsters" and "Godzilla vs The Smog Monster" but the rest worked on by AIP which was aquired by Filmways who was then bought by Orion Pictures which was bought by MGM.

These ARE the AIP dubs/cuts of the films so that's how TOHO can still license out the international versions/Japanese versions.


And finally CinamaShares:

• Godzilla on Monster Island (1977)
• Godzilla vs Megalon (1976)
• Godzilla vs The Cosmic Monster/Godzilla vs The Bionic Monster (1977)

These are presumably all in public domain... These cuts but, since they use the international dub and are cuts of films already released that's how they stay out of multiple distributers.

That's the standings for the Shòwa era now what about Heisei and Millennium?

Miramax owns:

• Godzilla vs Biollante (1989)

Toho owns:

• The Return of Godzilla (1984)
• Godzilla vs King Ghidorah (1991)
• Godzilla vs Mothra/Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth (1992)
• Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 2 (1993)
• Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla (1994)
• Godzilla vs Destroyah (1995)
• Godzilla Mellinium/Godzilla 2000 (1999/00)
• Godzilla X Megaguirus/ Godzilla vs Megaguirus (2000)
• Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
• Godzilla X Mechagodzilla/Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)
• Godzilla, Mothra, Mechagodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S./ Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)
• Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

All of these have been licensed out to either Kraken Releasing (1984) or Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (91-04).

Sony owns:

• Godzilla (1998)

It was produced by Sony so Sony owns it.

And that's all of the classic Godzilla movies... So it is apparently true that Toho does not own the "English" cuts to the Shòwa era but wait.... What about 1985?

Anchor Bay was the last ones to own Godzilla 1985 but for the last 10 years them and Toho have been battling it out on who owns that cut so it's standings are in question.

So the reason that the Criterion set that's coming out in approximately 6 days does not include the English cuts for the Shòwa films is because that is more licensing for them to pay for. Maybe down the road they may come back to the Shòwa era and do what I would dub as "The Ultimate Godzilla Set" including the alternate cuts and dubs but that's purely speculation.
Last edited by BabyG1975 on Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:21 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by Terasawa »

BabyG1975 wrote:According to a recent chat I had with August Ragone
Honestly, there's your problem.
MGM owns these cuts:

• Godzilla vs The Sea Monster (1968)
• Son of Godzilla (1969)
• Destroy All Monsters (1969)
• Godzilla vs The Smog Monster (1972)

All he answered for was "Destroy All Monsters" and "Godzilla vs The Smog Monster" but the rest was released by AIP which was aquired by Filmways who was then bought by Orion Pictures which was bought by MGM so it's more than likely that they own the rest too.

These ARE the AIP dubs/cuts of the films so that's how TOHO can still license out the international versions/Japanese versions.
This is untrue. For one, neither Sea Monster nor Son of Godzilla were ever released by AIP. It was Walter-Reade Organization; they were eventually folded into Alan Enterprises in the '70s or '80s.

He may have meant that MGM owns elements for DAM and Smog Monster, but surely they do not own the versions they produced outright. This has been refuted many times by Ed Godzisewski, Keith Aiken, etc. over the last decade or more. These guys worked on releases of these films; Ed was adamant that the version of DAM that was pulled by Media Blasters was not because of legal issues concerning the AIP version of the film. August can be a credible source, sometimes, but he hasn't worked nearly as directly with the companies or Toho on these releases in the same capacity
that Ed, Keith, Bob Johnson, etc. have. Also: Keith Aiken has several times stated that he's viewed AIP contracts, especially in relation to Smog Monster: AIP was instructed to return the films to Toho or destroy what they had. In fact, Keith has also said that Toho has a decrepit 16mm print of Smog. Why would they if they didn't legally own that version?

I hope Hierophant chimes in about this.

Edit: I see you also mentioned Toho doesn’t own the English versions of MZ or TOMG. Also false: both English dubs will be on the upcoming Criterion set. TOMG was dubbed in Hong Kong with Toho (not UPA) as the client. MZ/IOAM was an American-produced dub that Toho has basically “adopted.”
Last edited by Terasawa on Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by Tamura »

Toho has a print of the US version of Ghidorah. It played the Egyptian years ago. Was this an unauthorized screening?

Toho has released the US versions of Mothra vs. Godzilla and War of the Gargantuas on VHS and DVD. Were these releases unauthorized?
Last edited by Tamura on Fri Oct 25, 2019 4:45 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by BabyG1975 »

UPDATE: earlier when I checked back through my notes I noticed that he did not mention Walter-Reade Organization's cuts of SoG or GvTSM and I see somebody brought that up I apologise this has been fixed.

Also I am referring to the English cuts of ToM and MZ you are very much correct that they were the Hong Kong dubs but the cuts are different.

You are right those dubs are on the Criterion set. But not the English cuts.
Last edited by BabyG1975 on Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by Terasawa »

BabyG1975 wrote:You are right those dubs are on the Criterion set. But not the English cuts.
But you can’t infer “Toho doesn’t have the rights” just because individual edits of films aren’t present in this box set.

There is no evidence that supports the claim that Toho doesn’t control rights to American-produced audio or edits of its films. It’s all speculation. As I mentioned, this idea has been clearly refuted by individuals that have worked in close proximity with Toho on projects in the recent past, including Keith Aiken and Ed Godziszewski.

Btw Monster Zero was dubbed in Hollywood, not Hong Kong.
Last edited by Terasawa on Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by BabyG1975 »

My bad, but referring to the American edits and dubs this is what I was told if you can link something that Keith, Ed or anyone creditable said I most definitely would love to see it. I know most places I see they say that Toho does own each cut all except for King Kong vs Godzilla and Godzilla vs Biollante plus that rights issue with 85's soundtrack. But like I said this is according to what August said. But if you can point me in the right direction for quotes on that other stuff I most definitely would love that.
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by Terasawa »

BabyG1975 wrote:My bad, but referring to the American edits and dubs this is what I was told if you can link something that Keith, Ed or anyone creditable said I most definitely would love to see it. I know most places I see they say that Toho does own each cut all except for King Kong vs Godzilla and Godzilla vs Biollante plus that rights issue with 85's soundtrack. But like I said this is according to what August said. But if you can point me in the right direction for quotes on that other stuff I most definitely would love that.
Tons of relevant quotes here.

Here’s Aiken on the KaijuCast podcast, only a few months ago, reiterating some of that as well.
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by BabyG1975 »

Ok so I've read through the monster zero thread and I'll listen to the podcast tommorow. I really hope that what Keith and Ed both said are 100% accurate (which I don't doubt). And in that case I'm slightly preturbed with Toho due to the fact that they can do what they want with those cuts. I still firmly think that the Criterion set isn't as good as it should have been. It's something that had it been released by Mill Creek or Arrow I wouldn't be upset but it's Criterion. Now I wish in the future we receive a "Ultimate Godzilla Set" for the Shòwa era that includes the alternate dubs/cuts and just make it like a one time deal... Let these cuts see the light of day once and then they can return to the vault. I know it states that some may be gone but I'd argue you can find some print of each film and digitally restore it.
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by Great Hierophant »

One should be careful about painting film ownership with too broad a brush. Due to different contracts, different companies had different rights to films at different times. Generally speaking, Toho has seemingly preferred long-term distribution rights for its films.

One one extreme, you have King Kong v. Godzilla and King Kong Escapes where Universal was able to arrange an exclusive right to distribution these films, in their U.S. versions, within the English-speaking countries in perpetuity. Sony probably has similar rights to its version of Godzilla 2000.

On the other extreme, you have films like Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster where the distribution rights are acquired by one company for a period of time, then when those rights expire, they are later acquired by another distributor. I believe that Sony's dominance of the Heisei and Millenium eras is a little above this in that they seem to acquire these films in package deals or were able to add newer films to the package, so their rights to all these films expires at once, rather than by the date they acquired the initial license. For Biollante, I remember that Miramax obtained home media and broadcast rights and the film was shown on HBO, but more recent broadcast sightings have been rather few.

Did Miramax obtain the perpetual distribution rights to Biollante, or did they just have an option to renew which they exercised regularly? Their Blu-ray seems to indicate that they do have the permanent distribution rights, there is no copyright attributable to Toho on the box like there is none on the Universal Blu-ray of the Kong films, nor do they display those silly monster identification logos (which of Toho's trademarked monsters are in each feature). But if you look at the VHS box, there is copyright attributed to Toho despite the Miramax credit.

The "Saperstein/UPA legacy films" present an unusual situation. What rights Saperstein and UPA had to these films may never be known with exactitude, but their rights straddled a long span of home video and public broadcasting history. We know that Saperstein had direct involvement in the production of Monster Zero, Frankenstein Conquers the World and War of the Gargantuas, but FCTW was never included in the Paramount/Simitar/Classic Media VHS & DVD releases. (I believe his financial contribution was paying Nick Adams and Russ Tamblyn's salaries). Moreover, GRA and Ghidorah only became part of the Classic Media library for their second series of DVD releases and were released someone other than Paramount in the VHS era.
Last edited by Great Hierophant on Sat Oct 26, 2019 9:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by mikelcho »

I think that you should put in Ringu and Ringu Collection from Arrow Video.

Also, the entries for Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah and Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth should both say "the Godzilla vs, King Ghidorah/Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth double feature Blu-ray from Sony".
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

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Their Blu-ray seems to indicate that they do have the permanent distribution rights, there is no copyright attributable to Toho on the box
You're correct there but I looked at my 2014 Lionsgate Blu-ray and it has the character logos AND it says and I quote
"© 1989 TOHO CO., LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ENGLISH VERSIONS © 1989, 2012 TOHO CO., LTD ALL RIGHTS RESERVED"

To me that kinda seems like they may not own it. But what do I know.
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by Great Hierophant »

BabyG1975 wrote:
Their Blu-ray seems to indicate that they do have the permanent distribution rights, there is no copyright attributable to Toho on the box
You're correct there but I looked at my 2014 Lionsgate Blu-ray and it has the character logos AND it says and I quote
"© 1989 TOHO CO., LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ENGLISH VERSIONS © 1989, 2012 TOHO CO., LTD ALL RIGHTS RESERVED"

To me that kinda seems like they may not own it. But what do I know.
Good checking, I do not have the Lionsgate release, I have the Echo Bridge release which was from 2012. Toho has offered lengthy (twenty-years for Godzilla Raids Again) distribution deals on its films in the past, so Miramax may only needed to have one renewal.

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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

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If you think about it what you brought up a 20 year deal (which back then made sense) that would end in 2009 then a renewal nowadays is 5 years so that would end in 2014. The timing fits.
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by Tohosaurus »

Added the new Criterion set to the associated movies! Is the Classic Media DVD box set out of print? Does anyone know?

I need to comb through the less popular movies on here to see what may be out of print too
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

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Its been out of print since 2014 I believe
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by MaxRebo320 »

Japan's Longest Day and Red Lion are definitely out of print now.
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by Joseph Goodman »

Paramount acquires stake in Miramax, exclusive distribution rights to Miramax library:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/n ... on-1252722

Whatever rights Miramax still has on Biollante (if any) are Paramount's now.

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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by UltramanGoji »

How does Paramount do with catalog titles?
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by Terasawa »

I think they generally sublicense.
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Re: Guide to Toho Film Distributors

Post by Joseph Goodman »

It's strange; for the longest time they wouldn't sublicense anything that had already been released on DVD. This appears to be changing now, with Shout! Factory making a deal, and others negotiating.

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