CriterionCast

[Updated] Rejoice, For The Bi-Annual Criterion Collection 50% Off Sale At Barnes & Noble Is Upon Us

Well it is that time of year again. The time of year when you dust off your credit card, and head to your local Barnes & Noble (or shop on their lovely website) to invest in your future self. Every six months or so, Barnes & Noble holds a 50% off sale, and the arthouse community loses their collective shit, reinvigorating this declining economy ever so slightly, reminding us all that physical media is far from dead.

If you managed to not go too far into debt with the recent Amazon out of print sale, then I’m sure you’ll do just fine this time around with the Barnes & Noble sale. Now is the time to think about all of the incredible releases from 2011 that you might have skipped. If you need some suggestions, head back and look at our collective post, discussing our favorite releases from the first half of 2011. In a month or so we’ll likely begin our “best of 2011” posts, but by then the B&N sale will have completed.

Amazingly, it appears that this time around the fine folks at Barnes & Noble are allowing you to pre-order the upcoming December and January titles, including Godzilla (DVD or Blu-ray)! Don’t hesitate, as the next B&N sale might not happen until July of 2012.

[Update 11/1/2011 10am – It looks like the December / January (and the last week of November) titles are no longer available at 50% off. Sorry to have gotten your hopes up. Hopefully if you managed to check out with one of the titles at the discounted rate, B&N will honor the price they sold it to you at. Let us know if you hear anything from Barnes and Noble about this.]

Some titles that I’d highly recommend you pick up this time around? The Island Of Lost Souls, Kuroneko, Carlos, The Jean Vigo set, The Phantom Carriage, and on and on.

I don’t currently know of any coupon codes that you can use in addition to the 50% off discount, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any. If you find a good one, be sure to leave it in the comments below.

Remember to click on our various links if you’re heading over to B&N.com, as those sales will go to support the podcast and the website.

The sale ends November 22nd.

Ryan Gallagher

Ryan is the Editor-In-Chief / Founder of CriterionCast.com, and the host / co-founder / producer of the various podcasts here on the site. You can find his website at RyanGallagher.org, follow him on Twitter (@RyanGallagher), or send him an email: [email protected].

3 comments

  • 10% off your entire order online for non-members: B3P8E4D. Pre-orders not eligible. Ends November 9th.

  • Sad to say but it looks like the pre-orders for December and January releases are back up to regular price now. Either that was just an early-bird special that B&N gave to those who jumped on the sale immediately or somebody caught a mistake and limited the discounted pre-orders to titles that will come out within the sale’s time frame (i.e. Three Colors, Rules of the Game.)

  • yep I’ve been all over this one as a timely tax return arrived in my bank account the weekend this started. I am at 15 DVDs so far and counting although I have very few gaps to fill. the timing before has always been restrained and only the very select could be gotten. this is the 1st time ever I’m in a situation to run amok. I still am careful though. not anything will do but like David Blakeslee suggested: The Islands of Lost Souls, The Phantom Carriage, Kurenko are all killers and next week we get the Three Colors although I have the existing editions from the previous studio DVD packaging. I’ve managed to fill some long sought blanks and feel very fortunate, plus lucky. this coming from a Criterion ‘got it bad’ collector. thanks B & N.