Janus Films
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry | Motion picture distribution |
| Founded | 1956 |
| Founder |
Bryant Haliday Cyrus Harvey, Jr. |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York, USA |
|
Key people
|
Saul J. Turell William J. Becker |
| Revenue | $6.1 million USD (2007) |
| Website | www.janusfilms.com |
Janus Films is a film distribution company. The distributor is credited with introducing numerous films, now considered masterpieces of world cinema, to American audiences, including the films of Michelangelo Antonioni, Sergei Eisenstein, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, François Truffaut, Yasujirō Ozu and many other well-regarded directors. Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957) was the film responsible for the company's initial growth. Janus has a close relationship with the Criterion Collection regarding the release of its films on DVD and is still an active theatrical distributor.
The company's name and logo come from Janus, the two-faced Roman god.
Janus Films was founded in 1956 by Bryant Haliday and Cyrus Harvey, Jr., in the historic Brattle Theater, a Harvard Square landmark in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prior to the conception of Janus, Haliday and Harvey began screening both foreign and American films at the Brattle and proceeded to regularly fill the 300-seat venue. Having purchased the theater, Haliday, together with Harvey, converted the Brattle into a popular movie house for the showing of art films.
Perceiving potential in the film business, Haliday and Harvey moved into the New York City market and commenced running the 55th Street Playhouse. Janus Films was subsequently launched in March 1956 and the Playhouse was used as the primary location for exhibiting Janus-distributed films. The two owners eventually sold Janus Films in 1965 following a decline in the American art film market, and in 1966 Haliday also sold the Brattle, whilst Harvey continued to manage the theater into the 1970s.
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