ADV Sale and "Destroy All Monsters"

Above, the poster for A.I.P.'s "Destroy All Monsters."

Since the report of ADV Film's sale, some have speculated that Sony, Media Blasters or Classic Media can acquire the video rights to Destroy All Monsters (1969).

According to the press release announcing the sale:

Through an asset purchase agreement, AEsir Holdings, LLC ("Aesir") acquired a subordinated interest in selected programming from ADV's film library together with other intellectual property subject to all liens and security interests of the Company's senior secured lender. The transaction requires Aesir to assume specific obligations and scheduled liabilities of the Company under legacy license agreements associated with the acquired programming.

Concurrently, the Company concluded an asset purchase agreement with SXION 23, LLC, doing business as "Section23 Films," a home video distribution company, under which it assumes account servicing and distribution operations in connection with the library acquired by Aesir, subject to all liens and security interest of the Company's senior secured lender.

Assuming that Destroy All Monsters is included in the asset purchase, the company buying the assets would then have the rights to the movie. According to kaiju expert August Ragone, the contract between ADV Films and Toho Co., Ltd. for Destroy All Monsters is still valid for several more years.

Presently, the only way another company can release Destroy All Monsters would be for them to buy the rights from the new owner of the former ADV Films' assets. Or, the present license expires and the rights revert back to Toho and they put it on the market. Seems pretty straightforward. But that only applies to the version ADV Films released.

Some are hoping that Destroy All Monsters with the original A.I.P. (American International Pictures) dub can be released on DVD. It currently circulates here & there on the bootleg market. The version ADV Films released was Toho's "international" version, with a much-inferior dub. It appears that this may never happen unless the current owner of the A.I.P. dub (whoever that may be) grants (i.e., sells) a license to do so.

But what if Toho Co., Ltd. doesn't want the A.I.P. version released and insists that only the "international" version can be released? Then we'd be stuck with no realistic recourse.

So if you are anxiously awaiting for a company to release Destroy All Monsters in the original A.I.P. dub, it is doubtful it will ever happen. But it would be a nice surprise to see it happen.