Where is ransom money? The Ron Howard-Mel Gibson thriller is another hard-to-find film

Ransom, the 1996 thriller starring Mel Gibson, grossed over $300 million when it was released but was long out of print and not streaming anywhere.

Yesterday I wrote a story about how one of my favorite Thanksgiving movies, Dutchseems almost impossible to find these days, as the out-of-print DVDs and Blu-rays are quite expensive and the film isn’t streaming on any services (although some readers noted that it used to be on HBO Max). I’ve written extensively about films that are hard to find, but how popular some of the missing titles are shocks me. It’s gotten to the point where niche titles, or at least those with some kind of cult behind them, are often easier to find than previously popular ones. Remember that just today Michael Manns The fortresswhich has never had a DVD release, has just been announced for 4K Blu-ray.

That’s exactly what I was thinking about when I received a text message from a friend of the site, Paul Shirey, who was our editor-in-chief at the time. He noted that he wanted to watch the 1996 movie yesterday ransomstarring Mel Gibson (and directed by Ron Howard), but couldn’t find it anywhere. In fact, a quick search shows that the film is not streaming anywhere, nor is it available for digital purchase. It was released on Blu-ray around 2011 (to mark its 15th anniversary), but has long been out of print and the easiest (and cheapest) way to watch it now seems to be the old DVD.

Although Gibson’s stock has declined in recent years, there’s no denying that the man has earned his share of classics. Luckily, many of them are pretty easy to find. But ransomwhich had phenomenal success at the time of its release, seems to have disappeared. That’s pretty wild considering it grossed over $300 million worldwide in 1996. It’s a famous film, with Gibson’s “give me back my son” quote being a famous catchphrase of the time.

If you don’t remember ransomIt’s a pretty dark thriller in which Gibson plays a multimillionaire whose son is kidnapped. When his attempt to pay the ransom fails, he instead puts the demanded money as a bounty on her head, much to the shock of his wife, played by Rene Russo. Gary Sinise played the film’s villain and it is by far the most violent film Ron Howard has ever directed.

Many consider it a classic, which makes the fact that it’s so hard to find quite puzzling. A decade or so ago it would have been unthinkable that a film would be as popular as it is ransom would be so hard to detect unless you pirated it. But these days, when studios often let their biggest hits gather dust on the shelf (for whatever reason), it seems to be a thing. Some might say it’s because Disney, who owns the rights, doesn’t want to be associated with Gibson, but I doubt that has anything to do with it. They also have the rights to another classic Mel Gibson film: Signand this film is everywhere.

What other films are surprisingly hard to find? Let us know in the comments!