This list of lost films will surprise you

You would expect Hollywood to do a good job preserving films. After all, that’s how they make their money. But mistakes do happen, and more often than not they are so big that result in complete movie losses.

beginning in the 1890s, we are saddened to find out that many of George Méliès’ works are considered lost and were in fact burned by himself due to a studio takeover.

Although the number of lost films is gradually decreasing as decades pass, In the 1970s the Short Film “Clockwork” by Spider-Man director Sam Raimi is considered lost. A few years earlier, the film “The Promise” starring Ian McKellen is also considered lost.

Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”, one of the most famous films of all time is missing a scene in the end that Kubrick could not find during the editing. Due to that reason, the film is cut in an unorthodox way.

The cult movie “Event Horizon” was also lost for several years. A VHS copy was found and the movie is now even released in blu-ray from that VHS.

George Melford’s classic film “Dracula” was also considered lost from 1931 until 1970 when a copy was rediscovered.

More famous films suffered heavy “losses”. Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in America” was originally cut to be 269 minutes long but after “disastrous” screenings it was edited to 139 minutes without Leone’s permission.

The list above is more only includes notable “omissions”. Martin Scrocese estimates that over 90% of the films before 1920 and 50% of the films before 1950 are lost forever.