I think the original Night Of The Living Dead has always been in the public domain. Answer from Jack_Q_Frost_Jr on reddit.com
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Public Domain Movie
publicdomainmovie.net
Public Domain Movies |
Public Domain Movies - Feature Movies in the Public Domain
Public Domain Movies
Public Domain Movies - Feature Movies in the Public Domain
Science Fiction & Horror
Public Domain Movies - Feature Movies in the Public Domain
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › List_of_films_in_the_public_domain_in_the_United_States
List of films in the public domain in the United States - Wikipedia
4 days ago - This date will move forward one year, every year, meaning that films released in 1931 will enter the public domain in 2027, films from 1932 in 2028, and so on, concluding with films from 1977 entering the public domain in 2073.
Discussions

Best movies that are now in the public domain?
I think the original Night Of The Living Dead has always been in the public domain. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/flicks
70
48
July 3, 2024
How to find out if a movie is public domain?
If you live in the United States, question #1 is: what year did the movie come out? If the date was before 1/1/1929, then yes it is automatically public domain in the US. If the date was between 1/1/1929 and 12/31/1963, then for the movie to be in the public domain it will need to have 1) Never had a copyright notice or copyright registered, and 2) Never had a copyright renewal filed. To figure this out, you will need to dig through US Copyright Office's online record collections . If a renewal was filed, then the movie is copyrighted for 95 (96 really) years. If the date was between 1/1/1964 and 12/31/1977, then you need to pull up the movie and search the opening/end credits for a copyright notice. If the movie has a copyright notice, then it is copyrighted for 95 years. If not it is public domain. If the date was between 1/1/1978 and 3/1/1989, then you need to pull up the movie and search the opening/end credits for a copyright notice. If the movie has a copyright notice, then it is copyrighted for 95 years (probably, let's just say that for simplicity's sake). If not, you will need to dig through US Copyright Office's online record collections to determine if anyone filed a copyright registration within 5 years. If there was no notice on the movie and no registration filed within 5 years of the movie's release, it is public domain. If the date is after 3/1/1989 then it is not public domain. If it is a foreign movie released after on or after 1/1/1929, then it is NOT public domain in the US. The only exceptions are if the movies were made in a country that was on as of 1/1/1996 not a signatory of the Berne Convention, the WIPO Treaty, or a World Trade Organization member. I admit this can be SUPER confusing, because it means Hong Kong movies are NOT public domain while Chinese movies made anywhere else in the country CAN be public domain. I hope that helps! :) More on reddit.com
🌐 r/publicdomain
11
14
January 28, 2024
What are some films in the public domain in the UK? (70 years after the death of the director, screenplay author and composer)
Hey everyone I think I've found one! Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) ( YouTube ) More on reddit.com
🌐 r/movies
4
0
April 5, 2021
Cthulhu is in the public domain. Why don't we have an awesome movie yet?!
He's not really a leading monster, you can't advertise it as a Cthulu movie since he has to be part of the mystery and his reveal should be a surprise. There's a 2020 movie out now with him. Big Spoiler: Underwater (2020) Hard to portray cosmic horror. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/movies
72
65
November 18, 2019
People also ask

Do you have a list with all the public domain movies?
Yes, our full Public Domain Movies list contains all the movies in this link
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publicdomainmovies.info
publicdomainmovies.info › home › public domain movies list – all the movies
Public Domain Movies List
Are these movies free?
Yes, they are all in the public domain, and therefore free to watch.
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publicdomainmovies.info
publicdomainmovies.info › home › public domain movies list – all the movies
Public Domain Movies List
Do you have apps? With Chromecast support ?
Yes, we have several android apps, with Chromecast support. You have all in: this link
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publicdomainmovies.info
publicdomainmovies.info › home › public domain movies list – all the movies
Public Domain Movies List
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Public Domain Movies
publicdomainmovies.info › home › public domain movies list – all the movies
Public Domain Movies List
June 4, 2025 - Classic Old Time Movies in the Public Domain. Best Classic Films - Full Movies.
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CBS News
cbsnews.com › u.s. › notable works entering the public domain in 2026
These notable works are officially in the public domain as 2026 arrives - CBS News
1 day ago - New Year's Day commemorates the ... Jan. 1, 2026, characters like early Betty Boop and Nancy Drew, and a variety of popular movies, books and songs, have entered the the public domain....
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Internet Archive
archive.org › videos
Public Domain Movies : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
May 28, 2019 - movies · Usage · Public Domain Mark 1.0 · Topics · public domain movies · Item Size · 971.6G · this is a lot of public domain movies · Addeddate · 2019-05-28 07:52:11 · Collection_added · feature_films moviesandfilms · Identifier · publicmovies212 ·
Find elsewhere
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Duke University School of Law
web.law.duke.edu › cspd › publicdomainday › 2026
Public Domain Day 2026 | Duke University School of Law
2 days ago - Conversely, if the copyright in the song was renewed while the copyright in the film was not, the song remained copyrighted after the film went into the public domain. This happened with It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)—the movie’s copyright was not renewed but the soundtrack’s copyright was, so the movie was public domain while the soundtrack and underlying short story were not.
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JustWatch
justwatch.com › us › provider › public-domain-movies
Public Domain Movies - full list of movies and TV shows online
The full list of movies and TV shows on Public Domain Movies. Find out what to watch on Public Domain Movies with JustWatch.
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IMDb
imdb.com › list › ls060673364
public domain movies
An introductory film. Buster Keaton's masterpiece, 'The General', is a shining example of one of the many great films available for viewing in the public domain.
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LOC
loc.gov › free-to-use › public-domain-films-from-the-national-film-registry
Free to Use and Reuse: Public Domain Films from the National Film Registry | Library of Congress Free to Use and Reuse | Library of Congress
The National Film Registry selects 25 films each year to showcase the range and diversity of American film heritage. These public domain selections are part of an online collection.
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Maryland State Library Resource Center
slrc.info › home › research › research guides › movie public performance rights › how to find movies in the public domain
How to Find Movies in the Public Domain
August 21, 2024 - Some of these movies are considered classics such as George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), Charlie Chaplin's The Kid (1921), and Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934).
Price   $
Address   400 Cathedral Street, 21201, Baltimore
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Fesfilms
fesfilms.com
Public Domain Films - action, comedy, horror, war, western, cartoons, serials, Black heritage, 1950s TV and more.
Festival Films library of hundreds of films and 1950's TV shows that are in the public domain, available on Mpeg digital or DVD-R for Internet streaming, TV broadcast and movie theaters.
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IMDb
imdb.com › list › ls565990206
Public Domain Movies - Ranked Worst to Best
Movies listed in the public domain on this Wiki: Note that many of the movies are in a gray-area, and should be researched before assuming there will be no legal difficulties in copying / remaking the source material.
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RetroFilm Vault
retrofilmvault.com › home
Public Domain Movies Public Domain Films - RetroFilm Vault
September 28, 2024 - Peruse a sampling including horror and sci fi trailers, film noir, Marilyn Monroe, landmark films, blockbusters, and samples from the AFI Top 100 Movies of all time. ... Public Domain Television Classics from The Beverly Hillbillies to Bonanza, The Lucy Show to Andy Griffith, Dick Van Dyke, Ozzie and Harriet, Burns & Allen.
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Letterboxd
letterboxd.com › robbob01 › list › public-domain
Film list: Public Domain
November 4, 2022 - A list of 26,195 films compiled on Letterboxd, including Steamboat Willie (1928), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), Sherlock Jr. (1924) and Man with a Movie Camera (1929).
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Enoch Pratt Free Library
prattlibrary.org › home › research › research guides › finding movies in the public domain
Finding Movies in the Public Domain - Enoch Pratt Free Library
July 1, 2025 - National Archives and Records Administration, Motion Picture, Sound and Video Unit NARA has an extensive collection of films created for and produced by the U.S. government that are in the public domain, including military films, educational and documentary films (1915-1976).
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The Public Domain Review
publicdomainreview.org › collections › film
Medium: Film — Collections — The Public Domain Review
Search The Public Domain Review · Support PDR · + Filter Options · Browse Media · AllImagesBooksFilmAudio · Filtered By · AllEpochGenreThemeType · Browsing by MediumAllImagesBooksFilmAudio · Filter Film by · All · Epoch · Genre · Theme · Type · Film / The Future ·
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/publicdomain › how to find out if a movie is public domain?
r/publicdomain on Reddit: How to find out if a movie is public domain?
January 28, 2024 -

Hi everyone is there a source available that I can look up movies to see if they are public domain? Thank you very much.

Top answer
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If you live in the United States, question #1 is: what year did the movie come out? If the date was before 1/1/1929, then yes it is automatically public domain in the US. If the date was between 1/1/1929 and 12/31/1963, then for the movie to be in the public domain it will need to have 1) Never had a copyright notice or copyright registered, and 2) Never had a copyright renewal filed. To figure this out, you will need to dig through US Copyright Office's online record collections . If a renewal was filed, then the movie is copyrighted for 95 (96 really) years. If the date was between 1/1/1964 and 12/31/1977, then you need to pull up the movie and search the opening/end credits for a copyright notice. If the movie has a copyright notice, then it is copyrighted for 95 years. If not it is public domain. If the date was between 1/1/1978 and 3/1/1989, then you need to pull up the movie and search the opening/end credits for a copyright notice. If the movie has a copyright notice, then it is copyrighted for 95 years (probably, let's just say that for simplicity's sake). If not, you will need to dig through US Copyright Office's online record collections to determine if anyone filed a copyright registration within 5 years. If there was no notice on the movie and no registration filed within 5 years of the movie's release, it is public domain. If the date is after 3/1/1989 then it is not public domain. If it is a foreign movie released after on or after 1/1/1929, then it is NOT public domain in the US. The only exceptions are if the movies were made in a country that was on as of 1/1/1996 not a signatory of the Berne Convention, the WIPO Treaty, or a World Trade Organization member. I admit this can be SUPER confusing, because it means Hong Kong movies are NOT public domain while Chinese movies made anywhere else in the country CAN be public domain. I hope that helps! :)
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Any film made in 1928 or earlier is already in the US public domain. There are also thousands of films released between 1929 and 1963, which failed to have their copyrights renewed, plus a few other movies with defective copyright notices (1964 to 1989). "Sita Sings the Blues" is a 2009 animated film that was released into the public domain by its director, Nina Paley. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_in_the_public_domain_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animated_films_in_the_public_domain_in_the_United_States
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Wikimedia
meta.wikimedia.org › wiki › Indian_Movies_in_Public_Domain › lists › language-wise
Indian Movies in Public Domain/lists/language-wise - Meta-Wiki
Indian Movies in Public Domain | lists · [edit] Manually update list | Find images · This list is generated from data in Wikidata and is periodically updated by a bot. Edits made within the list area will be removed on the next update!