When did dual inventory (Mono/Dolby A Stereo) prints cease to be a thing.

[Michael Coate]

There was some A / mono dual inventory going on in 1986 still happening, but not much. One title that specifically comes to mind is "Stand By Me" in 1986.

My research notes from way back indicate “Stand By Me” was single inventory mono.

[Frank Cox]

Duel inventory == if we don't have the one that you need in stock we shoot you?

[Brad Miller]

There was some A / mono dual inventory going on in 1986 still happening, but not much. One title that specifically comes to mind is "Stand By Me" in 1986. I'm not aware of any mono prints of a stereo movie being made from 1987 onward.

Regarding A / SR duel inventory, Dolby SR noise reduction was introduced in 1986, but no prints used it until 1987 (Innerspace and Robocop) which were of course, duel inventory.

A / SR duel inventory actually continued well into the digital age. Anyone remember Forrest Gump from 1994? There was duel inventory on that, but it was effectively triple inventory. One set of prints were Dolby SRD with DTS (and of course SR analog). The other set of prints was DTS with Dolby A analog. As I understand it, this was due to not enough printers with SRD being able to deliver the huge quantity required for this order in time and the decision to split SR vs. A for the analog track was to better match each theater's needs. (As I understand it, Paramount would have simply done all SRD/DTS if the option had been available.)

Duel inventory in the digital age continued in the early years as there wasn't enough printers capable of making prints with digital tracks, so for example a few theaters were playing The Lion King or Toy Story 1 in SRD, but everyone else got a Dolby A analog-only print. (I am not sure in these two specific cases if there were SR-only analog prints, but being Disney in their quest for the best possible audio presentation, there likely were.)

Other duel inventory releases were common from Warner Brothers. Twister is a good example. There were SRD with DTS prints, and then there were SDDS-only prints. The labs supposedly equipped their non-digital printers with SDDS to support the massive installation effort of AMC with SDDS on every screen, and this duel inventory was a prime example.

The whole duel inventory thing ended in the late 90s. I am defining that as 1996-1999. I would have to think back and look over some movie release lists during those years to see if I could pinpoint the actual date any better.

EDIT - I just remembered the movie The Full Monty was duel inventory: SRD and analog-only prints, so that puts the date of duel inventory at least as recent as 1997.

[Jerry G. Axelsson]

After handling a fair amount or archival prints of older titles, my impression is that there was a change around 1985/86. I have seen titles up to 1984 being dual inventory (Mono and Dolby A.). When it comes to releases from 1986 and onward I have not encountered a Mono print of a generally released in Dolby as far as I can recall.
From 1986 and onward the next period of dual inventory of Dolby A and Dolby SR began.

In 1993 I ran disney's "THREE MUSKETEERS" (1993). The print I ran was Dolby SR. There was supposedly SRD prints of this according to the posters and end credits logos. A few years later I saw another print of the same title. This one was Dolby A.

[Sam Chavez]

There's not really a good answer to this as each studio treated it differently and of course were influenced by the director. Universal was usually the slowest to come around as they generally had an attitude about Dolby. They also had a strong interest in in-house technology headed up by a couple of studio engineers, W. O, Watson and also Buzz Knudsen, who were involved with Sensurround. Later, this team along with others such as Terry Beard, came out with DTS for Jurrasic Park. We all know that bit of history, but at one early rough point in DTS development, someone dubbed it "Don't Tell Spielberg".

[Steve Guttag]

I don't know...it went on pretty late in the game. There was also a mix of SR and A and those two were dual inventory in the late '80s. When digital audio hit in the early '90s I don't recall having dual inventory prints.

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

Topic title says it all. What year did the distributors stop making separate prints for Mono and Dolby A stereo?