Of course they would, unless the distributor in question had sufficient clout to offer a persuasive alternative - for instance, if they were so powerful and had such a huge marketing budget that the mere act of them taking on the film might massively increase its revenue stream. Artificial Eye is certainly one of the heftier arthouse labels in Britain, but they're minnows compared with the big boys. But then again, the big boys might not be the slightest bit concerned about whether subtitles are fixed or optional!swo17 wrote:I could also come up with 9 reasons about why I hate it when MoC locks its releases region B (yes, even though I have a region-free player). I might even not buy/keep a release primarily because of this. But it's an absurd thing to complain about. AE likely agrees with you in principle. They would just rather release the film slightly compromised in this way than not be able to release it at all. Furthermore, any other company that would have released it in the UK would surely have had to put up with this issue as well.
Talking of which, we're assuming that it's Les Films du Losange behind this - it might just as easily be TF1 making it a contractual condition that all other Region B rightsholders have fixed subtitles, otherwise they won't take it on. And TF1 is a considerably bigger outfit than Les Films du Losange, and will almost certainly be responsible for the film's biggest revenue stream, since they're handling the rights in its native country. So it may well be the case that neither the rightsholder nor Artificial Eye had any choice - or at least not a choice that wouldn't leave them considerably worse off.
Obviously, this is guesswork, but it's reasonably educated and based on plenty of precedents - and it would also explain why Region A releases might not have the same restrictions, since TF1 presumably wouldn't care about them.