The Phantom of the Opera

The film was originally released in 1925 and registered for copyright by Universal Pictures Corp. on August 19, 1925 (LP21748). Under the laws governing the 1909 Copyright Act, works from this era required a renewal filing in the 28th year of their first term to maintain protection. While the film was initially protected, Universal failed to renew the copyright in 1953. As recorded in the 'Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Public Domain' and confirmed by the absence of a renewal entry in the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE), the work fell into the public domain on January 1, 1954. This applies to both the original 1925 silent version and the 1930 re-edited sound-synchronized version, which also saw its copyright expire due to non-renewal. Because it is a US production from 1925, it is also now expired by the passage of time (all works prior to 1929 are PD).