Re: Why are rights to movies/TV series split up to different distributors?

>NEON GENESIS EVANGELION  - ADV
>EVANGELION Movie - Manga
>
>RUROUNI KENSHIN - Media Blasters
>SAMURAI X - ADV
>
>BLACK JACK OAV series - Central Park Media
>BLACK JACK MOVIE - Manga
>
>
>I'm sure there are several other examples (e.g. COWBOY BEBOP movie and
>TV series), but why is the series handled by one distributor and the
>movies handled by another? When the rights are sold, doesn't it make
>more sense to buy all the rights at once rather than just the TV
>series or movie?

Sometimes rights are split up in US releases because they were also split up in
Japan:
Columbia/Tri-star got the Bebop movie instead of Bandai because I believe Sony
of Japan has the distribution rights and C/T is owned by Sony of America. 
Manga Ent. got the EVA films because the rights were so expensive and ADV
didn't feel like the cost was worth it.