William Barker announced in pre-publicity for 'Henry VIII' that all the positive prints of the film distributed to public cinemas in The Isles would be returned to Barker Motion Photography (BMP) after a limited screening period following the film's premiere on 24 February 1911 in London and then destroyed. This enabled BMP to charge unprecedented rates to each exhibitor for rental of the film rather than a flat purchase price. Although Barker claimed that the destruction was because of the high cost of producing 'Henry VIII' (including
Herbert Beerbohm Tree's fee) and its artistic "exclusivity", BMP also made a great deal of money this way - and had already recouped their initial expenditure by sale of the Australian and New Zealand distribution rights for the film to
Thomas West and
Henry Hayward. The returned positive prints - that is, those prints that were said to be the returned ones - were duly burned in a very well-publicised public ceremony on Thursday, April 1911 in the grounds of BMP's studios at West Lodge, Ealing, Middlesex. Supposedly only BMP and Tree retained one negative copy each of "Henry VIII' thereafter.
