Rental trends between DVD and Blu-ray certainly have some similarities but there are some marked differences as well, even more so for sell through since there are a lot of big selling kids titles that don’t get high definition releases. Rentrak has worked through the numbers for 2011 and have taken a look at the top movies in rental form for both DVD and Blu-ray and there’s certainly plenty of crossover, but it’s apparent that the high definition format plays better to the big budget, big box office spectacles when it comes to the rental mindset. Of course, these numbers do not include Netflix, which can pretty much skew things in a number of directions and makes it unfortunate that they aren’t part of it.
Rentrak has also released some industry information about what kind of business the rental world is doing by noting that revenue dropped 3.4% overall compared to 2010 as it raked in some $5.64 billion dollars for various companies. “In Q4 2011, the DVD and Blu-ray rental market was down 21.3% versus a year ago with the major growth area for disc rentals in Q4 being in the kiosk channel, which grew by 28%.”
“People have many choices when it comes to renting videos, for both digital and physical media, so it’s interesting to see DVD and Blu-ray Disc rentals are still the number one choice for consumers,” said David Paiko, Vice President of Home Entertainment at Rentrak.
Rentrak’s Home Video Essentials Top-10 Renting DVDs of 2011:
| RANK | TITLE | BOX OFFICE ($M) | STUDIO | RELEASE DATE |
| 1 | Red | $90.38 | Summit Ent. (NYSE: LGF) | 01/25/2011 |
| 2 | Due Date | $100.54 | Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) | 02/22/2011 |
| 3 | Little Fockers | $148.44 | Universal (NYSE: CCS) | 04/05/2011 |
| 4 | Unstoppable | $81.56 | Fox (NASDAQ: NWS) | 02/15/2011 |
| 5 | The Social Network | $96.96 | Sony (NYSE: SNE) | 01/11/2011 |
| 6 | Bridesmaids | $169.21 | Universal (NYSE: CCS) | 09/20/2011 |
| 7 | The Tourist | $67.63 | Sony (NYSE: SNE) | 03/22/2011 |
| 8 | The Lincoln Lawyer | $58.01 | Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF) | 07/12/2011 |
| 9 | The Fighter | $93.62 | Paramount (NASDAQ: VIA) | 03/15/2011 |
| 10 | Dinner For Schmucks | $73.03 | DreamWorks | 01/04/2011 |
Rentrak’s Home Video Essentials Top-10 Renting Blu-ray Discs of 2011:
| RANK | TITLE | BOX OFFICE ($M) | STUDIO | RELEASE DATE |
| 1 | Red | $90.38 | Summit Ent. (NYSE: LGF) | 01/25/2011 |
| 2 | Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | $241.07 | Disney (NYSE: DIS) | 10/18/2011 |
| 3 | Transformers: Dark Of The Moon | $352.39 | Paramount (NASDAQ: VIA) | 09/30/2011 |
| 4 | Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 | $295.98 | Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) | 04/15/2011 |
| 5 | Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) | $176.65 | Paramount (NASDAQ: VIA) | 10/25/2011 |
| 6 | Unstoppable | $81.56 | Fox (NASDAQ: NWS) | 02/15/2011 |
| 7 | Due Date | $100.54 | Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) | 02/22/2011 |
| 8 | Tron: Legacy | $172.06 | Disney (NYSE: DIS) | 04/05/2011 |
| 9 | Fast Five | $210.03 | Universal (NYSE: CCS) | 10/04/2011 |
| 10 | Inception | $292.58 | Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) | 12/07/2010 |
�
I�m a little confused by this statistic because it says that
rental revenue is down, but is that including streaming all you can watch
revenue?� I wish they were clearer about
what that means.� I know that streaming
has gone up a lot, but I know I have contributed to that statistic since my
employer, DISH, added streaming to Blockbuster @Home.� It�s still ten bucks a month even though it
also includes Blu-ray and games, but I don�t see how rental could be down
overall.� Perhaps illegal downloading has
taken a toll on the business.