Rentrak: DVD rentals rose 10% in 2006
Overall market off 1.5% as VHS continues slide
By Marcy Magiera -- Video Business, 1/3/2007
JAN. 3 | DVD rentals rose 10.3% in 2006, to hit $7.39 billion, according Rentrak’s Home Video Essentials point-of-sale tracking service.The data, which includes a la carte, subscription and online rentals, flies in the face of a growing perception in the financial community and the business press that consumer demand for DVD is weakening.
At $7.67 billion, the overall rental market, including DVD and VHS, was off 1.5% for the year, according to Rentrak, due to the continuing steep decline of the older VHS format.
VHS rentals were just $281 million in 2006, down 74.1% from a year earlier.
VHS is dying a slow death. The format accounted for 14.1% of U.S. rentals in 2005, but just 3.7% in 2006.
Top DVD Rentals for 2006
| Rank |
Title (Label) |
Release date |
Index* |
| 1 |
Flightplan (Buena Vista) |
Jan. 24 |
100.0 |
| 2 |
Wedding Crashers (New Line/Warner) |
Jan. 3 |
98.8 |
| 3 |
Walk the Line (Fox) |
Feb. 28 |
98.6 |
| 4 |
Failure to Launch (Paramount) |
June 27 |
85.2 |
| 5 |
Fun With Dick and Jane (Sony) |
April 11 |
84.0 |
| 6 |
Click (Sony) |
Oct. 10 |
81.7 |
| 7 |
Inside Man (Universal) |
Aug. 8 |
77.5 |
| 8 |
King Kong (Universal) |
March 28 |
73.3 |
| 9 |
RV (Sony) |
Aug. 15 |
72.3 |
| 10 |
Lord of War (Lionsgate) |
Jan. 17 |
71.9 |
| 11 |
The Benchwarmers (Sony) |
July 25 |
69.8 |
| 12 |
Rumor Has It… (Warner) |
May 9 |
66.9 |
| 13 |
The Break-Up (Universal) |
Oct. 17 |
65.5 |
| 14 |
The Family Stone (Fox) |
May 2 |
65.3 |
| 15 |
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Buena Vista) |
April 4 |
64.7 |
| 16 |
Derailed (Weinstein/Genius) |
March 21 |
64.4 |
| 17 |
Jarhead (Universal) |
March 7 |
64.2 |
| 18 |
The Lake House (Warner) |
Sept. 26 |
61.9 |
| 19 |
Firewall (Warner) |
June 6 |
61.5 |
| 20 |
A History of Violence (New Line/Warner) |
March 14 |
60.7 |
*Index puts the top title at 100 and lists all others as a percentage of the top title’s rental revenue.
Source: Rentrak’s Home Video Essentials
