Rental and Box Office Takings Beat DVD Sales

By Helen Storey Staff Writer 8 January 2010

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IF you're anything like us, you're probably sick of the recession and its associated cliches by now. For the last year, we've been told (and have probably told you at more than one point) that "staying in is the new going out".

Whilst its undeniable that many of us have decided to forsake a night out on the town for a night in curled up on the sofa, new statistics this week have revealed that Hollywood box office sales outstripped the sale of DVDs and Blu-Ray discs for the first time since 2002.

The research, compiled by Adams Media Research showed that last year, US cinema-goers spent $9.87bn (£6.1bn) seeing their favourite movies on the silver screen, whilst DVD and Blu-ray sales dropped by a hefty 13% to $8.73bn (£5.4bn).

DVD Rental more popular than ever

Adams Media Research has attributed some of the fall in DVD sales to the rise in popularity of DVD rental.

Over the last year, we've seen a number of new innovations in the rental world which have contributed to its continuing success, including pay-per-view streaming through your PC, TV or even your games console, as well as the release of DVD rental kiosks throughout supermarkets in the UK - a concept which is a massive hit across the pond in the USA.

"These two sectors of rental have really been growing, and causing people to hesitate about how many discs they're going to buy," Tom Adams, President of Adams Media Research, said.

With box office sales overtaking DVD sales, these figures could suggest that we're swapping our sofas for red velveteen pull-down seats, but another explanation could be due to the rise in popularity of peer to peer (P2P) downloading sites.

Torrent site, The Pirate Bay, appeared in a number of 2009 headlines, and with speedy internet access more readily available, it's now easier than ever to download a movie instead of buying it, much to the chagrin of the Hollywood studios.

They don't make 'em like they used to!

A further reason (and this is another one that Hollywood won't like), could simply be that recent films are pretty rubbish and not actually worth buying to keep.

Signing up to a DVD rental service seems to fix this problem, as if you think the film is a flop, you can just send it straight back for another.

It's also worth noting that the price of DVDs and Blu-Ray discs have been dramatically reduced over the years, so it may not mean that consumers are buying any less, just that the cost of getting our favourite flick on disc has fallen.

DVD rental to trump DVD sales this year?

DVD and Blu-Ray rentals raked in an impressive $8.15bn in the US last year, having risen from $8.11bn in 2008, so whilst it has a way to go before it catches up with DVD and Blu-Ray sales, if the trends continue, 2010 could very well be the first year that revenue from rentals top DVD and Blu-Ray sales.

If you want to see what all the DVD rental fuss is all about, you can compare DVD rental here.

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