Redbox, Netflix growth make up for Blockbuster woes in 2009

The good news: DVD rentals were up last year. The bad news: If you own a store that rents DVDs, you have nothing to celebrate. 

According to new data from Rentrak Corp., total DVD and high-definition Blu-ray disc rental revenue in 2009 rose 4% to $6.5 billion.

The gains in DVD rentals, unfortunately for Blockbuster and other stores, came primarily from Redbox and Netflix Inc. There was a 94% surge in revenue from $1-per-night DVD kiosks and 25% growth among online subscription services, more than enough to boost the overall DVD rental businessdespite a precipitous drop at physical rental stores.

Rentals of Blu-ray discs online and at stores jumped 48% to $428.6million last year, while standard DVD rentals fell 6% to $5.1 billion.

Kiosk revenue was $904 million, driven primarily by market leader Redbox, which reported 90% growth in revenue during the third quarter of 2009. Competitor NCR Corp., which operates kiosks for Blockbuster Inc., is gaining ground, however. It recently bought the No. 3 kiosk operator, DVDPlay.

There was more bad news than good for Hollywood, last year. Rentrak said that DVD and Blu-ray sales plunged 13.7%, or about $1.8 billion, to $12.2 billion. That's six times as big as the $300-million increase in DVD rental revenue. Studios generate a much bigger profit from DVD sales than rentals, particularly low margin $1 per night kiosks and online subscription services.

Probably being mindful of its retail partners, Rentrak declined to say how much rental revenue declined at physical rental stores except that it was "double digit." Blockbuster, the nation's largest physical DVD renter, reported a 21% drop in revenue in the third quarter.

Rentrak also wouldn't provide the total value of online DVD rentals, a market dominated by Netflix. It does not compile data for digital distribution of movies, a fast-growing but still small segment of the home entertainment business.

The Digital Entertainment Group, an industry trade group that represents the major studios and others in the DVD business, will release its own year-end sales data, including from digital outlets, on Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show.

-- Ben Fritz

Analyze this! Clue-laden poster of 'The Lost Supper'

Hey, this looks familiar!

The new "Lost" Season 6 poster is out, and "The Lost Supper" strongly resembles not only the Da Vinci painting but the "Battlestar Galactica" "Last Supper" image that came out a couple years ago. There was also a "Sopranos" version of "The Last Supper" a few years back (a huge array of other "Last Supper" images from pop culture is on the Stranger's blog; note that one or two are NSFW). Given that "Lost's" producers are big fans of those shows, the homage is clearly intentional and also, I think, pretty well done. 

There are two versions of the "Lost" poster, by the way (and you can click on each image below to make it larger). Putting out two versions of the image is no doubt designed to drivefans crazy and/or occupy the time of the show's devoted followers untilit returns Feb. 2. Twenty-seven days, people!

Version 1:

 
Version 2:

By the way, for individual photos of the Season 6 cast and a few excerpts from my recent interview with "Lost" executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, look here. I'll post the full transcript of my Darlton interview in a week or two.

And just for the sake of comparison, here is the "Battlestar" "Last Supper" image. By the way, the picture below started off as an EW photo shoot, and when executive producer Ronald D. Moore was told of the concept for the shoot, he excitedly latched on to the idea and intentionally put various final-season clues in the image (which was later adopted by Syfy for the show's various marketing campaigns):

Sponsored Link: Amazon's Lost Store

Coroner: Autopsy of heiress Casey Johnson inconclusive,
LOS ANGELES — The autopsy of Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey Johnson is inconclusive and toxicology tests have been ordered.
Quiz: 'The Simpsons' Marks 20 Years On Air

'The Simpsons' is now TV's longest-running scripted nighttime series. Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie — those never-aging, yellow-skinned inhabitants of Springfield — are back for their 450th episode on Sunday, Jan. 10.