Warner Plans to Offer DVD Player Rental
o here has unveiled a plan to rent DVD players in video stores around the country in an effort to spur awareness of the new movie playback systems.
DVD players have been on retail shelves for a little over a year and have met wide acceptance from early adopters of consumer electronics, but industry experts believe tapping the rental market will make DVD a mass-market product.
Warner Home Video, a unit of Time Warner, is offering three packages combining an assortment of DVD players and DVD titles to video store owners. Store operators, then, can rent the players and titles to consumers.
PlayStation Scores Its 10 Millionth Sale
FOSTER CITY, Calif. -- Sony Computer Entertainment America has sold its 10 millionth PlayStation video game console in North America, less than two and a half years after its launch, the company reported. To celebrate, the company ran a national consumer sweepstakes last month.
Buena Vista Sets Summer Schedule
BURBANK, Calif. -- Buena Vista Home Entertainment here will promote 11 rental titles in June and July with a "Summer Fun '98" promotional campaign. The titles will be supported by national radio advertising, extensive trailering, pay-per-view windows averaging 60 days and a 3-foot by 6-foot high-impact vinyl banner.
June titles are "Scream 2," streeting June 9 with a 30-day PPV window; "Mouth to Mouth," streeting June 16 with a 90-day window; "The Wings of the Dove," streeting June 16 with a 60-day window; "The Rage," streeting June 16 with a 90-day window; "Welcome to Sarajevo," streeting June 23 with a 90-day window; and "Mr. Magoo," streeting June 23 with a 55-day window.
"Good Will Hunting" will be released July 7, prebooking June 16 with a 45-day window. Other July titles will prebook June 23: "Phantoms," streeting July 14 with a 55-day window; "Four Days in September," streeting July 21 with a 90-day window; "Krippendorf's Tribe," streeting July 21 with a 60-day window; and "Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror," streeting July 21 with a 90-day window.
Top 10 Supermarket Video Rental Titles
Title (Weeks Out) Studio Retail Last Week
1Air Force One (10) Columbia $22.95 1
2Kiss the Girls (1 Paramount $105.77 New
3I Know What You Did... (4) Columbia $106.97 2
4Seven Years in Tibet (2) Columbia $106.97 3
5Red Corner (2) MGM $104.16 5
6Mimic (5) Buena Vista $104.16 6
7The Full Monty (5) Fox $104.16 10
8Bean (3) PolyGram $106.99 8
9The Peacemaker (6) Universal $107.37 4
10Mortal Kombat 2 (3 )New Line $105.77 7
The chart at right, tailored for the supermarket video market, is based on information taken from more than 1,000 supermarket rental locations serviced by Ingram Entertainment, La Vergne, Tenn.
