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VIDEO RENTAL ROUNDUP

Non-Action DVD Is Seeing Actionith a pattern established in the format's early days, non-action titles so far represent 25% of 1999's top DVD video sales to date, up from 13% in 1998, according to data compiled by the DVD Video Group, here, and VideoScan. Among the recent family titles that have sold especially well are "A Bug's Life" from Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Burbank, Calif., and "Antz"

Non-Action DVD Is Seeing Action

ith a pattern established in the format's early days, non-action titles so far represent 25% of 1999's top DVD video sales to date, up from 13% in 1998, according to data compiled by the DVD Video Group, here, and VideoScan. Among the recent family titles that have sold especially well are "A Bug's Life" from Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Burbank, Calif., and "Antz" from DreamWorks, Glendale, Calif. "You've Got Mail," from Warner Home Video, Burbank, Calif., also is selling strongly.

"Clearly, DVD video is reaching beyond the early adopter to more mainstream consumers," said Paul Culberg, executive vice president of Columbia TriStar Home Video, Culver City, Calif., and president of the DVD Video Group. "We're encouraged that DVD video is popular with the entire household and I think you'll see studios releasing more family titles to satiate the consumer's appetite for these titles," he said.

Volume Growing For Audio Books

NEW YORK -- The audio book market continues to grow, according to statistics from the Audio Publishers Association. For example, 75% of respondents to a recent survey said they had listened to an audio book in the last 12 months, compared with 12% five years ago.

The APA estimated that annual audio book sales now total $2 billion. The cumulative revenue growth from 1990 to 1998 was 360%, according to numbers collected from APA member publishers.

The APA research also detailed demographic trends. The median income of audio book listeners is $54,900, the average male listener is 41.9 years old while the average female listener is 44.2 years old. Male listeners tend to listen to more titles per year, but there are more female listeners.

"Not only has the audio book industry shown growth, but there is room for even greater growth," said Jessica Kaye, president of the APA, and publisher of the Publishing Mills, Los Angeles. "This is significant because we have every reason to believe that the growth trajectory will continue its upward trend."

Firm's Focus Set On Independents

NORTH CONWAY, N.H. -- Tone Entertainment here, an independent film production company in business since 1992, has launched a new home video company, Tone Home Video. Tone has just released one title, "Ironman," and has plans for five more releases in the next two years.

"Independent film makers who work outside the Hollywood system need an outlet to video stores as well as worldwide markets," said Douglas Kennett, producer. "We hope to be a company that will be there for the independent film maker. We are also here to offer independent video stores some relief from the poor decisions and copy-depth requirements that the larger studios have forced upon the industry."

Top 10 Supermarket Video Rental Titles

Last

Rank Wk Title (Wks Out)

You've Got Mail (3)

1 1 Warner $22.96

A Bug's Life (5)

2 2 Buena Vista $26.99

Stepmom (4)

3 3 Columbia $107.37

Holy Man (1)

4 N Buena Vista $104.16

The Siege (5)

5 4 Fox $107.37

Star Trek: Insurrection (2)

6 5 Paramount $104.16

I Still Know What You Did

Last Summer (7)

7 7 Columbia $107.37

Very Bad Things (1)

8 N PolyGram $108.01

Meet Joe Black (7)

9 6 Universal $107.37

At First Sight (4)

10 8 MGM $105.77

N=New *Minimum advertised price

Week ended May 24

This chart, 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.