Redbox

Universal Pictures has decided not to join forces withWarner Bros.in that studio's war with Redbox. Universal, the studio behind "Safe House"and this weekend's animated release "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax,"on Thursday announced an extension of its deal with the DVD rental kiosk company through August 2014 that will maintain the current 28-day wait from when DVDs go on sale until consumers can rent them from Redbox. The news comes two months after rival studio Warner Bros. said it would only sell discs to Redbox if it agreed to double the length of the so-called rental "window" to 56 days.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest retailer, is providing a big boost to Hollywood's effort to persuade consumers to keep buying movies in the digital age. Wal-Mart on Tuesday threw its support behind the industry's UltraViolet program and unveiled an exclusive arrangement with five of Hollywood's top studios to convert people's DVD collections into digital copies. Starting next month, consumers will be able to take their DVDs to about 3,500 Wal-Mart stores and leave with a digital copy stored in the cloud - a storage system offering access from a broad array of Internet-connected devices - for $2 each.

Setting up opposing camps among the Hollywood studios over $1-per-night kiosk rentals, Paramount Pictures has agreed to provide its movies to Redbox on the same day they go on sale. The move comes soon after Warner Bros., Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox all signed deals with Redbox to block rentals of DVDs until 28 days after they are released. The studios have argued that discount kiosk rentals hamper DVD sales and cut into home video revenue. However, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount views things differently.

Universal Pictures has decided not to join forces withWarner Bros.in that studio's war with Redbox. Universal, the studio behind "Safe House"and this weekend's animated release "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax,"on Thursday announced an extension of its deal with the DVD rental kiosk company through August 2014 that will maintain the current 28-day wait from when DVDs go on sale until consumers can rent them from Redbox. The news comes two months after rival studio Warner Bros. said it would only sell discs to Redbox if it agreed to double the length of the so-called rental "window" to 56 days.

They should just call it Bluebox and really have at it. NCR Corp., which is expanding aggressively in the DVD kiosk business via a partnership with Blockbuster Inc., has acquired competitor DVDPlay in a bid to catch up with market leader Redbox Automated Retail. NCR, which manufacturers self-service retail devices such as ATMs and grocery-store checkout devices, will put the Blockbuster brand name on its $1-a-night-DVD kiosks via a partnership with the struggling home video chain.

As Yogi Berra would say: Yikes, it's déjà vu all over again. In recent days, my newspaper has been chock-full of stories about the latest round of legal battles between the Hollywood studios and Redbox, the upstart $1-per-night DVD rental kiosk company. My colleague Ben Fritz has done a wonderful job of chronicling all the fussing and fighting, having reported on how three of Hollywood's biggest studios -- 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. and Universal -- are refusing to provide DVDs to Redbox until at least 28 days after they go on sale.

Redbox made good on its promise back in April to roll out video game rentals across its network of kiosks, announcing that 21,000 of its 27,000 kiosks nationwide will offer a mix of games and movies starting Friday. The company, which has rented more than 1 billion movies since introducing its service in 2003, had been testing game rentals for two years at 5,000 of its kiosks. It found that the average revenue of kiosks that rented games as well as movies was 10% to 15% higher than machines that rented only movies.

The battle lines over Redbox continue to be drawn in Hollywood, as Lions Gate Entertainment on Wednesday came down in favor of the controversial $1-per-night DVD rental kiosk company. The independent studio, known for its low-budget Tyler Perry comedies and "Saw" horror pictures, has signed a five-year deal to provide movies to Redbox on the same day they go on sale. In a regulatory filing, Redbox's parent company, Coinstar Inc., estimated it will pay Lions Gate $158 million over the term of the deal.

Big-budget sequels ruled the box office this year, but it was romantic comedies that topped rentals at red kiosks. The Adam Sandler-Jennifer Aniston comedy "Just Go With It" was the most rented movie at Redbox kiosks in 2011, according to new data released by the $1-per-night DVD company. Right behind was the Ashton Kutcher-Natalie Portman romantic comedy "No Strings Attached. " All of the top five movies were those intended to make audiences laugh, a list that also included the animated comedy "Rango," the romantic comedy "The Dilemma" and the buddy comedy "Due Date.

Redbox is having trouble stocking DVDs from the three studios it is battling in court -- 20th Century Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. -- and is blaming retailers for the problem. However, two of the three major chains that the fast-growing $1-per-night DVD kiosk company named, Best Buy Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., denied the charge. Redbox made the allegation in amended versions of its lawsuits filed this week against Fox and Warner. The Fox complaint accuses the studio of "unfair competition" in forcing retailers, in an effort aimed at Redbox, to restrict the number of DVDs that any individual can purchase.

Redbox is hooking up with Verizon Communications Inc. as part of a major step forward to compete with Netflix Inc. in both the digital and physical worlds. The company famous for its ubiquitous red DVD rentals kiosks announced Monday that it would form a joint venture with telecom giant Verizon to create an online movie subscription service. Redbox also agreed to spend up to $100 million to acquire the Blockbuster-branded DVD kiosks operated by NCR Corp., its largest competitor in that business, adding about 9,000 machines to its existing base of 35,400.

Warner Bros. is about to reignite a battle with Redbox and Blockbuster over how long consumers have to wait to rent DVDs. The Time Warner Inc.-owned studio is instituting a new policy that all DVD rental services must wait 56 days from the time the disc goes on sale at retail stores like Wal-Mart and Best Buy until consumers can rent them, according to people with knowledge of the matter who were not authorized to discuss it publicly. That's double the current 28-day "window. " A spokesman for Warner Bros.' home entertainment division declined to comment.

Warner Bros. and Redbox are about to re-ignite a battle over how long consumers have to wait to rent DVDs. The Time Warner Inc.-owned studio is instituting a new policy that all DVD rental outlets must wait 56 days from the time the disc goes on sale at retail outlets Wal-Mart and Best Buy until consumers can rent them, according to people with knowledge of the matter who were not authorized to discuss it publicly. That's double the current 28-day "window. " A spokesman for Warner Bros.' home entertainment division declined to comment.

Big-budget sequels ruled the box office this year, but it was romantic comedies that topped rentals at red kiosks. The Adam Sandler-Jennifer Aniston comedy "Just Go With It" was the most rented movie at Redbox kiosks in 2011, according to new data released by the $1-per-night DVD company. Right behind was the Ashton Kutcher-Natalie Portman romantic comedy "No Strings Attached. " All of the top five movies were those intended to make audiences laugh, a list that also included the animated comedy "Rango," the romantic comedy "The Dilemma" and the buddy comedy "Due Date.

Say goodbye to $1-per-night DVD rentals. Kiosk rental company Redbox said Thursday it is raising its standard price to $1.20 a day to cope with rising costs. Blu-ray disc rentals will cost $2 a day, up from from $1.50. The company's first price increase since it launched eight years ago comes as Redbox reported strong results for its third quarter ended Sept. 30, possibly fueled by the gaffes of its primary competitor, subscription service Netflix. Redbox revenue during the quarter jumped 28% from a year earlier to $389.8 million, while operating income rose 56% to $83.5 million.

In five years, buying and watching movies at home will be a very different experience than it is today. Here's what a film fan's living room might look like in 2016: Movies in the 'cloud' — Purchasing "Transformers 5" won't just mean taking home a DVD or downloading a file, but having the right to watch it on any digital device. With virtually every television, tablet and smartphone connected to the Internet, all it will take is a login and password to view a movie you've bought.

Video-rental chain Blockbuster Inc. has been running ads criticizing its competitors for making consumers wait 28 days to rent new movies. In the case of Redbox, it turns out consumers may agree. Shares in Coinstar Inc., the parent company of $1-per-night DVD rental kiosk company Redbox Automated Retail, plummeted 27% on Friday after it disclosed that results for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 would be lower than expected. The reason: The company recently signed deals with several studios agreeing not to rent new movies until they had been on sale for four weeks.

Across Hollywood, a quiet revolution is brewing that's about to transform living rooms around the world. After desperate attempts to prop up the industry's once-thriving DVD business, studio executives now believe the only hope of turning around a 40% decline in home entertainment revenue lies in rapidly accelerating the delivery of movies over the Internet. In the next few years, the growing number of consumers with Internet-connected televisions, tablets and smartphones will face a dizzying array of options designed to make digital movie consumption a lot more convenient and to entice users to spend more money.

The president of Redbox unexpectedly said he would be leaving the kiosk DVD rental company as the firm's parent company, Coinstar Inc., reported preliminary results for the second quarter that disappointed Wall Street. Coinstar stock then plummeted 10% in after-hours trading. The company announced Mitch Lowe's resignation Wednesday along with early financial results for the quarter ended June 30. Revenue was $434 million to $436 million, Coinstar said, lower than a consensus estimate among Wall Street analysts of $446 million.