Redbox

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.

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.

Redbox has 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 days of the multi-day movie rental are officially over. Blockbuster announced Friday that it is switching to single-day pricing in a bid to better challenge its fast-growing rival Redbox. It's the first significant change at the struggling rental and retail chain since it was acquired by Dish Network Corp. in April for $320 million and a longtime executive of the satellite broadcaster was put in charge. The first day of rental will cost $2.99 for new releases and $1.99 for older films.