'Angels' Heavenly Stats Couldn’t Lift Weekly Rental Spending

19 Apr, 2001 By: Judith McCourt

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The Charlie’s Angels crime-fighting trio continued to capture the hearts of renters, taking the top spot on the rental chart for the week ending April 15.

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment’s babe-filled action flick held onto the No.1 position at the rental counter for a third consecutive week, grossing an additional $8.6 million in combined VHS and DVD rentalrevenue. Since its release on March 27, Charlie’s Angels has earned $27.2 million at the rental counter.

While Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment’s Men of Honor failed tolasso the No. 1 rental spot from the babes — debuting at No. 2 — it did capture the top spot with DVD purchasers. The military drama ranked No.1 on VideoScan’s First Alert DVD chart for the week ending April 15.

VideoScan’s First Alert data also shows that consumers snapped up copies of kidvids on VHS as the perfect addition to Easter baskets. The top five sellers for the week ending April 15 (Easter Sunday) all had kid appeal.

Despite Charlie’s Angels' continued strong rental performance and arespectable slate of new releases, video rental spending stalled for theweek, dropping below spending in the comparable week last year for the first time since mid-February. For the week ending April 15, consumersspent $173.5 million on VHS and DVD rentals, up 4.9% from the previous week but down 2.4% from the same week last year.

An increase in DVD receipts failed to pick up the VHS rental deficit.

Consumers spent $153.6 million renting cassettes, down 10% from the comparable week in 2000. Renters plunked down $20 million on DVDrentals for the week, nearly three times the $7.1 million they spent in the same period last year.

Year-to-date spending on combined VHS and DVD rentals now stands at $2.74 billion, up from $2.34 billion at the same point last year.

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