Redbox gets Uni's Wanted three days after street date

Studio stopped distributing to kiosks after Redbox lawsuit

By Danny King -- Video Business, 12/5/2008

DEC. 5 | Redbox started stocking copies of Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s Wanted today, three days after the Angelina Jolie-starring film’s DVD street date, signaling the largest U.S. movie-rental kiosk operator’s efforts to work around the studio’s decision to stop distributing product to kiosks.

Redbox has about 100,000 copies of Wanted for its approximately 10,000 U.S. locations, saying in a statement that it “developed new distribution arrangements and incurred additional costs” to stock the title. Wanted is likely to be Redbox’s biggest product next week, the company said, adding that it’s maintaining its $1 a night rental price for the title. The film grossed about $340 million during a theatrical run that started in June, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.

“We will continue to acquire DVD titles despite attempts to limit consumer access to titles at our kiosks,” Redbox CEO Gregg Kaplan said in the statement.

Redbox in October sued Universal, the sixth largest U.S. home-entertainment company, alleging that the General Electric unit violated antitrust laws by insisting on a revenue-sharing agreement with Redbox that, among other things, enforces rental-date and resale restrictions.

Redbox, which filed the complaint in a U.S. federal court in Delaware on Oct. 10, said that Universal would stop providing DVDs to Video Product Distributors and Ingram Entertainment, which distribute discs to Redbox, on Dec. 1 if Redbox didn’t sign the agreement. About 15% of the discs Redbox buys from VPD and Ingram are from Universal.

Universal is trying to enforce similar agreements with smaller kiosk companies TNR/Moviecube and DVDPlay. The studio hasn’t commented on either the agreements or the Redbox lawsuit.