Rent Film Makes DVD Debut as Top Seller of the Week

The film version of Rent, directed by Chris Columbus and starring most of the original Broadway cast, has leaped ahead of the DVD pack to become the week's top-seller, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The DVDs of Domino, Saw II, Ultimate Avengers: The Movie, the first season of "Grey's Anatomy" and North Country are among those that placed behind Rent, which is available in a special 2-disc set. Rent also includes over three hours of special features, including five deleted scenes and musical performances, director and selected cast commentary, a five-part feature-length documentary, as well as two public service announcements--one for the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation and the other for the National Marfan Foundation.

The success of the DVD follows a somewhat lackluster domestic box office intake for the film, which opened nationwide on November 23rd, 2005. A Columbia Pictures/Revolution Studios production, it earned $29,077,547.

Rent, which was directed by Columbus (who adapted Larson's book with Stephen Chbosky), featured Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Jesse L. Martin, Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp of the original cast, as well as Rosario Dawson and Tracie Thoms.
 
With its groundbreaking rock score by Larson and a story that captured the current of its generation, Rent is set in New York's East Village, where a group of artists love and live La Vie Boheme even under the shadow of poverty, failure, illness and death. The La Boheme-based show, which has been running at the Nederlander Theatre since its opening in 1996, won the Pultizer and the 1996 Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as 3 others. Tragically, Larson died a few months before the show opened. It has since run for over 4,000 performances.

For more information, visit www.sonypictures.com.