-North American Box Office Up By 2.51 Percent; International Box Office Up by 5.90 Percent for Summer Period-

-PG-13 Rated Movies Were Strongest Revenue Drivers Across North America-

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Rentrak Corporation (Nasdaq: RENT), today announced the 2009 summer movie season box office results for both North America and International territories according to the company's Box Office Essentials(TM) and International Box Office Essentials(TM) theatrical box office data collection and analytical services. The top summer box office chart topper in North America was "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" that helped drive an increase in the summer movie season revenue total by 2.51 percent as compared to the comparable time period, May 2 through September 8, 2008. Globally, "Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince" was ranked number one and "Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs" earned the greatest amount of foreign box revenue, with foreign box office revenue for the summer movie season up 5.90 percent as compared to similar period May 2 through September 8, 2008.

Summer movie season revenue for 2009 included $4,335,545,158 for all movies across North America, and $10,044,529,301 for all films internationally. In comparison, for the same date ranges in 2008, North American total summer movie season box office revenue was $4,229,257,486 and the international revenue tally was $9,485,164,239.

Top-ranking movie rating categories that drove North American box office revenue included 67 PG-13 rated movies that earned collectively US$2,004,470,951 and were, again for the second year in a row, the top box office ticket sales drivers; 31 PG-rated movies that drove US$1,173,515,157 in revenue; 82 R-rated features that drove US$1,071,841,391 in ticket sales; 8 G-rated movies that earned US$52,080,035; and 137 Not Rated (NR) films that brought in US$33,637,624 in ticket sales.

Comparatively, during the summer movie season of 2008, 76 PG-13 rated films led box office revenue earnings as a ratings category, with 90 R-rated movies as the second largest North American ticket sales revenue driver, 22 PG-rated movies in third position, 13 G-rated movies in fourth position and 172 Not Rated (NR) films in fifth position respectively.

"The drawing power of high quality Hollywood feature films remains very strong as one of America's greatest exports and global income earners during the 2009 summer movie season," commented Ron Giambra, Executive Vice President Worldwide at Rentrak. "Despite the economic downturn that has impacted consumers worldwide, Hollywood movies continue to be a huge global draw for audiences, with discretionary spending on movie theater tickets increasing as compared to other forms of consumer discretionary and leisure spending such as dining out , retail purchases and travel which are noticeably-to-significantly down," Giambra added.

    The top ten 2009 summer movie season titles across North America were:

    May 1st, 2009
     thru Sept 7,       North
     2009              America

    Rank     Title     Rating         Distributor         Release     Date
                                                           Date       Range
                                                                      Gross

    1    Transformers:  PG13      Paramount              6/24/2009 400,641,549
           Revenge of             (NYSE:    VIA and VIA.B)
           the Fallen

    2    Harry Potter   PG        Warner Bros.           7/15/2009 297,614,366
          And The Half            (NYSE:   TWX)
          Blood Prince

    3    Up             PG        Disney (NYSE:    DIS)     5/29/2009 290,866,563

    4    Hangover, The  R         Warner Bros.            6/5/2009 272,197,388
                                  (NYSE:   TWX)

    5    Star Trek      PG13      Paramount               5/8/2009 257,171,491
                                  (NYSE:    VIA and VIA.B)

    6    Ice Age: Dawn  PG        20th Century Fox        7/1/2009 194,224,066
          Of The                  (NYSE:   NWS)
          Dinosaurs

    7    X-Men          PG13      20th Century Fox        5/1/2009 179,875,159
          Origins:                (NYSE:   NWS)
          Wolverine

    8    Night at the   PG        20th Century Fox       5/22/2009 176,794,393
          Museum:                 (NYSE:   NWS)
          Battle of the
          Smithsonian

    9    Proposal, The  PG13      Disney (NYSE:    DIS)     6/19/2009 161,137,964

    10   GI Joe         PG13      Paramount              8/7/2009  141,021,754
                                  (NYSE:    VIA and VIA.B)

    The top ten international 2009 summer movie season chart toppers were:

    May 1st, 2009 thru
     Sept 7, 2009      International
                                                         World
    Rank  Title      Reported    WW Date    Foreign Date Market  Worldwide
                     Countries  Range Gross  Range Gross  Share   Cume Rev

    1    Harry         59      788,495,945  568,955,595  7.85%  892,998,905
          Potter And
          The Half
          Blood Prince

    2   Ice Age:       64      778,416,156  606,311,150  7.75%  856,765,746
         Dawn Of
         The Dinosaurs

    3    Transformers: 61      677,784,470  366,611,145  6.75%  831,263,387
          Revenge of
          the Fallen

    4    Angels &      72      482,835,105  347,874,083  4.81%  485,003,694
          Demons

    5    Up            40      440,777,065  149,180,076  4.39%  447,683,557

    6    Hangover, The 56      436,563,005  163,256,369  4.35%  443,343,500

    7    Night at the  64      391,683,769  214,072,170  3.90%  412,437,280
          Museum:
          Battle of
          the
          Smithsonian

    8    Star Trek     59      374,685,268  117,042,878  3.73%  383,407,896

    9    Terminator    68      349,394,210  236,125,184  3.48%  372,046,055
          Salvation

    10   X-Men         64      345,535,406  165,173,195  3.44%  364,905,740
          Origins:
          Wolverine


    Note:  all revenue figures are in U.S. dollars.

(C) Rentrak Corporation 2009 -Content in Rentrak box office updates is produced and/or compiled by Rentrak Corporation and its Box Office Essentials(R) theatrical box office data collection and analytical service, and is covered by provisions of the Copyright Act. The material presented herein is intended to be available for public use. You may reproduce the content of the box office updates in any format or medium without first obtaining permission, subject to the following requirements: (1) the material must be reproduced accurately; and (2) any publication or issuance of any part of the material to others must acknowledge Rentrak Corporation as the source of the material.

About Box Office Essentials

Box Office Essentials provides each studio with password-protected, real-time, web browser-based and 24/7 access to data pertaining specifically to their movie release titles. A sophisticated toolset allows studio distribution executives to view and analyze the information at different levels of detail and across a multitude of attributes (by theatre circuit, DMA, time zone, etc.), enhancing their ability to make faster, and better informed decisions. Additional features include online school calendars (K-12 and college), interactive release schedule and 24-hour subscriber support.

About Rentrak Corporation

Rentrak Corporation, based in Portland, Oregon, is an information management company serving clients in the media, entertainment, retail and advertising industries. The company's Entertainment Essentials(R) suite of services is redefining media measurement in the digital broadband era. Entertainment Essentials provides customers with near-real-time, actionable insight into performance of content distributed over a wide variety of modern media technologies. Available by license or subscription, each Entertainment Essentials application allows executives to analyze detailed industry-wide and title-specific data to make decisions that enhance the bottom line and provide competitive advantage. For further information, please visit Rentrak's corporate website at Rentrak.com.

    Contacts:  Rogers & Cowan for Rentrak Corporation
               Sallie Olmsted                        Amanda Bartz
               (310) 854-8124                        (310) 854-8151
               solmsted@rogersandcowan.com           abartz@rogersandcowan.com

SOURCE Rentrak Corporation

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