HOUSTON, Dec. 5, 2006 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Five of the year's most popular films have been selected by TNR Entertainment Corp., the nation's leading owner and operator of self-service DVD rental kiosks in supermarkets and grocery stores, for a special month-long holiday promotion at all 1,000 of its The New Release(tm) locations in 24 states. The films include Cars, The Da Vinci Code, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Pirates of the Caribbean 2, and Superman Returns.
"These are films whose collective box office worldwide is more than $3.3 billion, so we know these are at the top of our customers' rental lists," said Tony Sciolla, Chief Marketing Officer for TNR, the parent company of The New Release. "Since the holidays are a prime DVD movie viewing period for families, we've introduced a special promotion highlighting these big hits, with specially designed holiday kiosks and have expanded our inventory of these titles to assure their availability to our customers throughout the season."
Sciolla added that the convenience of renting DVDs at The New Release(tm) supermarket/grocery store kiosks has even greater appeal during the holiday shopping rush. "We know our customers don't want another stop in their holiday shopping, so simply adding some DVD rentals to their grocery list eliminates that hassle. They avoid separate trips to rent and return, they can select from the biggest movies of the year, and don't have to pay any late fees," he added. "That spells happy holiday shopping to a fast growing customer base throughout the U.S."
The films are available at 1,000 The New Release(tm) kiosks in such grocery chains as A&P, Food Lion, H-E-B, Kroger/King Soopers, Publix, Roundy's/Pick 'N Save, Safeway/Randall's and Spartan/Family Fare across the country.
In addition to the special holiday "top five" movie promotion, selected The New Release(tm) kiosks continue to offer the "First Movie Free" promotion to new customers in 293 supermarkets and grocery stores in Texas, Florida, Colorado, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.
For a complete listing of the Company's supermarket and grocery store locations, see the geographic search section of TNR's website, www.thenewrelease.com. TNR now serves over 500,000 customers monthly and the number is growing rapidly.
The New Release automated DVD rental kiosks provide supermarket customers with a more convenient one-stop shopping experience. As the Company's kiosks are being introduced in new markets, more consumers are able to enjoy renting the latest DVD titles for $1-a-day and no late fees - a simple and affordable pricing structure that TNR was the first to successfully market. TNR's kiosks house up to 1,000 units each, representing more than 200 titles, including top new releases. The fully-automated kiosks operate on a wireless communications network and next-generation DVD kiosk operating system.
With more than five million DVDs rented since its inception in 2002, privately-held TNR, based in Houston, dominates the self-service DVD rental category in the grocery channel. Led by TNR Entertainment's new management team of Richard Cohen, Chief Executive Officer, and Jeff Karbowiak, Chief Operating Officer, the Company has launched an aggressive expansion of its retail locations this year with the goal of quadrupling its kiosk network nationwide by 2007.
TNR Entertainment Corp. is backed by an institutional investor group including Celerity Partners, LP of Los Angeles; Chapton Partners, LP, a Houston family partnership; Laminar Direct Capital, L.P., a member of the D.E. Shaw group of companies; and MCG Capital Corporation (Nasdaq:MCGC), a leading specialized financial services company and financial advisor.