Can you believe Redbox has been around for 20 years? The company, that like Netflix, started as a physical media distributor marked its 20th anniversary in 2022. Over the past few years Redbox has branched out into streaming providing both a free streaming service and paid video-on-demand options. Today it announced the most-watched movies in 2021 across its rapidly growing Ad-Supported Video On Demand (AVOD), Transactional Video On Demand (TVOD) streaming service, and nearly 40,000 Redbox kiosks. Texas Killing Fields, a crime drama starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan is the top AVOD title; Free Guy, the Ryan Reynolds action-comedy, is the top On Demand title; and finally, the adorable stone age animated kids’ movie The Croods: A New Age takes top kiosk rental of 2021.
The company offers content through its nearly 40,000 iconic red kiosks as well as its streaming app which is available on Roku, Samsung, VIZIO, LG, Xbox, PlayStation, iOS, Android, and many other platforms. The Redbox app provides a wide selection of Redbox on Demand movies and TV shows available to stream as well as its Ad Supported Video On Demand (AVOD) streaming service featuring thousands of free movies. In addition, the Redbox Free Live TV service has now surpassed 130 Free Ad Supported Television (FAST) channels offering a wide range of content from The Price is Right: The Barker Era to The Bob Ross channel.
On an interesting note, the audiences for the Kiosks and transactional streaming services seem to differ a bit. The top 10 movies in each share 7 common titles, which in many cases coincides with the popular movies of 2021. A few stand out titles only appear in the on-demand top 10 including Free Guy and Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The Venom sequeal was one of the most popular movies of the year and it appears that Redbox customers did not want to wait long to see exactly what the end credits scene was. It should also be noted that each of the titles that was in the top 10 of the on-demand selections and not in the Kiosk selection was an action-comedy. Another notable title is Wonder Woman 1984. The film streamed on HBO Max at the same time it played at the movie theater (albeit very few of them). The perfect streaming availability led to it being a highly pirated movie meaning it was available to more tech savvy viewers who use streaming services to grab content they are not supposed to have access to. Redbox may have two very different audiences to work with as long as it continues to leverage physical media.
“In 2021, we continued to see growth in our streaming services and our kiosks remain very popular with our customers,” said Galen Smith, CEO of Redbox. “2022 will be a big year for Redbox as we accelerate our digital businesses and celebrate 20 years of bringing the best in entertainment to millions of customers.”
Redbox’s Top 10 Movies of 2021 On Demand
- Free Guy
- The Croods: A New Age
- F9: The Fast Saga
- Venom: Let There Be Carnage
- Wrath of Man
- Greenland
- A Quiet Place Part II
- Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard
- The Marksman
- Nobody
*Based on Transactional on Demand transactions between Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2021.
Top 10 Movies At The Kiosk
- The Croods: A New Age
- Greenland
- The Marksman
- Wonder Woman 1984
- Wrath of Man
- News of the World
- F9: The Fast Saga
- Nobody
- A Quiet Place Part II
- Let Him Go
*Based on DVD and Blu-ray rentals between Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2021.
Movies in the top 10 on both lists
The Croods: A New Age
F9: The Fast Saga
Wrath of Man
Greenland
A Quiet Place Part II
The Marksman
Nobody