It completed the takeover by DVD as the top choice for watching movies at home, a brutal destruction and takeover of the VHS format that had served the world since the late 1970s. And as we’ve discussed in the past, the death of VHS took the rental window with it. For people who are far younger than me, that was the months-long gap where you could rent a film, or buy an ex-rental in a big box, before an official sell-through release (in a smaller box!) followed. December 1997 was notable in the world of US VHS rentals, then, because it marked the point were Star Wars finally toppled E.T. The Extra Terrestrial from the top of the rankings. Spielberg’s 1982 alien tale was the top-grossing US video rental for 14 years before Star Wars finally toppled it. And the top 20 rentals of all time at this stage made for fascinating reading:

  1. Star Wars: A New Hope ($270.9m)2. E.T. ($228.2m)3. Jurassic Park ($212.9m)4. Return Of The Jedi ($191.6m)5. Independence Day ($177.2m)6. The Empire Strikes Back ($173.8m)7. The Lion King ($173.1m)8. Forrest Gump ($156m)9. Batman ($150.5m)10. Home Alone ($140.1m) Digging further down into the top 25, and it’s interesting to remember just how much some films hung around. Beverly Hills Cop ($108m), all the Indiana Jones films, Grease ($96.3m), Ghostbusters ($132.7m), The Exorcist ($89m) and Superman ($82.8m) were amongst the titles that kept video rental shops happily ticking over. Don’t forget too that these are just US numbers: takings further afield would add a fair amount of extra change, as would the eventual sell-through release (although America was ahead of the UK in releasing popular titles to sell-through at the same time as rental, a model that Disney in particular scored huge success with). For studios, the DVD era would prove to be even more lucrative though, with more and more of us willing to stump up to own a copy of a film, as sell-through trounced rental in the way that DVD was trouncing VHS. Ironically, there’s some degree of reverse gear being deployed, with video on demand – primarily via 48 hour rentals – proving to be the latest cash cow, and the one that Hollywood is banking on to stave off the decline in physical disc sales. The full list, if you’re so inclined, can be found here. It’s worth it for the weeping nostalgia, of an era long, long before a Netflix list.