 American Beauty was released on VHS on May 9 , 2000 , and on DVD with the <unk> format on October 24 , 2000 . Before the North American rental release on May 9 , <unk> Video wanted to purchase hundreds of thousands of extra copies for its " guaranteed title " range , whereby anyone who wanted to rent the film would be guaranteed a copy . <unk> and DreamWorks could not agree on a profit @-@ sharing deal , so <unk> ordered two @-@ thirds the number of copies it originally intended . DreamWorks made around one million copies available for rental ; <unk> 's share would usually have been about 400 @,@ 000 of these . Some <unk> stores only displayed 60 copies , and others did not display the film at all , forcing customers to ask for it . The strategy required staff to read a statement to customers explaining the situation ; <unk> claimed it was only " [ monitoring ] customer demand " due to the reduced availability . <unk> 's strategy leaked before May 9 , leading to a 30 % order increase from other retailers . In its first week of rental release , American Beauty made $ 6 @.@ 8 million . This return was lower than would have been expected had DreamWorks and <unk> reached an agreement . In the same year , The Sixth <unk> made $ 22 million , while Fight Club made $ 8 @.@ 1 million , though the latter 's North American theatrical performance was just 29 % that of American Beauty . <unk> 's strategy also affected rental fees ; American Beauty averaged $ 3 @.@ 12 , compared with $ 3 @.@ 40 for films that <unk> fully promoted . Only 53 % of the film 's rentals were from large outlets in the first week , compared with the usual 65 % . 
