Editing American Beauty (1999 film) (section)

===Home media===
''American Beauty'' was released on [[VHS]] on May 9, 2000,<ref name=Hoffmann>{{cite news|last=Hoffmann |first=Bill |date=March 28, 2000 |title=Pretty Penny for 'Beauty'?; Big Win Expected to Give Film a Major Boo$t |work=[[New York Post]] |page=52 |url=https://nypost.com/2000/03/28/pretty-penny-for-beauty-big-win-expected-to-give-film-a-major-boot/ |access-date=May 15, 2023}}</ref> and on [[DVD]] with the [[DTS (sound system)|DTS]] format on October 24, 2000.<ref name="nyt dvd">{{cite news|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/180738/American-Beauty/dvd |title=American Beauty: About the DVD |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080224182816/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/180738/American-Beauty/dvd |archive-date=February 24, 2008 |work=The New York Times |access-date=December 3, 2009}}</ref> Before the North American rental release on May 9,<ref name="villa">{{cite news|last=Villa |first=Joan |date=April 28, 2000 |title=Beating Blockbuster on American Beauty |work=Video Business}}</ref> [[Blockbuster 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. Blockbuster and DreamWorks could not agree on a profit-sharing deal, so Blockbuster ordered two-thirds the number of copies it originally intended.<ref name="bbv">{{cite magazine|first=Wendy |last=Wilson |date=May 18, 2000 |title=Blocked beauty  |magazine=Variety |url=https://variety.com/2000/digital/features/blocked-beauty-1117781831/ |access-date=August 11, 2023}}</ref> DreamWorks made around one million copies available for rental; Blockbuster's share would usually have been about 400,000 of these. Some Blockbuster stores only displayed 60 copies,<ref name="nichols">{{cite news|last=Nichols |first=Peter M. |date=May 26, 2000 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/26/movies/home-video-on-the-shelves-or-maybe-not.html |title=On the Shelves (Or Maybe Not) |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110010241/http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/26/movies/home-video-on-the-shelves-or-maybe-not.html |archive-date=November 10, 2016 |work=The New York Times |page=E28}}</ref> and others did not display the film at all, forcing customers to ask for it.<ref name="bbv" /><ref name="nichols" /> The strategy required staff to read a statement to customers explaining the situation; Blockbuster claimed it was only "[monitoring] customer demand" due to the reduced availability.<ref name="bbv" /> Blockbuster's strategy leaked before May 9, leading to a 30 percent order increase from other retailers.<ref name="villa" /><ref name="bbv" />

In its first week of rental release, ''American Beauty'' made $6.8&nbsp;million. This return was lower than would have been expected had DreamWorks and Blockbuster reached an agreement. In the same year, ''[[The Sixth Sense]]'' made $22&nbsp;million, while ''[[Fight Club]]'' made $8.1&nbsp;million, though the latter's North American theatrical performance was just 29 percent that of ''American Beauty''. Blockbuster's strategy also affected rental fees; ''American Beauty'' averaged $3.12, compared with $3.40 for films that Blockbuster fully promoted. Only 53 percent of the film's rentals were from large outlets in the first week, compared with the usual 65 percent.<ref name="bbv" />

The DVD release included a behind-the-scenes featurette, film audio commentary from Mendes and Ball, and a storyboard presentation with discussion from Mendes and Hall.<ref name="nyt dvd" /> In the film commentary, Mendes refers to deleted scenes he intended to include in the release.<ref>{{harvnb|Mendes|Ball|2000|loc=chapters 19–20}}</ref> However, these scenes are not on the DVD, as he changed his mind after recording the commentary;<ref>{{cite news|last=Perry |first=Vern |date=October 30, 2000 |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-7249806_ITM |title=These discs go to extremes |work=[[The Orange County Register]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081220023820/http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-7249806_ITM |archive-date=December 20, 2008}}</ref> Mendes felt that to show scenes he previously chose not to use would detract from the film's integrity.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Fitzpatrick |first=Eileen |date=July 29, 2000 |title=Film Directors Assess DVD Extras' Pros, Cons |magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |page=88 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kxEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA88 |access-date=May 15, 2023}}</ref>

On September 21, 2010, [[Paramount Home Entertainment]] released ''American Beauty'' on [[Blu-ray]], as part of Paramount's Sapphire Series. All the extras from the DVD release were present, with the theatrical trailers upgraded to [[High-definition video|HD]].<ref>[http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/American-Beauty-Blu-ray/7746/ "American Beauty Blu-ray: Sapphire Edition"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110126080448/http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/American-Beauty-Blu-ray/7746/ |date=January 26, 2011}}. ''Blu-ray.com''.</ref>