American Beauty was released on VHS on May 9 , 2000 , and on DVD with the DTS format on October 24 , 2000 . Before the North American rental release on May 9 , 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 . 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 , 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 ; Blockbuster claimed it was only " [ monitoring ] customer demand " due to the reduced availability . Blockbuster '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 Blockbuster reached an agreement . In the same year , The Sixth Sense 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 . Blockbuster 's strategy also affected rental fees ; American Beauty averaged $ 3 @.@ 12 , compared with $ 3 @.@ 40 for films that Blockbuster fully promoted . Only 53 % of the film 's rentals were from large outlets in the first week , compared with the usual 65 % .