Netflix and Blockbuster - separate Bonus DVD rentals?

I was interested in renting Monster-in-Law which comes out on 8/30/05
but noticed there was a separate Bonus DVD listed on Netflix. I looked
this DVD up on Amazon and DVD Empire and there's not a word about it
being 2 DVDs.

I then wondered if Netflix was playing games by splitting a 1-DVD
release into 2 DVDs or if Amazon and DVD Empire were wrong. After
looking further, I found a couple sites that list this release as 2
DVDs. I found 1 online review and buried near the end it mentioned 2
DVDs. It almost seems you have to visit 4 or more sites and scan every
word to find out something as simple as how many DVDs are included in
a package.

This raises a few questions:

- Does Netflix or Blockbuster ever take a single DVD release with a
movie and bonus features on the same disc and have the manufacturer
split it into 2 DVDs to make it 2 rentals? In other words, can you
safely assume if you see a Bonus DVD listed for a movie that it
must've been a 2-DVD release?

- Does Netflix or Blockbuster rent exclusive store-only DVDs such as
what Best Buy or Circuit City sometimes offers or ones like the 9th
disc from the Alien Quadrilogy? (I couldn't find it on Netflix.)

- Never having used Blockbuster, does Blockbuster rent Bonus DVDs the
same way Netflix does so it always counts as 2 rentals?

Mark

Mark wrote:

> I was interested in renting Monster-in-Law which comes out on 8/30/05
> but noticed there was a separate Bonus DVD listed on Netflix. I looked
> this DVD up on Amazon and DVD Empire and there's not a word about it
> being 2 DVDs.

Don't know whether the original disk was a two-sided, but Netflix often
recommissions one-sided pressings to avoid problems.

> - can you
> safely assume if you see a Bonus DVD listed for a movie that it
> must've been a 2-DVD release?

Yyyyyyep--Has to do with
A) accounting for fewer lost disks, and
B) not having to bother with those old two-disk envelopes anymore.

Derek Janssen