Q: Why won't my iTunes movie rental play or download?

I'd report the problem to the iTunes Store. 

Log in to the Store. Click on "Account" in your Quick Links. When you're in your Account information screen, go down to Purchase History and click "See all".

Find the item that is not playing properly. If you can't see "Report a Problem" next to the item, click the "Report a problem" button. Now click the "Report a Problem" link next to the item.

I had this same issue; black screen with ability to scroll through the entire movie but not play it. I tried all suggestions i.e., updating itunes and deauthorizing/ reauthorizing my computer.

I finally fixed it by going up to the top bar under "Window" and clicking on the "Miniplayer". Once the miniplayer appeared in the left hand corner of the screen I clicked the play button and the full screen opened and began to play the rented movie. I have no explanation for why this works. Give it a few tries if it doesn't work immediatley.

Hope this unexplainable fix helps you too.

I am having this exact same problem, except when I went to mini player it would not play there either. It simply opened up a black screen. Nothing I do will get my movie to play. I am disgusted. With all the hype over how great Apple products are, you'd think they could take care of something like this. No wonder everyone is using Netflix instead.

I too have the same issue with the last 3 movie rentals downloading to about 10 or 12% but then they stop downloading. If I try to play the movie I get a blank screen in the player, but can drag the slider and see still shots of the movie. I tried the miniplayer suggestion but that hasn't worked. Running itunes 11.0.4.4 on a win7 puter with a Samsung SSD hard drive. I ran diagnostics in itunes and all shows OK. Any one got a solution? Unfortunately we can't (legally) use Netflix in New Zealand.

Have the same problem as the original poster. The movie that I can't play I have rented from the iTunes Store before, I thought maybe that's why it wouldn't work. Anyway, the MiniPlayer solution provided didn't work. Apple/iTunes support so far has not helped at all. Unlike whatastupidnickname, I don't see any stills when I move the slider around to different parts of the movie, only black. If I click on the Chapters button/dropdown, though, it shows a list of Chapters with pictures. If I click on one, it goes there but still shows nothing. Running iTunes 11.0.4.4 on Mountin Lion (OS X 10.8.4).

same problem here.

"play rental now"

lies. all lies.

Perfect! That miniplayer fix worked like a charm

I had the same problem as original poster. The miniplayer trick didn't work. I tried restarting computer, restarting itunes, signing in and out of itunes, authorizing this computer.

I then deauthorized this computer and then tried to play the movie and when I got the warning to authorize this computer I then authorized this computer and tried to play the video again and low and behold ...it worked. After only hours of downloading and over an hour of trying to fix the problem, now I can watch this 2 hour movie.(Sarcasm)

New Apple slogan.....

"It just works....sometimes, maybe, if you try many work arounds and waste a lot of time googleing and reading dozens of problems on their forum!"

I had the exact same problem. When it happened to me, it was because the movie had stopped downloading. When I resumed the download, I was able to play the movie.

Same problem. Report sent.

Wont' play. Tried all above fixes. Don't work for me.

Was fully downloaded before play.

WHAT THE WHAT. THAT WORKED!!!

Using the Miniplayer worked!

same thing happened to me... miniplayer fix worked after a few tries! thanks!

Same problem nothing works... miniplayer only plays random music from my library when I click on it. SUPER LAME. Way to ruin movie night apple...thanks. Can't beleive they haven't posted a solution to this by now. WAY DISAPPOINTED them.

Had the same issue a few times. Bought movie, wouldn't play- just showed black screen 0.00, could flick through screen shots but wouldn't play. First time solved by buying SD instead of HD, Apple gladly refunded the unusable purchase.

This time fixed by the advice above- swapping from minibrowser to normal window trying play each time. After about 7 attempts it just started playing, but if I paused the movie I had to go through the same procedure.