Rent is the film adaptation of the award-winning Broadway musical of the same name, released November 23, 2005. Production began March 15, 2005. The film's limited release date in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto on November 11, 2005 was cancelled, and the official premiere was at New York's Ziegfeld Theatre on November 17, 2005.

The DVD is expected to be released on February 21, 2006.

Many exterior shots were filmed in New York City; the interior and remaining exterior shots were filmed in San Francisco and Oakland. In order to create a set of squatters living in an abandoned building, the producers found a squat in West Oakland, evicted real squatters, and destroyed their home. They then hired a crew to build a fake squat where the real one had once been.

Until 2001, Spike Lee was to direct the film for Miramax. However, budget constraints and Lee's insistence on casting big-name stars like Justin Timberlake and Britanny Murphy led the film to be shelved. In October 2004, Revolution Studios picked up the film, with Chris Columbus as the director and Columbia Pictures as the distributor.

The first trailer for the film featuring the song "Seasons of Love" surfaced on various Rent fan sites in early June 2005. The trailer was said to be shown before the films Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Crash in select cities beginning June 3 2005. MovieMusicals.net reported that the trailer would officially be released June 7 2005, exclusively on America Online; the movie's official blog announced it would also air during the June 7 episode of Access Hollywood.

A second trailer was released on August 25 2005, which featured some dialog from the film as well as music from the second part of the finale ("Finale B"). A third trailer aired during the September 2005 season premiere of Nip/Tuck, which contained new footage set again to "Seasons of Love."

In the film as in the musical, the story takes place over one year. The film, however, differs in that it provides the precise beginning and ending dates of the storyline: between December 24, 1989 and that same date in 1990. (This precise dating creates a slight anachronism: The song "Today 4 U" contains a reference to Thelma and Louise, a film released in 1991.)