While their stock has slowly declined over the past 5 years from $25+ a share down to $6 a share these stores still seem to be around and I haven’t seen any close down yet.
How do these places stay open?
-Netflix took away a huge portion of their business.
-I can rent from Redbox or Hollywood Video machines for $1 a night.
-I can buy new releases for $15
Who the heck still goes to Blockbuster and pays $4.50 to rent a DVD?
The only time I wander in one nowdays is to skim through their massive collection of previously-viewed DVDs that they don’t seem to be moving very well.
So how long until they start closing down the stores?
We just switched from Netflix (slow turn around times, too many damaged discs) to Blockbuster on-line. A large part of that decision was because we can walk our returns over to Blockbuster and immediately get a free rental, but we’re not limited to the local choices because we still get DVD’s through the mail. It’s the ideal choice for us - brick and mortar AND online. It’s great for those nights when you want something light and romantic and all you’ve been sent is Grave of the Fireflies and A History of Violence and Your Friends and Neighbors is on the way, but you don’t have to pay the $4.25 at the store. Also, they give us free game rental coupons to use at the store each month, which Netflix didn’t.
Using the dual approach, turn around is effectively 10 minutes, and we’ve had far fewer problems with damaged discs. It also means we’re not limited to the three movie at a time thing: store returns still trigger another mail order but don’t count towards your total, so I can return three mailers to the store, get three free movies at the store, and they mail me another three before I even get home. So I can have 6 discs out at a time while only paying the same thing I paid Netflix for 3! If they can push this angle and even increase their online catalog (which is admittedly smaller than Netflix), they may just make a comeback.
But I think the heyday of huge rental revenue is over. That was killed by the studios deciding to put out DVDs at purchase prices instead of the old 2-tier system in place for VHS. Many more people will just buy a DVD for $25, especially because it takes so long to watch all the special features - renting it for 1/4 the purchase price just isn’t worth it. Back when new movies were $100, renting made more sense.
If movies had always been as cheap as music, we would never have had movie rentals in the first place - there are no CD rental stores.
Well I go to Blockbuster rather than the discount chain ones like Hollywood and stuff because I’ve noticed Blockbuster has a better selection. More newer releases, more older movies, indie movies, etc. It’s expensive though - I got my card this past summer and had to pay $10 for the Rewards card. New rentals being $4 sucks too. But I always get free rentals because of the Rewards card. I’d love Netflix but sometimes I like to go rent 4 movies at a time or whatever and I don’t think Netflix gives you that many at once. And you don’t get to pick what exactly you get when you want it as I understand, they just come from your list whenever they are available. But Netflix having a huge selection is very appealing. The Blockbuster here is a little tame, being in a smaller town and all. They do have a small Sundance selection though. I think Blockbuster is still around because they’re everywhere and convenient for most people to pop in an get the movies they want whenever.
There are still a lot of pockets around where people don’t cotton to computer things. Don’t get me wrong, Blockbuster is screwed but they may never actually go away. It depends on how well they can shrink as a brick and mortar business which is harder than the growing part.
For that matter, Netflix is screwed in the long-run as well. I have it and love it but, within the next 5 years, unlimited on demand video with as many or more movies will start gaining ground and compete around the same price or lower if people don’t watch many movies. Their model will look more antiquated than Blockbusters.
Blockbuster still has instant gratification on its side, so I don’t see it being washed away by services like netflicks any time soon.
I use netflicks for most my movies. Occasionaly I walk through my local Blockbuster to find things I didn’t notice on netflicks. I might rent like one movie every other month from Blockbuster.
On demand services aren’t capturing me anytime soon. I have the most basic cable plan with cable internet only because it is cheaper than just internet. Maybe if the prices ever come down to something reasonable to me I’d consider paying for on demand services.
I think Blockbuster still has alot of time before they start closing stores. They are willing to adapt to a changing market. I think you will see other retailers stop selling DVD’s(or other) before blockbuster starts folding their tents.
myskepticsight, you can rent 4 at a time with Netflix at about $20 per month.
Whynot, I agree, Netflix’s turnaround time is much longer than their advertisements lead one to believe. I disagree, however, about music rentals. The two forms of media are inherantly different. With movies, you sit down and watch the whole thing (generally speaking), and may go months before you watch it again. With CDs, people often listen to a favorite track, and pop it in perhaps once a week. That doesn’t lend itself to rental as well. The rest of your post is spot on, however.
I think renting still makes sense because a lot of people don’t see the point in watching a movie more than once.
I suspect that the B&M stores will have trouble surviving over the next 10-15 years or so as broadband and movies on demand become more popular. I already have a wide selection of on demand movies on my cable system, at prices competitive with Blockbuster, many of them are even free. Netflix is rolling out streaming video of some sort this year, where you get X hours of video depending on your rental plan.
Put those together with AppleTV, or the generic versions that will be coming out, and one will be able to get a huge variety of movies at practically any time, without leaving your home. You will still pay for it, so it’s technically a rental, but you don’t have to return anything.
I also don’t understand the appeal of buying a DVD, unless the purchase price is very close or cheaper than the rental price, as if that ever happens. With literally hundreds of thousands of movies in existence, why would you re-watch something you have already seen, if there is something out there that you have not seen? I can see stopping on a favorite scene when channel surfing, or wanting a few films handy in case of a cable outage or snowstorm, but other than that, I don’t understand the vast DVD libraries most people have. The argument “why rent it four four bucks when I can buy it for 15?” is odd to me.
But that listening habit has been formed *because *people can afford to buy CD’s (and cassettes and 8-tracks and vinyl before them). If CD’s were $100, they’d have been offered for rent by someone. (As, is seems, they are wherever **Sublight **is.) Lots of people watch movies over and over again, especially children, who will FF to their favorite scenes, much like listening to one song. In fact, back when the two-tier pricing system was in effect, a general exception to that policy was children’s movies, because getting a kid to return a favorite movie is excruciating. Studios knew Mom an Dad would shell out $30 (high even then) for a copy they could keep.
Heck, with downloading - pay or stealing - more people are becoming music hoarders. I know people with literally thousands of whole albums on MP3 and dozens more downloaded every day - there’s no possible way that all of them are going to be listened to regularly, even in a very long lifetime. But the technology changes the behavior more than the other way 'round.
I do agree that once On Demand or real time downloads of movies become faster, less prone to freezing and have bigger libraries that both the brick-and-mortars and the online DVD’s are going to have one last death scene. Still, those AOLer’s will hold out for a few decades before they are too small a demographic to matter anymore.
I think there is a still a market for bricks-and-mortar movie places.
As has been noted already, some people enjoy movies but don’t have an good reliable internet connection at home. That makes ordering movies via Netflix a pretty big hassle. That’s prevented me from getting a Netflix membership for several relatives whom I know would otherwise love it.
We belong to Netflix and another by-mail DVD service, but we maintain our Blockbuster membership. For one thing, when “shopping” for a kid-friendly movie for my son, it’s better for us to be shopping the shelves together and selecting a movie that can be watched immediately. My husband and I recently started watching a TV series on DVD, and when we were ripping through it I just went to Blockbuster every few days to get more–we weren’t willing to wait for the mailing turnaround time.
That’s what my father decided on too, so he has 50s sci-fi and other specialty stuff the store doesn’t in his queue, but then also can grab first-run rentals. (He used to have to wait until they went Blue Triangle to get them with his unlimited membership.)
I do buy my all-time favorites on DVD, when they are on sale 3/$20. I don’t watch them that often but I like the feeling of a collection. I rarely rent but when I get in the mood I rent six or eight films at once so the rental store is good for that.
I think kids are a huge reason Blockbuster will stay in business. MOST kids don’t have a credit card they can use with Netflix - or a video game rental site.
Last time I went to BB the store was 50% video games.
It’s much easier for a kid to save up $5 and go to Blockbuster to rent a game or a movie than to finagle their way to an online account.
Don’t forget - people love to bitch about Blockbuster. Whether it’s late fees, not having new movies in stock, collection practices, “censorship” of movies, some people just absolutely live for it. Where would they be if they didn’t have the evil blue-and-yellow empire to complain about anymore?
