This should be a familiar scenario: Warner Bros. refuses to sell its new releases to a movie rental company in an attempt to force the latter into a 28-day delay window. The rental company, unwilling to bow to imperious studio demands, obtains Warner titles through workarounds.
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The above scenario, so familiar to Redbox and its fans, is now being played out with Blockbuster in the role of the put-upon rental company. Warner, usually the most outspoken Hollywood studio when it comes to complaining about rental windows, is employing the same strong-arm tactics against its former ally, Blockbuster, that it used against Redbox not so long ago.
Warner Bros. home entertainment president Kevin Tsujihara said the following about the dispute:
“[Blockbuster] felt it was important to continue to offer day and date rental, so rather than work with us, they went around us.”
Warner’s renewed interest in implementing—and possibly extending—delay windows is ominous for Redbox and Netflix, both of whom have licensing deals with the studio that are set to expire soon.
Is Hollywood going to get its way again as it continues its efforts to out-muscle anyone that it feels stands in the way of returning to a sales-dominated model?
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(via The Wrap)
Serves Blockbuster right for sitting back and letting Redbox fight the good fight alone, all the while touting their “Day and Date” availability… another nail in the Blockbuster coffin.
I never buy DVD or BR media and never will. The rental delay only delays someone receiving my rental dollars. What other industry purposefully delays selling into customer demand? Makes no sense to not take my money. People who want the hardcopy are going to buy it regardless, and people who don’t will never. The delay does nothing but anger customers.
‘What other industry purposefully delays selling into customer demand?’
Interesting quesiton. Couldn’t you ask in another way like what other industry tries to encourage high dollar, high margin demand first before allowing access to low dollar, low margin demand next. I think lots of industries do that.
I do think that no matter what warner does it will have an extremely difficult time expanding the pie (which is what this is all about anyway). Said another way if Redbox $1 a night kiosk did not exist would the total dollars expand significantly for the studios? I think not. A lot of Redbox rentals would simply vanish into thin air offsetting many of the dollars bewkes believes awaits him at VOD and sell through. When you figure in less exposure/turns in general for films with even more offsets I think this whole 60 day idea is tail chasing/herding cats. Experiment away though Mr. Studio.
Actually I would equate rental versus purchase most closely to store brand products. We don’t know who makes the store brand anymore due to new packaging regulations (it used to be listed, no longer required.) Anyway we know Bayer doesn’t make the off brand asprin because it tells us that. Johnson and Johnson or some other big brand probably does however. they make money off both products and reap the rewards of both consumer levels. Wal-Mart brand peanut butter had it’s makeer disclosed in the last bought of food poisoning just like all pet food except Del-Monte brands are made by the same company.
What I’m saying in short is that the studios need to embrace the rental system and find a way to make it work for all involved. Charging full price is ok, or go with a more reasonable profit margin model. Either way make it work. The window doesn’t work. It just gets us used to a longer delay window.
@FLON
Maybe studios should think outside the box and *pre-sale* titles based on trailers.
Don’t season tickets to ball games or subscriptions to theatrical or musical performances get sold this way?
Disney and Pixar could easily use brand leverage to try this model and couldn’t all the *sequels* be sold in similar fashion?
Someday…I don’t know what day, but someday the people that run the big movie companies will realize the 28 day window doesn’t sell even 1 extra DVD in that time period. It’s a stupid assumption that someone won’t wait 28 days to rent it for $2 but rather go spend $20 to have it right now, sight unseen in most cases.
The important thing is what FedUP said and shame to whomever voted it down. If you like Blockbuster that’s fine. Fanboys are here and attacking the commenters. I’ve suggested that only registered members vote so we can track the fanboys and hold them accountable but that was never done. Don’t vote things down just because you like BB. Hell, it’s like trying to get a fair review of an apple product. The fanboys give it 5 stars, the haters give it 1, no one has the balls to be honest.
You can’t deny however that BB has one major strength left and that’s day and date release. Now that they are going down the same road that Redbox and Netflix did shows that they are no longer immune to Hollywood. The Hollywood system doesn’t work for rentals and doesn’t really work for theatres anymore (up to 90 percent of sales to the studio) because it doesn’t allow for overhead.
BB apologists, vote me down if you will. It matters not.
Right that has been the 1 thing that BB can promote to win back customers is they don’t have the 28 day release. It’s very prominent in their advertising.
Redbox raising prices nationwide to $1.20 per day beginning on October 31st, per investor conference call.
Make your online reserve for the first day for a $1 till 11/30
Price increase as noted above and all new terms and conditions
http://www.redbox.com/pricechange
I told you guys it was coming….! :-)
Personally I can’t stand the blasted studios for all this crap. I think I’ve bought 1 dvd in the last year or so. If it increases much beyond 28 days I will have forgotten about the movie and won’t even rent it let alone buy it.
And no…. Warner… I didn’t buy it because I couldn’t rent it right away. I bought it because I was planning on buying it anyways. Your crap just makes me never want to buy another movie again.
Was NOT a Warner title anyways…. stupid studio.
I really wish I could meet the people who think of these things. You know, the same people who ARE NOT the ones buying or renting the merchandise.
I for one, want to thank WB for being a big part in helping me overcome my DVD collecting habit. (why i haven’t switched to blu ray- way big DVD collection.)
I used to run and buy DVD’s to add to my collection… then, one day, I noticed things start disappearing.. artwork sleeve missing from inside dvd case… then dvd case was missing a giant chunk of plastic that was cut out of it in a form of a “recycle” logo….then the 4 color artwork on the disc itself was gone… then special features were gone…then menu’s were just non moving wallpaper…to finally the picture quality of the movie itself looking like something off YouTube. I almost bought Harry Potter DH pt1, just to complete my Harry collection, (ongoing since 2000-I have the other 6) but what I was getting for my money was soooo terrible, I couldn’t spend the money. I had it in my hand and put it back on the shelf.
Now WB helped me again. They helped this hyper-active adhadd person learn patience with the 28 day ruling. I used to rush out and rent the day titles were made available…. Now, I go if I remember. Can’t tell you what the last WB title was that I watched.
So, either way, I take all the changes they make as they really don’t want my money. So thank you WB.
Bart927,
I’m in the same boat as you. I use to buy DVD’s all the time. I’d rent first to see if I liked it, then I would go buy it. I also noticed the gradual decline in value that you described. Over a year ago, I noticed the picture quality of DVD’s was getting bad. I didn’t know what to make of it other than the studios were maybe purposely doing this to push Blu-ray. Harry Potter DH1 is a good example, another is Inception. The movie is over compressed and it shows.
I too have stopped buying DVD’s and Blu-ray since the studios started messing with my rental options. I recently purchased the Star Wars Saga on Blu-ray, my first purchase in a year and a half. Keep it up studios, keep delaying rentals and I’ll keep on waiting to rent.. If you want people to buy more movies, maybe pay your talent less and charge less for the movie. These are hard times.
I haven’t purchased a new movie in over three years. If it wasn’t for the availability of used and discounted DVD’s I would have no movies at all. I have no interest in Blue-Ray either. Cost and the quality of a movie is my prime concern. In tight money times like these, entertainment is one of the first areas I cut. I wonder how many millions the CEO’s, stock holders and banks need to make before they are rich enough. Even Henry Ford knew he could not sell cars if his workers did not make enough money to buy them. I do have a question. If red box took cash instead of debit and credit cards, would they still raise the price on a cash transaction. Also no one is forcing the credit card companies to charge the max rate they can charge are they? I am getting tired of people blaming our current political administration for credit card rates, banks have been slowly raising their fees for years. Seems to me the idea of charging me for the process of paying the bill, at the rate of 25% per $1.00 transaction is crazy.
theres no redbox is going cash, how would they charge you if you went over your days. Using debit cards are a good way to keep track of accounts etc etc. If you are really concerned about the fees for debit cards then you need to move banks. The banks think its a privilege to use one and charging us to use our own money. Like I said go with a credit union or just go with a smaller bank.
I have not used RedBox in some time. I was with NetFlix. When they did the last price bit. I was gone! Went to BlockBuster. I now get 16 DVD a month. $16.50 a month. (4) DVDs a week. As for the ones. Not much new worth watching.
I can sit tight a few week. No big EEE.
I get my dvds from the library. No 28 day delay and no cost.
I used to do that but the respect for dvds are different for library users and redbox users.
Hollywood needs to look at it a different way. They can put the movie out and let millions enjoy it and they make money or they can keep it out of redbox/bbx for 28 days and make me go to my old ways and go to illegal sites and they get no money. Pretty simple.
Movie companies, Netflicks, and now Redbox (with it’s upcoming price increase) don’t you know you are angering you customers? I know of more and more people turning to the bootlegger. Redbox new price $1.20 ($1.33 with tax in TN) plus 28 day window vs. Bootlegger $5 (dvd quality) no 28 day wait. Why rent when you can own for $5.