Just got out of a management meeting at work, and we learned that Blockbuster may be closing its doors beginning next year if they don't have a really strong fourth quarter this year. How do you all feel about the rental industry, and what's your take on the largest video rental company in the world going bankrupt? Personally, it's kind of scary. Without blockbuster, Movie Gallery/Hollywood Video will now dominate the in-store rental industry, and Netflix will dominate the online/mail rental industry.

For some fun, if you rent movies/games whatever, where do you get them?

Blockbuster = ***** by Netflix.

I don't really rent anymore. I generally just buy or watch it on tv...

With things like Dish Network's DVR and TiVo, you don't even need to rent most of the time as you can just search and record a movie.

The only thing I can really see being the key thing to rent nowadays is games, but I've never been impressed with any stores selection of games. Any game I've found interesting usually just has 2-3 copies ever available on the shelf and they're usually all gone. Maybe if they increased that section?

As for Blockbuster, one thing that really kills them is lack of quality control. A few times I've rented games only to find them horribly mangled, yet theres no way that could've gotten past if someone had checked it?

Overall, I just don't find it surprising that they're going under. Before we got Blockbuster here the rental store used to be Mega Movies, but when Blockbuster bought them out the quality just went down horribly and the prices went up.

I don't rent movies frequently enough to care. I'll go where ever is closest. Only rent movies a couple times a year.

Really, I couldn't see renting much from retail places such as this due to the fact that their prices are so high for new releases now.

I'm on the NetFlix band wagon, and I love it. I'm on the most basic plan $9.99 for month - unlimited rentals with one movie at a time.

If I put it in the mail one day, usually it takes one day to get to their distribution facility here - then the day after that I receive the next movie on my list. New releases - anything.

Plus, no pressure in having a time limit to watch - can share lists with friends and everything else. It just works better for me.

The only disadvantage I can see is that if I wanted to see a movie tonight I'm SOL, but that doesn't really happen that much

I don't rent movies.

If I did, theres a blockbuster card laying around somewhere.

Glad Blockbuster is going out.

They overcharge, and they drove a really GOOD rental place that was local right out of business (just by popularity alone. The local store had better selection, longer rent times, and cheaper fees. You could rent a movie for $5, for 5 days. Same with games)

With cable and VOD, if I don't buy it, then I wait for it to come out on HBO or some similar channel.

I rarely rent movies (I only occasionally watch movies, like 1 per month), but I would go to Blockbuster because that was the main place to rent movies, besides a grocery store.

Blockbuster could shut down? I don't see that happening, as they are pretty big still, but it could happen. Pirated movies sure will cut 'em.

[QUOTE=Cool Matty]Glad Blockbuster is going out.

They overcharge, and they drove a really GOOD rental place that was local right out of business (just by popularity alone. The local store had better selection, longer rent times, and cheaper fees. You could rent a movie for $5, for 5 days. Same with games)[/QUOTE]
That's exactly how I feel about Blockbuster too, it's done the same thing here.

We have a subscription to screenselect.co.uk, but generally just get tv shows from that. If I'm in the mood to watch a film, I'll get it from the library below my work, £2 for 2 nights.

I mean, look at Blockbuster numbers though...

They reported a loss of $491.4 million this year. This is less than last year which was $1.41 billion - which is good in a way I guess

They had to markdown goodwill and other assets due to impairment by $1.5 billion last year, and it looks like this year it'll be $459.1 million

Their revenue this year was $1.39 billion - but still down 2%.

With NetFlix taking customers away, Blockbuster's online service membership has stalled in numbers, and Blockbuster is stating most of their assets are used as collaterals for loans and stuff.

This is not a pretty picture for Blockbuster, or if you're their creditors. Thus, if Blockbuster reaches a situation where they can't pay their debts - their creditors could invoke an involuntary bankruptcy hearing for Chapter 7. This means Blockbuster would/could be liquidated.

Now, Blockbuster could file for Chapter 11 and try to keep the business going, but they're really going to need to change their business plan to survive. If not - Chapter 7 is where they are heading - whether voluntary or not

If they pull out, they're probably going to have to close stores and puch their online service more exculsivly.

I don't really rent movies at the moment, but when I do in the future, I'll be using NetFlix.

Agreed - most people haven't even heard of Blockbuster's online service (I really don't see it advertised anywhere), while I hear about Netflix all the time. Plus you see ad's for Netflix on tons of internet sites (Wal-Mart, Yahoo, etc)

Hmm. What about those who don't have internet or a good connection?

i've seen adverts for their online service on tv in britland

I've never rented videos, I just buy them. I've been tempted with Netflix though.

Big Blue is IBM. Blockbuster is little blue. And the yellow is urine, because Blockbuster is retarded and pissed all over itself. Blockbuster is a terrible company and I'll be glad to see it die.

All of the Blockbusters in Britain are franchises owned by a single company. The same company owns another popular British movie chain but I can't remember the name, so Britain Blockbusters will likely change their names when the American corporation collapses. There are still the rare few states-side franchise stores. Those will likely survive but they'll probably change their franchise to Hollywood Video or the next big competitor. All of the franchise stores in Canada were bought out by the company after taking out a huge mortgage on them. Blockbuster was already driven out of Hong Kong due to piracy and off of the internet by better companies.

Regarding quality control: While I worked at Blockbuster they instituted a set of policies called Project STORE. Essentially you are only supposed to check a case to see if a movie is in it once. You don't check it to make sure as the person is renting the movie because this costs the company precious seconds of time.
You do not check the back of the DVD, as it's cheaper to rent it out to a customer and let him tell you if it works. Then -- and only then -- do you file it for repairs.

Blockbuster pays its managers next to nothing, while at the same time telling us how we were "vital to the process". It's back-handed. The only reason anybody works there is because it's slightly better than McDonalds (although it pays less - even for entry-level customer service positions).

As far as their business model goes: The executives of Blockbuster are, in fact, mentally handicapped. This isn't a joke. They're retarded, I'm 100% certain.

A rental DVD from major distributors (Sony, Warner, Fox, Alliance Atlantis, Paramount) costs $4 plus a percentage of rental profits. So they generally recoup the price of the rental DVD and the case after the first 2 rents. The average large title at my store raked in about $5000 CAD over its first year on the shelf (Hidalgo, for instance, was about $4300 when I left). The average large title had about 100 copies, so that makes $45 in raw profit per DVD. I'm not sure what percentage the studio takes from that though.

When a rental movie no longer rents as well, it's sold as a Previously Viewed Movie. This accounts for a very large portion of Blockbuster's total revenue. The movie itself has been paid for already and the entire sales price is pure profit. That brings up the raw profit per DVD to about $65, assuming someone is gullible enough to buy it when it just hits the shelf. Believe me - it's not worth paying $19.99 for a previously viewed movie, and no, Blockbuster employees don't make sure they work.

So anyway. That's $65 in profit, per DVD, if it comes from a major distributor. Blockbuster pays full price for games and movies from smaller distributors. This is why you almost never see foreign films and why the games selection is usually so crappy. The games section is actually a profit sink for Blockbuster - it's just to get people in the store and thinking about purchasing Previously Rented Product.

So Blockbuster is swimming in profit. They have a business model that works. If I had the kind of industry connections to get that $4/DVD + percentage deal, I'd open a store and make a fortune. Maybe Blockbuster wouldn't be reporting half a billion in losses if the executives didn't get a half-billion dollar bonus this year? Just saying.

Edit: From the above you might get the impression that I just worked in a bad store. I didn't. My store was the #3 Blockbuster in Canada in sales and we consistently recieved praise for following corporate policy.

If I rent I go to blockbuster because Hollywood video is right next to Wal-Mart which is horrible to get into.

Usually I find one of my hot female friends or rich male friends and see if they want to watch the movie I want to see on either their cuddle-riffic couch or huge overpriced TV.

I say cut their losses, close all their stores and focus primarily on the expansion and advertisement of their online service. The attraction to having someone send you a DVD is too great. Sorry to say, but I and probobly most people are more attracted to not having to go through the hassle of actually driving to your nearest blockbuster. Not only can getting there and bringing it back be annoying enough, but it's an added annoyance to it if you get there and they don't have what you want, or forget your card or something.

What would be a real convenience, but would cost loads more and would never happen, were for instead of having to wait for your DVD in the mail, you could call up a blockbuster location of sorts, and they would deliver the DVD. You could have that sense of a more instant gratification, everything could be done in a warehouse with a astronomical selection compared to the stores, don't have to worry about presentation, etc.

Blockbuster's biggest error was their dodgy "No Late Fee" policy that totally backfired into their faces. They're facing lawsuits left and right, and they're losing a HUGE percentage of revenue generated by overdue charges. I work for Hollywood Video, and I know that 20% of the average store's weekly revenue comes from late fees.

Also, with the lack of definitive due dates for their products, a lot of their shelves sit empty for weeks at a time because nobody returns their movies. This drives a lot of customers away because stores never have what they want.

If blockbuster goes down, each store will have to liquidate their movie inventory or change their name.

it might be a good way to get a lot of DVDs for practically nothing if a store decides to close down.


I generally rent from a place called United Video, which offers $1.50 DVD rentals and 75 cent VHS rentals. That price is really hard to beat. They have a good inventory, too.

Whoa. That's a good point!

You don't need a good connection. YOu list what you want and they send it to you inthe mail.

[QUOTE=Cool Matty]Glad Blockbuster is going out.

They overcharge, and they drove a really GOOD rental place that was local right out of business (just by popularity alone. The local store had better selection, longer rent times, and cheaper fees. You could rent a movie for $5, for 5 days. Same with games)[/QUOTE]

here, you can get a movie for 7 days for three dollars, (1 if you get it on a monday)

note, those are australian dollars. I am reffering to civic video. I also use video-ezy.

even the ones in australia, if so, i will be watching the blockbusters in woden, erindale and the one around the street like a hawk.

I rent at Hastings, but I hear it's a Texas and/or southern states only chain which might be why no one else has posted it.

NOOOOOOOO!![/vader] NOT THE ONLY STORE WITH NO LATE FEES!!!

The BlockBuster by my house has been their forever. I'll be sad to see them go.

Although, the library is partially to blame for my lack of visitng them.

Free books and movies are always fun.

And so is the internet.

I've never rented. Never seen the point of it, really.

For some reason, I can't imagine renting movies online. How long does a movie take for delivery? 1 day? 3 days? Whenever I want to see a movie, I want to see it almost immediately (or it least within a day of the original wanting) so I simply just go to get it. I would never wait unless it was unattainable for some reason.