
For One Last Night, Make It a Blockbuster Night - pmcpinto
https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/7/19/17588856/blockbuster-alaska-rental-netflix-soldotna-anchorage
======
loso
I used to love Blockbuster. But that love quickly faded with their business
practices. Their policy of putting a hit against your credit report when you
had a late charge on a movie was the first strike. Not a movie that you kept
weeks and weeks on end at your house letting the charge pile up. Nope a two
day late charge that you didn't pay because you just assumed that you would
pay it the next time you rented a movie. There was a class action lawsuit
against them about this very practice.

The second strike was about lost movies. My ex rented movies so we could watch
them. That night I put them on the floor of the back seat of my car so I could
head in to work at the club. I came back and someone had gotten into the car
and took the movies. I reported to theft to blockbuster expecting to have to
pay for the movies. They tried to charge me $200 for each movie. $600 total. I
asked them where they nuts. I wasn't paying that. I told them I could get the
same movies down the street from Walmart at $20 a piece and give them to you.
They said fine, go ahead and do that. Why would you be that unreasonable in
the first place and try to charge me that crazy amount.

~~~
throwaway15235
I used to manage a video rental store in Australia. Can't say anything abiut
the credit report thing, that's just rediculious.

With regards to the $200 each movie, it's like that because they want you to
do what you did and go somewhere else to buy it. They can't tell you that
directly though because it's walking the line copyright wise.

Not sure about the US but here in Australia you have to buy the media from a
licenced studio distributer (Always costs at least $10 more than kmart or
target) for it to be allowed to be rented. By getting you to go out and get
the movie they don't change the asset ID in their system and no one is any the
wiser.

~~~
ianferrel
Not true in the US.

You can rent any physical media. No special license required.

~~~
tajen
No license required? nor fee? I mean, if you can rent any physical media it’s
a big loss of revenue for a studio, I’ve always assumed the studios got a
share of rentals.

~~~
Buge
No license or fee required. It's called the first-sale doctrine.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-
sale_doctrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine)

------
dbg31415
In Search of the Last Great Video Store – The Black List Blog ||
[https://blog.blcklst.com/in-search-of-the-last-great-
video-s...](https://blog.blcklst.com/in-search-of-the-last-great-video-store-
efcc393f2982)

I grew up about 2 blocks away from Scarecrow Video in Seattle. I'm happy it's
still around. Place was amazing, and... in the late 80s and early 90s they
weren't dicks about renting R movies to kids like Blockbuster was. I remember
being like 11, and I negotiated a monthly punch card in lieu of allowance. I
could rent any 12 movies I wanted! Such power for a kid. And the clerk always
had great suggestions.

It's because of Scarecrow that I got introduced to great films early... The
Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Apartment, Giant, 12 Angry Men, Dr.
Strangelove... anyway for a kid in a single parent home, I lucked out getting
to watch old classics when my friends were all busy watching stupid cartoons
and Saved By The Bell re-runs.

------
Animats
It may be time for video rental stores to make a minor comeback. Like vinyl.
Netflix's online catalog keeps shrinking, and Youtube has been cracking down
so hard that movies from the 1930s have been taken offline.

~~~
pdq
Redbox is a much smarter business model. No rental space or employees needed.

~~~
jedberg
But doesn’t solve the problem. Selection is very limited due to the lack of
space.

~~~
st26
Is that really _the_ problem? Everybody endlessly talks about how Netflix has
failed to crack the recommendation nut for something like ten years now. Maybe
a smaller, more curated selection will make a comeback, as the pendulum swings
away from infinite selection (of mostly garbage).

~~~
oriolid
The problem with Netflix, at least in Europe, is that good films are removed
and garbage stays.

~~~
girvo
Its the same in Australia. Annoying as all get out. Stan has a much better
selection.

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agoodthrowaway
Of course there are online video rentals available. We have Apple TV and just
rent movies on that. I’m sure other services are available on Android based
devices.

~~~
joefranklinsrs
It would be great if there was a way to rent original contents from different
streaming sites. Let's say I want to rent 'Terrace House' and 'Sopranos' on
the same night, this website would allow me to do that with one interface and
one 'buy' button.

~~~
dragonwriter
Google Search will let you locate such content (it has a special UI for it,
which is both platform aware—it will note services that aren't available on
your platform, like iTunes on Android, as such—and customizable) and pricing,
but it doesn't have a purchase interface, since the services don't have
purchase APIs. Most providers would probably be against anything that would
facilitate such aggregation, since that would commoditize them.

------
hallman76
Obligatory link to the Onion's Blockbuster Living Museum video:
[https://entertainment.theonion.com/historic-blockbuster-
stor...](https://entertainment.theonion.com/historic-blockbuster-store-offers-
glimpse-of-how-movi-1819594789)

------
madengr
Wonder why they just don’t start their own store?

~~~
platz
do you want to negotiate a contract with hollywood?

~~~
jedberg
The beauty of Blockbuster is that you don’t have to! Thanks to the First Sale
Doctrine, in the US, you don’t need permission from the copyright holder to
loan out legal physical copies of copyright content.

The reasons “rental copies” exist is because they were more expensive versions
that were available early so the rental stores could have them before they
were for sale.

But it was (and I guess in rural Alaska maybe still is) perfectly viable to
build a rental outfit based solely on retail copies of movies.

~~~
ghaff
I don't remember how much it carried over to the DVD era, but there was a
period when typical VHS tapes were priced very high and the expectation was
that individuals would just rent them but some, like certain Disney films,
were "priced to own" on the assumption they were the sort of movie which could
be a Christmas stocking stuffer.

I think some of the big chains also had deals with the studios where they'd
get a bunch of discs for a reduced price and paid a revenue percentage or
something like that.

~~~
chiph
I recall tapes were selling in the $65-80 range. Which was a lot of money in
the early 90's. Because tapes would wear out with each play, I elected to buy
12" LaserDiscs which cost only slightly more, but would never wear out.

For those who never saw one:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOrn2hBsYKE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOrn2hBsYKE)

~~~
ghaff
I have a shelf full of laserdiscs that I honestly don't know what to with (and
a laserdisc player). I don't want them and I assume there are individuals who
do but I'm not about to go to a lot of trouble to sell them.

I suppose I could put the whole thing on Craigslist, take it or leave it. But
I'm far enough out of a big city that I've never had much luck with that
tactic.

~~~
thaumasiotes
eBay?

~~~
ghaff
Too much hassle.

