
The Ultimate Movie Paradox ? RedBox vs Downloads  - peter123
http://blogmaverick.com/2009/08/05/the-ultimate-movie-paradox-redbox-vs-downloads/
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cabacon
I thought part of the value of RedBox was in driving store traffic. Maybe
you'd go to the grocery store once a week to buy groceries, but if you're also
grabbing $1/day videos from them, you'll come back sooner to return your
video. And while you're there, maybe you buy more groceries - and if you pick
up a new video that time too, you'll be back again.

It was originally conceived by McDonald's for exactly that reason. Does anyone
know if redbox pays to be placed in stores, or vice-versa? I'd love to know if
they're subsidized for the traffic they bring to stores. That's something
netflix can't do.

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thwarted
That seems kind of odd as eating, and thus obtaining food, is usually its own
purpose. I'm not sure treating the entire grocery store as an impulse purchase
is entirely bankable; additionally, what would the impulse buys at the
register be then? Meta-impulse buys?

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cabacon
When I was poking around to figure out what redbox's deal is, I found this
link (<http://www.paylessforfood.com/tag/redbox-videos/>) which suggests that
almost the majority of grocery store purchases are impulse buys. I'm not
suggesting that while you're returning your video that you'll buy bread, milk,
eggs, &c. surplus to your normal weekly shopping, but you might remember "Oh,
I wanted to get some bananas" or the like. And while you get those, you spot
the yogurt-covered pretzels that look tasty, so you grab those too. Voila,
more sales.

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thwarted
While the term "almost the majority" is just another way to say "the
minority", I do agree there is some truth to this. I just came from from the
grocery store, and of the $65 I spent, $25 of it was stuff that wasn't on my
list that (but that I usually buy) that I'd qualify as impulse.

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jsonscripter
Sounds to me like the movie distributors should cut the middle man the way Fox
cut out the middle man with Hulu.

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staunch
1) Why doesn't he do it, if it's so "easy"?

2) If someone started doing this wouldn't all the big players just ante up and
play the same game?

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derefr
So, if online movie purveyors actually followed this advice, would this kill
the long tail of movies that are only profitable on consignment?

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ROFISH
It depends. It's not uncommon to have clauses like "if you want W, the top
grossing summer action flick, you have to also support carry X, Y, and Z
crappy comedies".

