I'm already starting to miss blockbusters

[freak2thec0re]

Case in point: I watched Midnight In Paris Friday night with my girlfriend and Saturday wanted to show her Match Point because she had never seen it ... but it's not on Netflix Instant ... not on Demand ... and getting it on netflix dvd will take a minimum of 3-4 days turnaround ... and since all the video rental stores around me have recently been shut down there's literally no way to see it besides buying it .. wack.

I think netflix instant-watch is good in theory but not economically feasible for movie studios ... literally every time I have the urge to watch a certain movie it's not instant-watchable ... and I doubt it's going to get any better. If anything, it will get worse

Mark my words: as blu-ray players get cheaper and everyone starts to own one, we're going to see a rise in demand for places that you can go and pick up whatever movie you want and watch right away, like we had in the "olden days" (a year or two ago)

[Fievel]

Blockbuster killed an infinite number of local/independent/Mom & Pop video stores.
Fuck 'em.
Karma wins.

[TheBaxter]

Case in point: I watched Midnight In Paris Friday night with my girlfriend and Saturday wanted to show her Match Point because she had never seen it ... but it's not on Netflix Instant ... not on Demand ... and getting it on netflix dvd will take a minimum of 3-4 days turnaround ... and since all the video rental stores around me have recently been shut down there's literally no way to see it besides buying it .. wack.

I think netflix instant-watch is good in theory but not economically feasible for movie studios ... literally every time I have the urge to watch a certain movie it's not instant-watchable ... and I doubt it's going to get any better. If anything, it will get worse

Mark my words: as blu-ray players get cheaper and everyone starts to own one, we're going to see a rise in demand for places that you can go and pick up whatever movie you want and watch right away, like we had in the "olden days" (a year or two ago)

there's also redbox. i've never tried them though, and i imagine, like with netflix on demand, the selection is pretty small.
i thought i heard something a while back about these kiosks where you could go and pick any film, and it would burn the film onto a brand-new disk for you to take home. which would then alleviate the need to carry each individual film on disk, you'd only need the film stored digitally and a bunch of blank disks. seems like an idea that could work (assuming burning time wasn't too long) but i don't know if anything ever came of it.

the problem with all those on-demand services is that they each have to work out individual licensing deals with the different studios to carry their movies, tv shows, etc. and it's a nightmare trying to work out deals with so many different film producers. and then you get the ones who start forming exclusive deals, and then the on-demand services end up like pay-cable channels where certain studio's films are only played on certain channels, and if you want access to them all, you have to subscribe to a bunch of different channels or on-demand services.

[tfactor]

Fucking Blockbuster. I had Two stores here in Myrtle Beach, of which I was told one was the top producing store in South Carolina - yet they closing that one now by the end of this month?! WTF?!? So I literally have only Wallmart or CVS Redbox & On-Demand (Cable) for movies. This sucks, plus my broke ass can't even afford HBO at the moment so is like basic cable only.

It just sucks that I can't rent anywhere now & it seems So Crazy to me! This is a huge area to not have even 1 Mom & Pop video shop. They have 15 Porn / Sex shops but no regular Video Rental places. Sorry but I'm pissed!

What the hell am I supposed to do now when movies are released on DVD? I don't file share or download movies / TV shows but it seems like every signal is pointing me in the direction to start using the Internet for our Home Viewings.

what now?

[Spandau Belly]

I have two decent independant video renters within reasonable walking distance from my home and I hope they can stay in business.

I continue to go to them because I like to just go and pick my movie and not wait a week for it arrive in the post. My local renters are affordable, have a good selection, and I don't trust Netflix and would rather not help Netflix achieve a monopoly. I feel like the more Netflix dominates the market, the higher they will raise their prices and narrow their selection.

The truth is most of the business is in big new releases. Most people want to watch the top 20 recent movies. That's why Blockbuster dominated video rental and why Netflix/OnDemand services dominate now. Most people aren't really interested in a broad selection and like Baxter pointed out, the licensing agreements are messy and so these businesses see it as more trouble than it's worth to go after a small market.