Viacom to shed Blockbuster... (1 Viewer)

[Dwayne]

Check it out:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...om_blockbuster

And so continues the downward spiral. Thank goodness the studios stood their ground with day and date releases and did away with the horrid "window" model.

A big cheers to all of the studios.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I got gift cards for Blockbuster this Christmas and I reluctantly went in there to rent movies. They are still two day rentals for new releases which didnt sit well with me.
At least at Hollywood you get them for 5 days.
Also there sensoring practices have never sat well with me.
Time to put them out of business.

 

[Haden]

Good riddance

 

[Eric Peterson]

Blockbuster is going down!! I love it!!

 

[Shad R]

ha! That'll teach your non-widescreen carrying butts!

 

[Josh Simpson]

Blockbuster su-ucks. This doesn't hurt my feelings at all.

 

[John Geelan]

I've been using my Blockbuster Rewards $1.89 a movie card since the beginning of the year and that has been a home run.
I like having Blockbuster around (I also use Netflix) for those Tuesday New Releases.

Not the greatest store but PVdvd's for $10 each and the Rewards deals keep me interested.

 

[Paul_Scott]

at least some good news came out yesterday .

i guess you could read between the lines when Paramount started to institute much lower msrp's.
so low that renting becomes a non-issue.
i hope they continue or at least strike a happy medium.
i couldn't believe how much i paid for Captain Kronos, Paper Moon, Pretty Baby, and even Once Upon A Time In The West.

 

[Brian Kidd]

This serves Blockbuster right for coming in to towns across America and shutting down all the Mom and Pop stores that might not have 500 copies of THE NEW GUY, but might actually have a diverse collection of films. I'm so glad that I didn't grow up with corporate video stores. I wouldn't have seen half of the films that I did.

Ideally, we'll eventually have access to a system of video-on-demand featuring good picture and sound quality as well as access to the entire catalog of released films.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Right. It's not like the consumers who apparently wanted that had anything to do with it.

 

[Michael Harris]

Good story yesterday on NPR's "All Things Considered". It is archived at www.npr.org.

 

[Peter Overduin]

I went in yesterday to rent Lion King 1 1/2, in my city of 60,000 people. They had brought in only 3 copies! The manager noted I wasn't the only person to roll my eyes and seemed pretty frustrated herself. I suppose it is that kind of incompetence that will lead to the continued demise of outfits like BB.

The debate over BB vs. mom and pops has raged on this forum since I've been a memeber in early 2001. Quite frankly, I've never understood it. BB charges a horendous mark up on retail that ANY video store should be able to match, and with the average cost to stores at about 20 bucks for their product from wholesalers, the debate is virtually moot. There are a number of private stores that do just fine here, and are able to capitalize on BB's poor execution of brnging new product to the consumer - ergo Lion King 1 1/2.

 

[Eric Peterson]

The problem with Blockbuster was that they were notorious for opening a store immediately across the street from a Mom & Pop store and offering cheaper videos with a larger albeit less diverse selection. Then when the Mom & Pop closed up shop, they reverted their prices to the corporate price of approximately $9.99 for 1-1/2 days.

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

Not sure how this will affect us up here in Canada, where we only have two major chains (Blockbuster and Rogers) that are carbon copies of one another. It would be nice to think the stores might be sold off to people who actually care about diversity, realistic rental prices, etc. I'd love to see the return of a few mom and pop type stores in my area. Variations on the theme sort of exist, but usually only in the bigger cities where a wider cultural net can be cast. In my city of about 80,000 we have a plaza-based place called Music and Video Place (across the street from BB), which started out largely as a used CD and VHS shop but in time has become a very decent and mega-cheap place to rent DVDs. $2-4 for a week, depending on the age of the title. His VHS selection is still pretty impressive, but the CD content has dwindled due to competition from Pawn shops in town, who let everything go at $5 a pop). Granted, he doesn't always get the new releases on new release day, and he's hardly a film buff and barely realizes how much cool stuff he really DOES have, but maybe his success so close to BB will inspire others to try and top both of them.

 

[Chuck L]

But ever will I get my pan and scan and rated movie needs again?

 

[Benson R]

I dont know why everyone is so hard on Blockbuster. Sure there not my favorite company either but they are no worse than the local stores they replaced. Outside of major cities local video stores had the same crappy selection and not nearly enough copies of new releases. I remember having to wait weeks to rent a popular release unless I reserved ahead of time.

I had problems with Blockbuster's oar stance, but they seem to have reversed course as a corporate policy as almost every store carries widescreen to rent. My local store even started carrying the unrated versions of new releases, and not just for movies like American Wedding and Old School. I rented the unrated Day of the Dead disc the other day.

I still find Blockbuster to be overpriced but they are still far and ahead of the local stores they replaced. I feel bad for the local owners they put out of business, but not too bad. I had many conversations with the manager of the place I used to frequent asking if he could carry widescreen and more dvd releases. I never got anywhere with him but the local Blockbuster eventually embraced these things.

 

[Rob T]

Jumbo Video is pretty big too.

 

[WillG]

Actually my local BB was pretty good as well. They carry OAR (except for "Family" films, which I can live with) The only other place near me is a mom and pop where you never know if they will carry OAR on the DVD they get. And with Blockbuster gone, good luck being able to get a copy of a DVD at a mom and pop within the first 6 months of release.

Hopefully, a Hollywood video will replace the Blockbuster

 

[Benson R]

Also everyone seems to be talking like BB is going away. They may not be in the best shape, but if anything they will probably just be closing stores in markets that are oversaturated with BB.

I still see a lot of people renting(though I hardly ever do). I think BB could turn itself around if it was more competitive with pricing of its new videos to sell. I think they are worried about devavlueing their rentals but I know I would probably buy most of my dvds their if their prices were inline with Bestbuy and Walmart.

 

[Chris Bardon]

I'm glad that BB is around if for no other reason than their Pre-Viewed DVD prices (and their abandonning of the disc stickers) are pretty good-especially when they have 2 for 1 deals etc. Sure, I'd never rent from them, but being able to get almost-new dvds for 10 bucks less than new (sometimes discs that have never been rented) is worth it.