Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
08-01-16, 01:15 PM
#26
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
$2-4 in gas? I don't think people are driving 60 miles just to rent a movie.
In my ~1000 rentals I doubt any were trips just to Redbox, but even if they were, I have about 10 kiosks within 6 miles.
And those hazard light customers were probably people stopping on their way to or from somewhere else.
In my ~1000 rentals I doubt any were trips just to Redbox, but even if they were, I have about 10 kiosks within 6 miles.
And those hazard light customers were probably people stopping on their way to or from somewhere else.
08-01-16, 01:21 PM
#27
DVD Talk Godfather
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Home of 2013 NFL champion Seahawks
Posts: 52,625
Received 1,016 Likes
on
840 Posts
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
Are they really laughing at people paying a monthly fee to Netflix rather than a la carte purchasing or renting, though? They're trying to set up their own services, but no one wants their content split over a bunch of different services.
08-01-16, 01:27 PM
#28
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
I wonder if someone isn't already working on a middleman service to give the user one account which can login to all these services and present one bill to the user. It would be kind of funny if things went that way since that would resemble a cable subscription.
08-01-16, 02:55 PM
#29
DVD Talk Reviewer & TOAT Winner
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
Average VHS rental in the late 80s and 90s was $2. I was pretty sure Redbox would increase their $1 prices after they put a few video stores out of business, they couldn't have been making much profit on that.
08-01-16, 02:59 PM
#30
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
Netflix has moved further and further away from licensing Hollywood content aside from a few splashy purchases like the Marvel TV stuff. That is why they've moved to producing their own exclusives and licensing independent garbage movies.
08-01-16, 05:18 PM
#31
Challenge Guru & Comic Nerd
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
Most people don't have cars that get 60 miles to a gallon of gas. Norm is still in the teens. And if they are going to a redbox that is, lets say, three miles away, that is a trip and return to pick up and a trip and return to drop off. So 12 miles, or pretty close to one gallon of fuel.
But yes, if you drove 12 or more miles with a gas guzzler just for a rental, you're an idiot.
Heck, I walked for a lot of mine, the closest kiosks are less than 2 miles away.
08-01-16, 08:10 PM
#32
DVD Talk Legend
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: True North Strong & Free
Posts: 23,210
Received 2,203 Likes
on
1,506 Posts
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
Interestingly people seem to be OK with this for TV-type content. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO, Showtime, Starz...etc. Cord cutters have to maintain separate accounts for all of these.
I wonder if someone isn't already working on a middleman service to give the user one account which can login to all these services and present one bill to the user. It would be kind of funny if things went that way since that would resemble a cable subscription.
I wonder if someone isn't already working on a middleman service to give the user one account which can login to all these services and present one bill to the user. It would be kind of funny if things went that way since that would resemble a cable subscription.
08-02-16, 10:20 AM
#33
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
Yes, but again, I personally would never make a trip just to Redbox. Most people make at least two trips a day in their car (57 if you have kids), and Redbox pickups and drop-offs are in these daily trips. You can't put the cost of that gas into the rental.
But yes, if you drove 12 or more miles with a gas guzzler just for a rental, you're an idiot.
Heck, I walked for a lot of mine, the closest kiosks are less than 2 miles away.
But yes, if you drove 12 or more miles with a gas guzzler just for a rental, you're an idiot.
Heck, I walked for a lot of mine, the closest kiosks are less than 2 miles away.
08-02-16, 03:00 PM
#34
DVD Talk Special Edition
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
I agree that most people don't make a special trip just to go to the redbox, but it does happen. The point is that it doesn't take a "gas guzzler" to add significant cost to that rental. In the average car, your 2 mile trip could potentially burn half a gallon of gas in picking up and returning the movie. Depending on the cost of gas, that could be adding $1-2 to the cost of that rental. Even more if the kiosk is further away.
This works out to $.135 cents per mile driven.
I'm sure in most reasonably populated cities there is a Redbox somewhere within a 3 mile radius.
The round-trip cost of returning a DVD to Redbox would be $.81 cents in gas - and that's if you're making a specific trip.
One can always factor in the "cost of convenience" logic such as "I make $40 an hour so taking 30 minutes out of my day to rent a movie is going to cost me $20 worth of time - screw-it, I'll download!"
The studios LOVE this logic.
...of course watching a two-hour movie is going to cost you $80 worth of your time - hope it's a good movie
Last edited by orangerunner; 08-02-16 at 03:10 PM.
08-02-16, 04:11 PM
#35
DVD Talk God
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
why does everyone think redbox will go away? generally speaking, a company isn't going to buy another to shut it down. especially one that has a lock on this specific type of market.
08-02-16, 04:27 PM
#36
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
Yea. Read the first sentence. They're not buying them to shut them down and scrap their assets. They're buying them because the price is right and they think they can profit. That often happens when they look at the books, and see places to lower overhead and/or increase revenue. Apollo could have one of a million things up their sleeve to make Redbox more profitable.
Apollo Global Management could become the nation’s leading operator of DVD rental kiosks as the result of a $1.6 billion (including debt) agreement announced this morning to buy Outerwall, which owns the struggling Redbox business.
08-02-16, 06:58 PM
#37
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
Redbox is also going back to a new streaming service called Redbox Digital.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/22/12...-service-tests
http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/22/12...-service-tests
08-03-16, 10:03 AM
#38
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
Let's say you're paying $2.70/gallon for gas and your car gets 20 miles/gallon.
This works out to $.135 cents per mile driven.
I'm sure in most reasonably populated cities there is a Redbox somewhere within a 3 mile radius.
The round-trip cost of returning a DVD to Redbox would be $.81 cents in gas - and that's if you're making a specific trip.
This works out to $.135 cents per mile driven.
I'm sure in most reasonably populated cities there is a Redbox somewhere within a 3 mile radius.
The round-trip cost of returning a DVD to Redbox would be $.81 cents in gas - and that's if you're making a specific trip.
08-04-16, 10:15 PM
#39
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
I would miss Redbox if it goes away. I've probably rented over 500 movies over the last few years either for free or discounted. I have 3 machines less than 5 minutes from home so pickup and dropoff haven't been a problem.
Heck, even if I paid full price I could watch 4 Redbox movies for the cost of 1 VUDU or OnDemand stream.
08-05-16, 09:04 AM
#40
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 303
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
I can still see the value of Redbox, but honestly, if you have a decent library close to you, there's very little reason to pay for the rentals. At the libraries I use, even the blockbuster films have plenty of copies available and if not, it's just a few days wait.
If there's anything I need to see immediately, I would have seen it in a theater.
If there's anything I need to see immediately, I would have seen it in a theater.
08-05-16, 04:36 PM
#41
DVD Talk Reviewer & TOAT Winner
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
My library STILL doesn't have Blu-Rays. Remembering that I used to ride my BIKE to rent movies most of the time! So I got cheap entertainment, exercise and no fuel costs!
08-05-16, 06:01 PM
#42
DVD Talk Special Edition
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
Yeah, I don't know where these magical libraries are that carry enough new release Blu's to sustain me.
My library has 4 copies of the Sarah Jessica Parker classic "I Don't Know How She Does It" on Blu. And the titles go downhill from there.
My library has 4 copies of the Sarah Jessica Parker classic "I Don't Know How She Does It" on Blu. And the titles go downhill from there.
08-05-16, 10:12 PM
#43
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
I can still see the value of Redbox, but honestly, if you have a decent library close to you, there's very little reason to pay for the rentals. At the libraries I use, even the blockbuster films have plenty of copies available and if not, it's just a few days wait.
If there's anything I need to see immediately, I would have seen it in a theater.
If there's anything I need to see immediately, I would have seen it in a theater.
08-05-16, 11:10 PM
#44
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
If you guys live near the Torrance Public Library out here in L.A. - they have an extensive Blu-ray collection. I know someone that works there and the librarian in charge of the media collections is a BD fan and always throws grant money/purchasing funds into expanding their collection. I'd go but they're way too far to go just for a few BD's.
08-06-16, 01:06 AM
#45
DVD Talk Special Edition
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
I was lucky as my local library was quite technologically progressive. In 2005 they introduced one of the first DVD kiosks.
You would check-in online at home (or through the library computers) and reserve the titles you want which would allow you a five-hour window in which to pick them up from the library.
After five hours, if you don't pick it up, the reservation ends and it can be reserved by someone else. You were allowed up to four titles on one library card and could keep them three days.
New releases were constantly out so you had to just time it right after someone returns the disc you want to the kiosk.
Bit of a hassle but with a bit of patience and good timing you had a free rental rather than paying $6 at Blockbuster.
You would check-in online at home (or through the library computers) and reserve the titles you want which would allow you a five-hour window in which to pick them up from the library.
After five hours, if you don't pick it up, the reservation ends and it can be reserved by someone else. You were allowed up to four titles on one library card and could keep them three days.
New releases were constantly out so you had to just time it right after someone returns the disc you want to the kiosk.
Bit of a hassle but with a bit of patience and good timing you had a free rental rather than paying $6 at Blockbuster.
08-14-16, 12:33 PM
#46
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
My library has a pretty poor selection onsite, but I think I can have them order in requests from other libraries in the system. I haven't bothered to really look into it though.
08-14-16, 02:01 PM
#47
DVD Talk Hero
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
I was lucky as my local library was quite technologically progressive. In 2005 they introduced one of the first DVD kiosks.
You would check-in online at home (or through the library computers) and reserve the titles you want which would allow you a five-hour window in which to pick them up from the library.
After five hours, if you don't pick it up, the reservation ends and it can be reserved by someone else. You were allowed up to four titles on one library card and could keep them three days.
New releases were constantly out so you had to just time it right after someone returns the disc you want to the kiosk.
Bit of a hassle but with a bit of patience and good timing you had a free rental rather than paying $6 at Blockbuster.
You would check-in online at home (or through the library computers) and reserve the titles you want which would allow you a five-hour window in which to pick them up from the library.
After five hours, if you don't pick it up, the reservation ends and it can be reserved by someone else. You were allowed up to four titles on one library card and could keep them three days.
New releases were constantly out so you had to just time it right after someone returns the disc you want to the kiosk.
Bit of a hassle but with a bit of patience and good timing you had a free rental rather than paying $6 at Blockbuster.
We have those kiosks. We have 3 of them and the standard collection that's filed separately.
Our kiosks give folks 24hrs to pick up the dvds. Folks can also check out up to 20 dvds at a time from our library. They get 7 days and can renew items 3 more times. Assuming no one puts a hold on them they'll have 4 weeks total if their renewals go through.
08-17-16, 05:07 PM
#48
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
My local library has a great selection of Blus and DVDs, and that's where I usually get movies from. Redbox is next if it is a lower brow/less popular movie that the library doesn't carry. (And still I've only ever paid for maybe 5% of my rentals thanks to all of the codes during their golden era.)
I'm not into digital rentals at all. (Yet.) They're too expensive and my DSL internet connection is relatively lousy for what I pay.
08-20-16, 11:31 AM
#49
DVD Talk Hero
Join Date: Aug 1999
Location: Not necessarily Formerly known as Solid Snake
Posts: 29,256
Received 1,244 Likes
on
855 Posts
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
Let's say you're paying $2.70/gallon for gas and your car gets 20 miles/gallon.
This works out to $.135 cents per mile driven.
I'm sure in most reasonably populated cities there is a Redbox somewhere within a 3 mile radius.
The round-trip cost of returning a DVD to Redbox would be $.81 cents in gas - and that's if you're making a specific trip.
One can always factor in the "cost of convenience" logic such as "I make $40 an hour so taking 30 minutes out of my day to rent a movie is going to cost me $20 worth of time - screw-it, I'll download!"
The studios LOVE this logic.
...of course watching a two-hour movie is going to cost you $80 worth of your time - hope it's a good movie
This works out to $.135 cents per mile driven.
I'm sure in most reasonably populated cities there is a Redbox somewhere within a 3 mile radius.
The round-trip cost of returning a DVD to Redbox would be $.81 cents in gas - and that's if you're making a specific trip.
One can always factor in the "cost of convenience" logic such as "I make $40 an hour so taking 30 minutes out of my day to rent a movie is going to cost me $20 worth of time - screw-it, I'll download!"
The studios LOVE this logic.
...of course watching a two-hour movie is going to cost you $80 worth of your time - hope it's a good movie
08-21-16, 05:42 AM
#50
DVD Talk Legend
Re: Red Box sold to private equity group -- The end is near?
I've never rented videos from a Redbox and I don't download or stream. If it's a movie I really want to see I'll wait until I can get a good price on it and I'll buy it. 2 factors: I'm not in any big hurry to see movies, and I'm a cheap bastard so I don't pay any more than I absolutely have to on movies (I never pay new release prices unless I know I'm getting a good deal). I've rented 3 movies in the last 4 years (the 3 Hobbit movies, prior to the EE releases) and I rented them from Family Video. I've never understood why people subject themselves to a life where they can't spend a few moments of their precious time to walk into a video store and rent a movie. I couldn't live like that. Also, there are so few movies being made these days that I really want to see that badly, usually they're movies I want to add to my collection.....eventually.