Would a rental video store work in 2023?

Sounds a lot like Flexplay discs. It's a short term dvd rental that's sold in a vacuum sealed bag. When the vacuum seal was broken, the disc slowly turns black and render itself inoperable in 48 hours. Then you just throw away the disc. Pretty neat idea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexplay

I think I would actually use a service like this if it can provide vastly improved visual and video quality (128+ Mbps quality) and it's sold in convenient places I would already go like the grocery store.

Or have kiosks like Redbox where you can insert a proprietary flash drive to load a super high quality movie from the kiosk that you can play at home.

Ideas like this would never take off because of the convenience of instant streaming, but sometimes I do wish quality of streams would be better than it is. Even 1080P blu-ray discs were vastly superior to '4k HDR' streams from Netflix or Amazon Prime.

 

Blockbuster would still be in business.

Heck, is Redbox still a thing?

 

I don't think it'll be a good business model.

Your audience would only be people with a compatible device that plays whatever you're renting out (DVD/BluR player, VCR, etc), so that's already a tiny amount of the population.

Then you'd need these people to be motivated enough to take time out of their day to drive to your store, find parking, walk into the store, browse. Then you'd need these people to sign up for a card or some way to ID themselves for insurance purposes, so as to protect yourself from bad people never returning your disc/tape or breaking it or whatever.

Then these people would need to be motivated to drive from their house back to your place of business just to return the physical copy of whatever it was they borrowed.

Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video was great because people had no choice, if they wanted to watch a specific thing on their big TVs. Now, in today's world, there's just too many obstacles that would deter a rental video place from being successful.

 

Also... most local public libraries rent out videos, just like books... for, you know, free.

 

Had an idea like this before the boom of streaming.

Rent films and shows on flash drives that would somehow play in great quality on any device - cell phones, laptops, and tablets. You have to pay via card and could return the thumb drive to any kiosk anywhere in the world. Say like 5 bucks a day with a max of 30 bucks.

A lot like Redbox, except your main location is kiosks in airports. This was also before wifi on flights. Still think it might be an interesting concept and would work, especially when you consider what movies might end up where. If I had balls and knowhow, I might be tempted to try it. Oh, and a ton of capital.


This may be the best way a modern Blockbuster, or hell, Redbox, would work.

 

Like vinyl records.

Oh wait:

Vinyl records outsell CDs for the first time since 1987

Markets and tastes change, bro, and sometimes they come back around.

 

I wouldn't be a customer. I bootleg everything.

I would think that, to stay in business, your costs would have to be nothing. I don't see it as a viable business model.

 

Serving craft beer would solve all of these problems.

 

sorta..

They're hemorrhaging a ton of money right now.



The Owner of Redbox and Crackle Lost $43.7 Million, May Consider Sale

The company posted a quarterly loss of $43.7 million, or $1.50 a share, more than double the year-ago loss of $20.8 million, or $1.39 a share (when the total number of shares were half the amount). Revenue more than doubled to $79.9 million because year-ago results didn’t account for revenue from Redbox, which it acquired on August 11, 2022.

https://cordcuttersnews.com/the-owner-of-redbox-and-crackle-lost-43-7-million/

 

I sort of assumed the OP was thinking about less "family friendly" films for some reason. But good point. I need to see what's at my library.

 

Consider the source here (nerd), but I think it's kind of fun. I can walk to our local branch and check out all sorts of stuff. They stream content also in some cases.

 

Also, there's several streaming services that are free with a library card.

 

I'm glad you brought it up. I'm curious now if my little branch is keeping up with current releases.

I also have a road trip around the corner and need to check out an audiobook or two.

 

I don't even own a DVD player any more, much less a VCR. I do still have a few boxes in my garage full of movies though!