Video rental shop
In the late 2000s, stores began selling and renting Blu-ray discs, a format that supports high definition resolution.
The world's oldest business renting out copies of movies for private use was a film reel rental shop opened by Eckhard Baum in Kassel, Germany in the summer of 1975.
After 20th Century Fox had signed an agreement with Magnetic Video founder Andre Blay to license him 50 of their titles for sale directly to consumers, amongst them Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, M*A*S*H, Hello, Dolly!, Patton, The French Connection, The King and I and The Sound of Music, Atkinson bought all the titles in both VHS and Beta formats, and offered them for rent.
[16] The press discussed the VCR "and the viewing habits it has engendered — the Saturday night trip down to the tape rental store to pick out for a couple of bucks the movie you want to see when you want to see it".
In the late 1990s, Netflix offered a per-rental model for each DVD but introduced a monthly subscription for DVDs concept in September 1999.
While traditional brick and mortar video rental stores were closing at a high rate, Redbox moved into existing retail locations such as supermarkets, and placed kiosks within them or outside of them to gain access to that consumer base.
Widespread availability of video on demand (VOD) on cable TV systems and VHS-by-mail and DVD-by-mail services offered consumers a way of watching movies without having to leave home.
With the advent of the World Wide Web, Internet services which streamed content as Netflix became increasingly popular starting in the mid–2000s.
[citation needed] In the 2020s, some video stores facing the loss of their business model have adapted by becoming non-profit organizations that focus on preserving an archive of film heritage and educating people about cinema.
Movies n' Stuff's owner, Peter Thompson, attributes the continued interest in video rental stores to the rising cost of streaming subscription services and patrons' desire for the personalized film recommendations he provides.
[41] On April 23, 2024, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, Redbox's parent, announced a $636.6 million loss in 2023, and warned that without any options to generate additional financing, the company may be forced to liquidate or pause operations, and seek a potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing.
[42] On June 29, 2024, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after missing a week of paying its employees and failing to secure financing.
Over 1,000 employees were laid off and over 26,000 Redbox kiosks will shut down permanently, marking the end of major physical video rental services in the United States.
"[46] A 2018 article about video stores states that they are appealing because "people crave being together to pick entertainment" and the chance to "chat with a staff member" "who can be relied upon for reviews and recommendations and who truly love what they do"; at the same time, they are "part of a "community of like-minded individuals.
The owner of Bay St Video states that they "have movies that go back to the beginning of filmmaking, from the first silent films ever made to stuff that was just in theatres – and everything in between.
He states that studios lost a major channel for low-budget, feature-length indie movies when the large video store chains collapsed.
[49] Richard Brody argues that between 1985 and 1995, there was "a generation of filmmakers that included Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh, whose first films, Reservoir Dogs and Sex, Lies, and Videotape, respectively, were financed" by the home video market.
[50] Brody argues that for aspiring filmmakers, video stores they worked at became "launching pads of true outsiders", and provided "counter-programming" to film school training by valorizing "anti-academic values of disorder, spontaneity, and enthusiasm.
[55] In 2012, public school teachers were granted some exemptions for the exhibition of films, when the Canadian Parliament passed the Copyright Modernization Act.
Teachers can show "copyrighted commercially available movies for educational purposes", so long as it is part of a "classroom curriculum related context.
In the U.S., with narrow exceptions for religious and educational purpsoses, a person who shows a rental video outside of a home must pay for an exhibition license.
