[adrotate banner=”1″]Video stores, unions, and movie studios are aiming to shoot down RedBox and similar video rental kiosks that let you rent films for a dollar. Movie studios are upset they don’t get more money, while video stores are upset about losing business and unions are claiming the movie studios will lose money and thus cut jobs. It’s war!
Video Buyers Group, a trade organization for some 1,700 independent brick-and-mortar video stores, is prepping an ad campaign that’ll paint Redbox as a threat to the film industry as we know it. Why? Because its $1-a-night rental rate is “generating less revenue” for Hollywood studios than the $3-$5/night prices charged by the average video store, according to Video Business.
RedBox is already suing back, having hit major studios with lawsuits because they don’t want RedBox to rent their films out when they first arrive on DVD, forcing them to wait.
Now, all of this is just movie studios wanting to keep the cash cow they have on DVD sales, even if DVD sales are slowly slipping. I love movies, but I have cut back my DVD purchases to almost nil lately. Even when the economy picks back up I doubt I will be rushing out ot buy DVDs, not because I don’t love films, but because I cannot justify the costs. As for the kiosks vs Blockbuster or similar stores, with the kiosks I don’t have to put up with surly employees. That alone is enough for me to switch to a box, in addition to the price. Sorry, movie studios, maybe you should make better films instead of relying on DVD sales to save your unoriginal butts. With the economy in the toilet right now, I can’t imagine many consumers caring that you think they paid too little for the right to see some $200 million unnecessary remake.
We are big fans of unions here at TarsTarkas.NET, but we are not fans of unions letting themselves be used by studios. Shame on this union.
