The Sun Online
Rental giant BlockbustedWednesday, August 10, 2005
By IAN KING, Business Editor
BLOCKBUSTER has crashed into the red — and the film rental chain blames Hollywood for a £98million loss.
Bosses said home viewers snubbed a lousy line-up of new American releases in the first six months of this year.
Many recent big budget flicks like Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow starring Jude Law, Russell Crowe’s Cinderella Man and Batman Begins failed to pack box offices.
The slump has led to fewer people watching the films when they are released for home rental.
Blockbuster also said piracy, the growth of online rivals and cut-price supermarket DVDs left many punters preferring to buy movies.
The US-owned chain — which employs more than 7,000 staff in over 700 British stores — saw a £98million half-year pre-tax loss.
Last year the firm made £112million PROFIT in the same period.
Chairman John Antioco admitted results for July, August and September would also be disappointing.
He said the downturn had been “faster than anyone expected”, adding: “Our results reflect the impact of the declining store-based video rental industry.”
Blockbuster said its decision to scrap late fees for customers returning DVDs and videos had also dented profits.
And the firm faced the extra cost of setting up an online rental site to claw back business from websites like Screen Select and Love Film.
A monthly subscription lets movie fans have an unlimited number of DVDs posted to their homes. Viewed films are posted back to the firm.
Blockbuster says it will be profitable by the end of the year.
I, of course, blame Netflix, Hollywood Video, and everyone else who's giving the same or better service at a cheaper price.
yeah, if you watch enough rental movies, at some point the math becomes clear that for the same cost (or less) you can sign up for NetFlix and have movies delivered to your door, as opposed to driving to the video store, finding out that everything you wanted is out, and coming home with a some crappy "lowest common denominator" film choice.
It took me at least six months to see "Hearts in Atlantis" because of that.
You're just trying to watch the wrong kinds of movies!
I have no problems finding "Chicks with Dicks" hentai and my personal favorite film EVer, GLITTER (!!!!!!!!!!!!), on the shelves!
Those are some good movies.
The thing that kills Blockbuster is their own poor decisions. It used to be that you could rent a library DVD for $1.99. Then they upped it a dollar. New releases were a dollar more. Now, all films are $3.99, but if you buy into their rewards plan, you can get free library films. I have the rewards plan. I bought into it because I can get 12 movies for a buck each just by using the free movie each month. But I can only get library DVDs. The problem for me is that I've seen just about everything I want to see in the "free" section. Blockbuster leaves movies on the new release shelf for almost a year sometimes. So, even if I want to take advantage of my ability to rent a free library film on Monday-Wednesday if I pay for a rental, there is nothing for me to rent. The other problem is that suck at replacing older films, and they frequently lose movies. I've been waiting forever to see Miracle. It finally hit the library shelves, but the DVD is missing. So I wait, hoping that they finally replace it. I bet they have some for sale, but they don't have a DVD for rent. There are all these TV shows coming out. People want to see them. Many people, who have never seen them, would like to rent them. Blockbuster doesn't take advantage of the customers. I can think of lots of series that have hit DVD that I would like to rent. Netflix has them. Blockbuster doesn't. For Blockbuster to survive, maybe it needs to have an instore order program. I don't want to have to deal paying for the internet service. However, if I could go the store, or maybe order a DVD online for rent, then the store could have it shipped from the main base or whatever. That way, risk rentals that only pay for online rental would be available for instore rental, without needed the shelf space. But Blockbuster wouldn't think of something so simple, so they will got out of business. Over here, they can't compete with Family Video.
I can rent a movie at Family Video at $.50 to $2.00 for up to three nights which is MORE than enough time to watch it. The best thing Blockbuster has going for them is their "no late fees" policy which really doesn't apply to me as I generally don't rent a movie unless I'm going to watch it that night or the next day.
Also, if I really need to, I can just get my movies for free at the library for the same amount of time (sometimes longer).
Blockbuster shot themselves in the foot long ago. I haven't rented from there in over five years because the local stores were horrible about checking my rentals in on time and charging me for late fees that I shouldn't have gotten. Their selections were poor, their prices were high, and they were dicks. They jumped on the internet/mail bandwagon too late. Netflix has pretty much sown that end of the market up. Blockbust just got caught sitting on its ass trying to think of new ways to bleed us for money while other people were thinking of ways to make the business better.
You get your movies delivered to your house? I wonder why you people are fat...
I used to have NetFlix . . . and the most it ever took was 2 days. How long is Blockbuster?
And, I quit NetFlix because I couldn't watch enough in a month to justify the cost.
max to my grams in wyandotte is a day.
i'm just happy there's gonna be more shipping centres, i won't have to wait so long.
tell me more about Glitter.
