Movie Gallery (Hollywood Video, etc) circling the drain

Status
Not open for further replies.

navychop

Member of the Month - July 2014!
Original poster
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Jul 20, 2005
59,866
27,077
Northern VA
As reported here. Actually, this is an optimistic article, as others I've read expect them to disappear entirely. Keep an eye out for a big sell off sale at your local Hollywood Video.
 
Crap! I like them, I hope they hold on.

Out of the local rental places, they are fairly cheap, have good deals, and they give em to you for 5 nights on new releases (instead of 4 at Hastings). And I don't like Blockbuster at all, never have, and likely never will (long story). I also don't like Netflix or Blockbuster online.

Biggest thing there, they NEVER have new releases when they get released. I always ended up going to Hastings or Movie Gallary when I was with Blockbuster for 3 months, and Netflix for 6, to get the new releases. I don't care about movies that came out three weeks ago, I want to see what came out on Tuesday of every week (ok, maybe not every week, but most, sometimes nothing comes out or what does is crap). The other thing about both of these services I didn't like, it took longer to get my movies, than just going to the rental place.

Anyways, my local Movie Gallary has been having the 50% off $9.99 and less movies sale for months now (since May at least). They've extended the sale several times too. They've also had a lot of turn-over with their employees, seems every time I go in, there is someone else working the counter.
 
That sucks. I had their MVP program for about a year; worked great. For $15 per month, 3 DVDs out at any one time. It was a great value.

I hope our Hollywood Video survives.
 
Yep.

Sprint/Nextel is something of a disaster, too, but they might pull it together yet. MG- doesn't look like it.
 
I think what hurts Hollywood is the lack of a backroom for the discrimnating porn addict aswell as a majour lack of advertising wich if it wasnt for the fact that I happened to stumble onto the one around the corner buried in the back of a poorly designed strip mall I wouldnt have known there was one here in Athens. Thinking more about it the only one I see doing any local commericials besides netflix blockbuster is vision video wich has five locations in the area and boasts a larger than life collection of overseas and obscure films.
 
Too bad indeed. I had a MVP deal with Hollywood and only switched to Blockbuster a couple of years ago because BB didn't restrict the new releases. Last I heard, HV had a plan on MVP to eliminate that restriction too. Now both companies are ready to disappear, at least in Jacksonville, FL where nearly all BB stores will be closing in November. Movie Pass and MVP was a good deal for people like me who do rent more than 6 movies a month.
For customers, the loss of these DVD rental stores is too soon since DVD media is just about to get a new life with HD-DVD and BluRay becoming a main stream product. Many will claim that this loss will be great for the small mom&Pop rental businesses, but I disagree. While it may appear to increase their business at first, they will still suffer the same old problem of not having enough inventory for the demand. With increase demand, and still not having the volume buying power as a BB or HV chain, the frustration will cause a snow ball effect in the entire media rental industry.
Is the online rental business the answer?
I don't know about you but from personal experience, I know that online for me was a dismal failure. I tried it and again, inventory was the issue, With BB, I could order the worst unpopular movies online and when they came in, I took them to the store and exchanged them for new releases. It accomplished the same thing as movie pass so I dropped it. YMMV.
People say Netflix is better, with HV and BB gone, I will try that next. It will be my last hold on to a rental market bye gone era.

Since I don't like to own media, rental is the perfect solution. I like the extra features on the DVD too. That rules out PPV or HDPPV. I have said that I won't jump on the HD DVD or BluRay bandwagon until they are ubiquitous in the rental stores. Looks like that day may never happen.

What its really all about is what gets my movie watch time. Looks like DirecTV and DishNetwork adding all these new HD channels is right on time for loss of the media rental market.
 
I cant agrea that blue ray and hd dvd will be as mainstream as you think simply because the cost for a player is far above the regular dvd players now wich can be gotten for the price of two tickets to the movies in NYC. Maybe in 10 years when the prices get to be more realistic for the common person but even thats being optimistic seeing as how long dvd's were around before the prices on the players came down to something comparable to vcr's.

But the local mom and pops I think will actually thrive with the loss of the national chains and I think that the customer will actually benefit with the loss as some of these shops will have offerings for niche interest's and groups such as one that I checked out back in Ann Arbor Michigan that carried nothing but Asian films and another that had a strong focus on foriegn films and art films wich has for as long as I remember done very well.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)