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Two movie tickets to your favorite comedy, $18.00.  One tub of lard, I mean popcorn, $8.50.  Two drinks to wash down said tub of lard

popcorn, $7.00.  Gas to fuel your vehicle to get to this evening of fun, $10.00.  The joy of kids screaming, teenagers busy being angst-ridden and sulky around you, stepping in gum walking to your seat, sitting down and getting a sore bum on the wobbly old upholstered chair while you try in vain to see around the 6’7” guy in front of you- Priceless.  For some, there’s GOING to the movies.  For just about everyone else these days, there is the movie-rental kiosk.

Let’s face it, going out to the movies can be both a pain as well as expensive.  I’m the first one to admit, I still have a soft spot in my heart for going to the movies, tub of popcorn, sticky floors and all.  It’s sure not like the good ole days where the parents could round up the family for an inexpensive night out.  Even renting movies at many places is still a ridiculous price like $3.50 a night.  If you are anything like me, the DVD rarely gets back the next day.  So, now we are up to $7.00 for the rental.  Super.  Especially if it was for one you didn’t even get to watch or some winner like the one I saw the other night.  Companies are finally realizing that with the economy the way it is that if they want people to keep renting their movies, they need to make them less expensive.  Enter the DVD kiosk.

I’m sure you’ve seen them at grocery stores in your area.  Depending on what area of the country you live in, different chains are seen.  Based out of California, DVDPlay is the country’s first automated and remotely managed DVD rental kiosk.  It opened it’s first kiosk in 2002, and now has more than 1,400 nationwide locations.  Despite being the first, DVDPlay still recently noticed a need to change their pricing to make it even easier and cost efficient for the customers.  Starting October 1st, all of their DVD rentals will be only $1, and this price will extend to some of their Blu-Ray titles as well for a limited time.

DVDPlay President and COO Charlie Piper said: 

“In an economy of rising prices, our customers are looking for value for their entertainment dollars.  By offering more competitive pricing and a greater selection of DVDs, we’re delivering the ultimate in convenience and value to our customers and helping to make our partners, including Kroger, Safeway and Albertsons, destinations for entertainment.”

The DVD kiosk war

The DVD kiosks have also started a little war.  Redbox, another popular DVD rental kiosk, is known in many areas for their very popular dollar a night rentals. They also have little “extras” that users seem to like such as codes that allow users to get free rentals, the ability to reserve a movie online before even going to the kiosk, and drop off at any Redbox location.  Funny little sidenote, Redbox also started in 2002 by using re-branded kiosks from guess who? DVDPlay.  Redbox first stuck their machines in convenience stores, which didn’t work, then McDonalds for a test market—still not much luck.

They finally went to Solectron (a subsidiary of Flextronics, which also manufactures the Zune, Xbox and Xbox 360) to create and manufacture a custom kiosk design. After that, they became a force to be reckoned with.  I even found this nifty site for RedBox users which offers up codes to use when you rent, DVD rental news, and more. The site is worth checking out.

Enter Blockbuster

Of course, now the regular video store powers that be aren’t so happy that someone is out there renting movies for just a dollar while they are still charging $3.50. What to do? Oh, what to do?? Oh! I know! Create our own DVD kiosks of course!  So, Blockbuster is now coming out with them as well!  Now we have Blockbuster teamed up with NCR, and having the deployment of their kiosks start in the third quarter of this year, with full deployment complete by the end of the year. 

The first pilot machines will just allow for DVD downloads; however, the machines installed by year-end will also include rentals and sales of both DVDs and video games.  Their official press release states, “This initial rollout provides consumers increasingly convenient access to their favorite movies and is one more step in the fulfillment of our mission to transform Blockbuster into a multi-channel provider of media entertainment.“

How good are these DVD kiosks?

I love my grocery story kiosk, but, I do think several things should be changed with them.  First off, they need a better selection.  By this, I mean both newer titles and some of the more popular classics being made available.  I would also like a place to simply drop off your movie while someone is standing there taking ten minutes to pick their movies.  There should also be some kind of better safeguard against the whole credit card theft concern that they’ve been known for, since they’ve had problems with people setting up “skimmers” on their machines.  Maybe the kiosk could have several windows instead of the just one that my store has, where only one person can go at once. (I haven’t seen any that more than one person can go at a time.  I’m not sure if any other states have this capability on their kiosks). 

What about you? Are you an at home movie watcher or you don’t mind the cost and it’s worth getting out to the theater?  Do you trust those little kiosks, or still prefer your video store or Netflix?  Or is it a matter of movie? What’s a movie???

Via [businesswire] and [washingtonpost]

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