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One by one, Hollywood studios are reluctantly doing business with Red Box and starting partnerships. (Fox and Universal still have lawsuits pending… Paramount and others have made deals.) The latest is Warner Bros whose Home Entertainment Group and Redbox today announced a new multi-year distribution agreement that will make new release DVD and Blu-ray titles available after a 28-day window. The agreement marks the end of the lawsuit that Redbox filed against Warner Home Video last August.
Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros Home Entertainment Group, said in a statement today that “the 28-day window enables us to get the most from the sales potential of our titles and maximize VOD usage.” The new arrangement provides Redbox with reduced product costs, sufficient quantities of product and optimal stock levels four weeks after street date as well as extends Redbox’s access to Blu-ray titles, which Redbox is currently testing in select markets. Warner Home Video and Redbox will be implementing delayed availability during the month of March and will reach a 4-week window by March 23 with the release of The Blind Side. The new agreement will run through January 31, 2012. Redbox has also agreed to destroy Warner Home Video content following its lifespan in kiosks.
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I would imagine this is more of a win for WB than Redbox, even though both parties win with this arangement.
Good! Not only is Redbox an awesome service, they also have customer service that is unparalleled in today’s marketplace. They emailed a receipt that said I kept a movie 5 extra nights. When I emailed them back to say it was a mistake, they replied to me on the same day and said they were refunding my account. It’s rare to find businesses that still care about their customers. I just wanted to let everyone know that we should support Redbox. It’s rare to find decent human beings, anymore, but when I do, I stick with them.
When speaking about Redbox back in January, John Fithian, the head of the National Association of Theatre Owners, said:
“It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in an economic model to take a product as valuable, as expensive to produce and as amazing as a major motion picture and give it to consumers for a buck outside of a 7-11. It’s a disaster to the economic models and yet somehow it’s growing rapidly. Well if they can get it for a buck, they aren’t buying it are they. And in some cases if they can get it for a buck, they’re going to wait to get it for a buck instead of going to the cinema in the first place. I don’t get it.”
When you put it like that it’s hard not to agree. Redbox is reaching the same deal here theat Warner Bros. has already signed with Netflix. A 28-day window probably won’t be much of a help to the studios and consumers won’t mind the wait.
The studios have no choice to settle, and this is going to transform the industry. DVD revenues for about ten years propped up (along with cheap Wall Street Financing) high salaries particularly stars. Cruise had to take a pay-cut to get MI:4 started. If you can wait a month, you can rent a film for $1, instead of purchasing them. For a lot of movies, that makes sense.
ALL of Hollywood is going to have to make do with a lot less money. The real threat is not Redbox, Redbox and other alternatives like Itunes are the fighters against the real threat: piracy, or just not purchasing. If you have 50 DVDs, do you need another? At full or near-full retail?
Who will win: those making broadly popular movies that are cheap: Paul Blart Mall Cop, Hangover, Blind Side. Who will lose: those making niche movies that cost a lot or bomb: Valkyrie, Stop-Loss, Lions for Lambs. I certainly don’t see extra revenue from hit movies to “carry” prestige Oscar bait movies.
Redbox conceded!
Won’t this just piss people off? If you’re not giving them options and forcing them to buy DVD’s, they’re just more likely to pirate. Not all, but many, I’m sure. Studios need to really embrace the future and stop trying to hold onto the past. The game has changed.
ELIMINATING the rental window is what made the studios so much money when DVD’s came around. I don’t see how they think turning back the clock will help them any.
I don’t LIKE to wait, but I’m not going to buy a potentially shitty movie just because I see it 28 days sooner.
Boo-hoo for Hollywood. Now the rest of us have to suffer for a month to see films that we don’t want to buy, but would like to watch. A company like Redbox comes along, gives consumers something that they actually love, and Hollywood cries because it digs into their initial sales. So what? Maybe if they lowered the price of their dvd’s and blu rays, we’d buy them regardless of whether or not they could be rented in Redbox kiosks.
Got first new Warner Home Video dvds from Netflix since the moratorium began – “The Invention of Lying” and “Whiteout.” Discs are studio stamped “rental.” There are no extras, there is no scene selection menu option, and the only way to get to the menu is to watch or scan through 18 minutes of trailers/game promos.
Warner Home Video really hates Netflix subscribers.
Looking forward to the 28 day window being brought over to YouTube – the writing is on the wall….
It’s impressive that RED BOX got the better of WB. Tsujihara is good people and knows what he’s doing. Kudos to the crimson movie dispensers.
I am 66 years young. I live in a very small town in Texas. Movie Gallery came to town and shut our TNT movie house down by offering all movies to the town at 99 cents. I know what you’re thinking. Yes, as soon as they ran the Local Video store out of business they jacked up their prices to $4.28 per movie. Now so sad. Movie Gallery is going out of business. They deserve it, but it still leaves us without an option. Either drive 50 miles to Abilene, TX or go to NetFlick. How can I rent a REDBOX so I can provide it for myself and this little town?
Hey put red box into a search and up comes redbox and many choices. Click on request a redbox. Then fill in the consumer area. Or if you know of a business that would want it, talk to them. That is where I would start!
This really sux! I guess I have to buy it on bootleg or wait 28 days to watch WB movies. I don’t need to buy DVDs….I watch a movie once then catch it on cable. Sorry redbox..i know you’ll feel the blow of this agreement.
Redbox sold its soul. If you rent a movie from them now, you’ll most likely get one that hijacks your player and forces you to watch all those previews like commercials. No more clicking past them… they have you right where they want you.
No thanks Hollywood, redbox. I’m going back to the dark side of movie watching. If there is going to be dishonesty involved, why not make it benefit you instead of them?
I’ve noticed lately that all the movies I rent with Redbox are full of long previews I cannot fast forward through or skip over. I’m paying to rent the disc (not to mention the machine and electricity to view it), but now I’m forced to watch preview after preview? I’ve even seen multiple previews for the same movie. No thanks. My time is worth more than a few bucks off a ticket price. I’d rather wait a few more weeks and rent a DVD I have control over (going directly to the feature film).
Yeah it’s absolutely great that tens of thousands of people lost their jobs because places like Hollywood video are going out of business and blockbuster is soon to follow. And you’re slightly unintelligent because redbox is a machine, of course they’ll refund you’re money because they don’t have to deal with douche bags like yourself on a daily basis. So get your movie for a $1 but don’t talk about them being “good people” because all your stupid ass is doing is hitting buttons on a touch screen with absolutely no human interaction whatsoever.