High noon nears in Blockbuster battle (Corporate raider meeting 10am EST)

MSNBC ^ | Updated: 9:07 a.m. ET May 11, 2005 | By John W. Schoen

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Corporate shareholders meetings are often quiet, tame events. But the battle for control of the biggest player in home video rental has turned into a real blockbuster. And the outcome could shape how you watch the latest Hollywood movies at home -- and how much it costs you.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

If this Icahn takes over, Blockbuster will be sold and closed. Icahn has ruined the likes of TWA and Texaco

[goodnesswins]

I thought Blockbuster would be GONE LONG AGO......it should be.....movies on demand and mail order are making it obsolete.

[newgeezer]

movies on demand and mail order are making it obsolete.

Not only that but, a regional video rental store chain has more stores more conveniently-located and rents new releases for $2.50, older movies for $1.

I'll admit when I saw Blockbuster's "No More Late Fees" Super Bowl ads, I wondered how they'd do it; I figured they'd just automatically renew the rental and maybe send a postcard or make a phone call. When I heard they bill the customer's credit card for the price of the movie -- effectively selling it to him -- I laughed. That'll go over like a lead balloon. And, it did.

All things considered, who needs Blockbuster anymore?

[Tanniker Smith]

It'll be a while before that happens.
Blockbuster lacks competition in the physical sense because most of the mom&pop's have gone out of business. There are other reasons, of course, like the one in my old neighborhood which had lots of kids movies that were cheap rentals had to close because of demographics -- the neighborhood was becoming more Asian, and for whatever reason, the Asians weren't renting movies at the same rate.

Anyway, Blockbuster has the mail-order thing going in addition to its physical presence. They also have monthly fee for their physical locations. There are some folks that don't like dealing with the mail for whatever reason. They prefer the old-fashioned way.

Movies on demand is still a little too expensive for anyone that watches several movies per month. As my kids become teenagers, it might be cheaper for me to have a Blockbuster subscription than HBO or Cinemax (which we have, but we rarely watch.)

Just some thoughts. I'm not a stockholder or anything.

[goodnesswins]

You're probably right.....we just hate Blockbuster....having to always ID ourself

full scale evac of WHITEHOUSE RIGHT NOW

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Blockbuster lacks competition in the physical sense because most of the mom&pop's have gone out of business.

Not in all places. In my town, the 'Mom & Pop' is right across the street from Blockbuster and they're beating the crap out of the big boy on the block. They have been for years.

[Tanniker Smith]

Beating the crap out of them? Hard to believe, but congrats to them. Most of the mom & pops have to rent porn just to compete. (It's been estimated that porn is less than 20% of inventory, maybe less than 10% of inventory, but makes up about 60% of business.)

TS

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Beating the crap out of them?

Well, perhaps a bit of hyperbole on my part. But the fact is that they've stayed in business and thrived when everyone thought they were dead as soon Blockbuster moved in.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

I think that companies like Netflix, who was mentioned in the article, and have been around longer, hold the corner on mail order. However Blockbuster is growing in that market at a faster rate.

And by default, Blockbuster has created their own niche' of serving people who can't or are unable to order by internet/mail.

The main problem I have in all this is the greed of these corporate raiders and the people who support them. They are anti-capitalists, driving companies into the ground for the sake of padding their bank accounts.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Blockbuster has franchises, so they do have these "regional" stores. Also a study was done and it showed that 70% of the American population live within 10 minutes of a Blockbuster store.
For $9.95/year you can join their program where to rent one/get one free several days of the week. Couple that with being able to keep the movie or game for double the time now - I wonder how that compares to the "$1 rental" you mentioned.

[newgeezer]

I wonder how that compares to the "$1 rental" you mentioned.

Considering we're not a family of couch potatoes, not well at all.

[calex59]

Netflix is the way to go. Keep them as long as you like(which of course you rarely do)and pay a set fee per month no matter how many you rent per month.

We have a several mom and pop stores here that survive quite well against Block Buster, and they do not charge late fees on movies unless it is a high demand movie.

[RightWingAtheist]

I strictly get my videos from Discount Video here in Minneapolis, which has been run by two brothers for some twenty-five years. Great selection of older, obscure and foreign films. Heck, they even rent videos by Something Weird!

[Tom D.]

You are absolutely right about Netflix. I live in rural, eastern, NC, but I can drop a Netflix movie that I saw last night in the mail today, and in two days (assuming it is not over a weekend), I have a new movie. NetFlix has great movies. It has a great system to recommend movies to me based on what movies I tell them that I like. What's more, while I'm sitting at my computer, I can look at rottentomatoes.com or some other movie review site and get independent reviews of what I might want to see.

Why anyone would prefer to drive to a store, look through a limited bunch of crap, ask some zitty kid were some movie is in the store, get no answers, finally check out some movie that he may know little about, and then drive home to watch it is beyond me.

The only thing that Netfilx needs to do is to pick up their mail on Saturday so that if your old movie comes in on a weekend, you can get a turn around without a two day delay.

Blockbuster may make good in the mail order business, but it will be without my help unless Blockbuster gets a lot better and Netflix gets a lot worse.

[calex59]

sorry for the delay in answering. I agree with the Saturday thing, it would be nice if they did pick up their mail on Saturday and shipped on saturdays also. Right now there is no way to get a movie on monday for instance, at least for me, if I mail it back on friday I will recieve the new one on tuesday. If I mail it back on thursday I will get the new one on Saturday:)

Other than that I love Netflix, it is a real bargain, especially if a person tends to rent a lot of movies per week. I do and netflix saves me money in two ways; I save on the cost of rentals and save on gas costs by not having to go to a physical location. Netflix paying for the mailing costs is an added benefit and pure genius on their part.