So I’m not exactly sure who Warner Bros. thinks they are, but they sure have put popular movie rental services such as NetFlix and Redbox between a rock and a hard place. Lately the movie giant has gotten the crazy idea into their corporate money-grubbing heads that if they delay rentals, they will make more money on DVD sales.
Sound logic….?
Of course the next step would be to muscle the two biggest rental services in the country – Netflix and Redbox – into not renting new releases until nearly a month after they’ve been released. 28 days to be exact. Only an eternity in the world of sales.
The crazy behind this rental raping plan is the thought that the public will purchase the movie if it is unavailable to rent immediately after release. Because I’ll just have to see the DVD release of Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore the instant it hits the shelves.
Puh-leez.
In the end, this only hurts the rental business (and most likely cause deep, irreparable resentment) and makes zero difference on DVD sales. People aren’t completely retarded (Warner Bros excluded). They’ll just wait the 28 days to rent – or more likely, and more painfully for Warner, just download it off Pirate Bay. I don’t think that the delay will cause people to go buy more DVDs.
This is how it works: I either liked The Dark Knight enough to convince myself that the outrageous DVD cost it worth it, or I watch it occasionally by some other means. Period. I’m not going to buy a movie I didn’t care for just because I can’t rent it immediately.
Not happening.