AfterDawn: News

Redbox offering workaround Warner and Universal titles in kiosks

Warner, Universal and Fox, three of the major Hollywood studios, announced in the last quarter that the popular Redbox kiosks would not be allowed to offer new releases of their films for the first 30 days after launch, taking a shot at the growing kiosk market which offers movie rentals for $1-a-night. The three studios account for 40 percent off the entire rental market.

Redbox has signed workaround agreements and continues to offer the titles, and has sued the studios as well. The kiosks continue to offer street-date films from Sony, Disney, Paramount and others.



According to Merriman Curhan Ford analyst Eric Wold, new popular releases such as The Hangover from Warner and Inglourious Basterds from Universal were stocked in about 85 percent of all Redbox kiosks on launch day, but it is still unclear whether they have one disc of the title, or twenty.

"We know that copy depth on workaround titles is going to be lower than for titles [Redbox gets] through distribution agreements," Wold told VB. "But in my discussions with Coinstar, they stress their workarounds are centered around getting as many copies in as many kiosks by Friday night."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 24 Dec 2009 15:16

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• 13 comments

• Hrdrk20

  Too bad I'm not the CEO of Redbox, i'd have my minions burning thousands of copies to fill thoes machines. I've seen new titles on launch day but the artwork is "fan-made" and not the official artwork released my the movie companies.

  24.12.2009 19:17 #1

• ydkjman

  Whats to stop the owners of the Rebox's, just going into a Walmart or any place on release day and buying 50-100 copies of the DVD's?
  
  Is there some rule against that?

  24.12.2009 23:35 #2

• scum101

  actually the studios think they have the right to say what is and isn't done with YOUR property when you have bought it from them..
  
  go on redbox.. get them burns going.
  

  Yes, we give you 100% free, no strings attached email! Just send us your address and we will send you as much free email as you could ever wish for

  24.12.2009 23:59 #3

• djgizmo

  scum101,
  
  Actually, rental stores (such as BLockbuster/Redbox/Netflix) purchase specific types of dvds / videos from their distributor for RENTAL purposes. When I used to work for a video store a few years back, I saw a couple invoices and it's crazy. Nearly $85 per dvd copy (back then) and if the distributor caught you making copies of said movie, they'd terminate your distribution agreement on the spot.
  
  Bottom line, redbox is up against a wall. Hopefully they'll be able to pull some magic out of the hat.

  25.12.2009 01:25 #4

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by Hrdrk20: Too bad I'm not the CEO of Redbox, i'd have my minions burning thousands of copies to fill thoes machines. I've seen new titles on launch day but the artwork is "fan-made" and not the official artwork released my the movie companies.So, you are saying that you want to wear an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs?
  
  The studios do have the right (legaly speaking at least) to control what you do with your movies. They bought this right for a tiny price paid to a few judges. That warning at the beginning of every DVD isn't from the MPAA...it is from the FBI.
  
  Also, I highly doubt that they are still charging $85 per DVD. I know that netflix does get a few "rental" dvds from time to time, but for the most part, they have the same DVDs that you would get if you bought the movie; they even have the second disk of a bonus pack most of the time. With this in mind, the only reason for them to buy the "rental" versions of movies is if they cost less than the "purchase" version.

  25.12.2009 06:32 #5

• scum101

  Quote:Bottom line, redbox is up against a wall. Hopefully they'll be able to pull some magic out of the hat. and that magic is called setting up a tracker funded through ads so NOBODY pays squat.. ever!
  

  Yes, we give you 100% free, no strings attached email! Just send us your address and we will send you as much free email as you could ever wish for

  25.12.2009 07:26 #6

• Mez

  Warner isn't smart enough to see the writting on the wall. Kiosks are the way of the future. With in a year or so the Brick and morter stores will be gone.

  26.12.2009 01:49 #7

• duke8888

  In todays market the video stores are no longer paying the $85 per copy but 14.99 price. Redbox tried to buy large amounts from Walmart but the companies sent them a letter to stop selling to redbox thus causing redbox to file another law suit. The studios should be happy their product is getting out there considering the junk the yhave been putting out.

  26.12.2009 09:19 #8

• ydkjman

  Originally posted by duke8888: Redbox tried to buy large amounts from Walmart but the companies sent them a letter to stop selling to redbox thus causing redbox to file another law suit.duke8888Where did you read that ?

  26.12.2009 12:20 #9

• Sazy

  RedBox does buy movies from WalMart. Ive had several RedBox employees wipe me out on opening day for Inglorious Bastards. My manager is coming in next Tuesday for the next batch of releases and is formely telling them they cannot purchase more then 2 copies of any movie in a given week or he will have them "banned" from the store. (Whatever ban means)
  
  But seriously, when a RedBox employee does that it hurts business for retail stores. I had several customers openly say they won't come back to WalMart for a movie because of the incident.

  27.12.2009 03:46 #10

• ydkjman

  Originally posted by Sazy: But seriously, when a RedBox employee does that it hurts business for retail stores.Is this because now people will just go and rent the movie for just $1.00 ?
  
  Don't you think that the most people are going to rent a movie first(if they have never seen it) to decide if they really want to buy it ?
  
  So wouldn't it hurt other rental places first more than a retail store? I meen the store that they buy it from gets the sale. The same kind of sale as if 50 different people came in and bought 1 each.
  
  Unless your going to say that there won't be enough copies for those customers that really want to purchase them to begin with.

  27.12.2009 23:57 #11

• psp4everz

  those redboxes scare me. are they like....Communists or something? o_O

  5.1.2010 22:02 #12

• Mez

  Originally posted by Sazy: RedBox does buy movies from WalMart. Ive had several RedBox employees wipe me out on opening day for Inglorious Bastards. My manager is coming in next Tuesday for the next batch of releases and is formely telling them they cannot purchase more then 2 copies of any movie in a given week or he will have them "banned" from the store. (Whatever ban means)
  
  But seriously, when a RedBox employee does that it hurts business for retail stores. I had several customers openly say they won't come back to WalMart for a movie because of the incident.More than half the people are morons. I really don't care what a moron thinks. Rentals keep the movie industry a float. I think Red Box buys less of the garbage movies than the brick and morter stores buy. That is why the movie industry doesn't like them.

  6.1.2010 15:57 #13