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DVD -- What’s the deal with Red Box? |
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Written by asap
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Tuesday, 18 July 2006 |
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 First he was a Blockbuster customer. Then Internet DVD rental sites took off, and Rob Reardon switched to Netflix.
But when you’re a movie buff watching at least three movies a week, new ways to get them are always alluring and Reardon confesses a new love — he’s fallen for the Red Box.
“Red Box came and just blew it away,” the St. Louis dad-to-be says. “Now I’m 100 percent on Red Box.”
McDonald’s opened its first tall, red kiosks in Denver restaurants in 2004. Now the DVD rental machines are available at about 800 locations in Baltimore, Hartford, Houston, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City and St. Louis. The catch and big selling point? One-dollar rentals for one night, all new releases.
That’s what caught Reardon — the price. He’s fascinated with Red Box. He’s written essays about Red Box and tried to get his friends and family members to use the Red Box too.
“It’s nice for a while,” Reardon writes. “Renting movies, getting a quick fix. It’s cheap and a good time. You feel great. And so when you go to return the movie, you think ’Maybe I’ll rent another one. After all, it’s only a dollar.”’
 And that’s where fascination turned to addiction, he says. Reardon kept going back, renting movie after movie until there weren’t anymore in the Red Box that he hadn’t seen or wanted to see. The Red Box folks say each kiosk has between 60 and 70 titles.
“You start watching the really sub-par movies,” Reardon wrote. “Maybe a direct-to-DVD science fiction film entitled ’Raging Sharks’, or a made-for-TV movie called ’Caved-In: Prehistoric Terror.’ You pound on the magical Red Box screen looking for something that you haven’t already watched.”
Red Box started as a wholly owned subsidiary of McDonald’s, but in November Coinstar Inc. purchased a minority stake. Its kiosks were located exclusively in McDonald’s restaurants until recently, when the company started expanding into grocery stores.
The easy-to-use touch screen Red Box interface makes it all the more attractive, Reardon says. Another plus is that McDonald’s set up the Red Boxes so you can rent from one and drop off at another. No more separate trips. Red Box says in the last year it has rented more than 10 million DVDs — about 1.5 million a month.
“That’s what nice. After work you can go to the McDonald’s close by so you pick one up there and if you want to return it you can go to the McDonald’s close by your house. Whatever’s most convenient for me,” said Reardon, who’s not paid by either company to promote the service.
His one complaint? He can’t always get brand-new movies when he wants them, forcing him to hit the Red Box early on Tuesdays, the day DVDs are released.
“There’s been a couple of times where I go to work and then around 8:30 or so I’ll run out and just run to McDonald’s real quick,” he said. “If there’s a movie out you want to get it.”
But still, if Reardon’s watching three movies a week with Red Box that’s only $3.
“Compared to, say Blockbuster, I would never be willing to pay four dollars for ’Raging Sharks’ but at one dollar it’s a bargain,” Reardon said. “I haven’t experienced regret yet. I haven’t watched a movie and thought, ’Wow. That wasn’t worth a dollar.’ It’s always worth a dollar.”
More information on Red Box: www.redbox.com
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asap Midwest writer Caryn Rousseau is based in Kansas City, Mo. | |
Written by punkhorror on 2006-07-18 10:48:01
These things are actually really cool. It is great to go pick up McDonalds for dinner and then grab a movie for the family. the limited number of titles can be a pain in the ass though. |
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