news

Since the advent of the VCR, movie rentals have been big business. However, as technology has changed the way that people accessed those rentals has evolved. Now it looks like we may be on the verge of another major change in the industry.

In most businesses, the occasional price increase is expected. In the bargain business, however, even the slightest uptick in prices can cause serious customer blowback. It happens every time the fast food places adjust their $1 menus, and if Redbox isn’t careful, it might just happen to the discount rental kiosk pioneer.

If Redbox were a contest, Melissa McCarthy would be the winner of 2013. McCarthy is the common denominator among the top two movies on Redbox’s Top 10 movie rentals of 2013. Identity Thief and The Heat top the list, with World War Z and Flight coming in third and fourth respectively.

The Xbox 360 entertainment experience has officially expanded, yesterday adding brand new apps for both GameTrailers and Redbox Instant by Verizon.

In an effort to become your homes end all, be all source for entertainment, Microsoft has announced an exclusive deal to bring the Redbox Instant app to Xbox 360 gaming consoles later this year.

Warners' current solution is the movie-storage service UltraViolet, combined with the social network Flixster, which Warners bought for $75 million last May. The service is free; when you buy a physical Blu-ray/DVD copy of a movie, it will include a code that allows you to claim a digital copy of the movie, accessible via the UltraViolet service. The goal there is for UltraViolet to allow you to watch that digital copy via any computer, mobile device, or net-connected TV.

Redbox, the popular video rental service that helped take a bite out of Blockbuster, is gearing up to raise its prices. The 20% price hike will bring the per night rental cost of a DVD from a clean $1.00 to a whopping $1.20 in order to account for increased operational costs, mostly from debit card fees, to keep the business profitable.

Redbox is continuing their foray into video game rentals. They plan to add video games to 5,000 more kiosks throughout the United States starting on August 1st.

Redbox is ready to fully commit to its game rental service. Next month they'll begin offering games through 21,000 kiosks in the United States.

Redbox's free-standing rental kiosks have earned plenty of fans for their convenient access to DVDs without actually having to drive to Blockbuster or pay a monthly fee. The one thing missing so far has been Blu-rays

Blockbuster's money troubles are nothing new, but Old Blue hasn't thrown in the towel just yet. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Blockbuster has struck a deal with Warner Bros., Sony, and Fox that may help the rental company avoid bankruptcy

Earlier this year studios imposed a one-month delay after street date before new DVD releases could become available for rent in Redbox's omnipresent kiosks. Now Warner Bros. and Netflix have agreed to a similar month-long delay on new releases arriving on Netflix

DVD rental company Redbox has decided to yank the box art for Deadline from their kiosks nationwide. The image feature’s Brittany Murphy’s character lying lifeless in a bathtub.

Blockbuster Video announced this week that they may be shutting down 960 of their 4,400 brick-and-mortar stores

It’s no surprise that Hollywood isn’t exactly jumping for joy over the advent of discount-rental kiosks like Redbox. So it’s even less of a surprise that studios like Fox and Universal are taking action