The Complicated History of Renting Movies

we've all had the experience where it's

a Friday you're fresh off of work and

you decide to have a movie night last

week while you were hate watching Love

is Blind you noticed that you saw Dune

on Netflix so you pop open Netflix type

in Du NE e and it's nowhere to be found

no worries you also saw that it was

streaming on Hulu so you close Netflix

open up Hulu wait for the app to launch

D NE and where the hell is this thing

streaming okay it's on something called

tub also on freebie fubo TV Zumo bio

squeebie teley plus and oh good it's

also on HBO or sorry it's on it's on Max

a little over a decade ago streaming on

Netflix pitched a cheaper alternative to

cable and renting movies it promised a

nearly endless library of movies and TV

shows while giving you the freedom to

watch whatever you want whenever you

want it's movie time with the Wii

twist Netflix now delivers unlimited TV

episodes and movies instantly through we

plus DVDs by mail all for only n bucks a

month seriously what is it 14 years

later we find ourselves in an era of

Warner Brothers deleting movies entirely

too many streaming services to count and

mega mergers between entertainment

corporations Hulu is on Disney plus now

what does that mean what does this mean

but the method in which we watch movies

at home has never been a fixed one of

course the art of making movies

themselves has evolved but over the last

100 years the film industry has been

forced to rapidly shift into change the

way they deliver those films to

customers in the early 20th century the

average movie goo's experience was

relatively simple you just left your

house went to the theater and watched

whatever was playing this would be a

normal part of your week because by the

1930s the film industry had taken

America by storm and the rest of the

world I guess I don't know film making

was a decades old art at this point

American audiences had already seen the

rise and fall of onscreen Legends like

Charlie Chaplain Buster Keaton or that

train that came at the screen so fast at

freaked everybody out movies had

successfully ingrained themselves as a

regular weekly entertainment Source in

American life but all of that was about

to change early television broadcasts

were starting to pop up in major cities

across the country and the film industry

had nothing to do with it the movie

studios were so concerned about the

television that the Motion Picture

Association even stated in 1939 that

they should never let the idea become

generally accepted that the television

means pictures in the home instead of

pictures in the

theater are you listening to me dude

what

oh uh sorry I was I was watching past

lives on my phone but the movie studios

didn't need to make such a big deal out

of things after the stress of World War

I they should just relax it's not like

there's going to be another world war or

anything after the events of Pearl

Harbor American men were drafted to

serve across the globe and it's a good

thing we weren't alive during that time

because I just my knee I I just got a

bad knee I'm afraid of land mine so that

won't work the major movie studios at

the time were Paramount 20th Century Fox

Universal Columbia Warner Brothers MGM

and a few more this handful of companies

ruled over American entertainment due to

the fact that they also operated and

owned the movie theaters themselves the

amount that Americans went to the movie

theater is almost completely

unrecognizable to the way it's

culturally viewed today weekly movie

theater attendance was around 80 million

people that's 80 million people seeing a

movie every week out of 132 million

that's

543 of all Americans it's actually 65%

but don't call them out in the comments

I don't want them to feel bad but once

the war was over and Hitler killed

himself Americans wanted to do two

things more than anything else make

babies and watch

television previewing our post-war world

let's look into a brand new development

television here's an expert with a

Lowdown on the side facts I believe in

this world to come I think it's going to

be a pretty good world but I've been

asked to tell you about television it's

going to brighten the world of your home

television quickly went from an exciting

new technology with 6,000 TV sets in

American homes in 1946 to 12 million by

1951 television was quickly becoming a

staple in American culture and also the

world I'm sure I I don't know who cares

but unlike the pre-war era and the

current business today movie studios

didn't have a choke hold on the the

business in fact they were a direct

competitor who is losing profit to

television this is because radio

companies mainly the big three of NBC

CBS and ABC had experience in

broadcasting and had jumped at the

medium of Television while it was still

in its experimental early days with the

film industry's business being solely

based on ticket sales from people going

to the theater let's just say the major

Studios were not a huge fan of the

ability to watch entertainment in your

home they would also be met with another

devastating blow to their business to

put it in gamer terms the the US

government introduced an update that

patched the Studio's infinite money

glitch knocked them down the leaderboard

and hit their Italian with a Goomba or

something I don't know Anti-Trust laws

were introduced that eliminated Studio's

ability to own theaters themselves

forcing them to give up their control of

distribution what an archaic thing for

the US government to do if you break up

big companies like this how will I along

with every other American One Day become

a billionaire morons not looking out for

the little guy they just don't get it so

after the antitrust blow and the

invention of the Television Studios were

right to be worried because by 1956 the

TV had become widely adopted and

attendance in movie theaters had dropped

by 50% from its peak in 1946 in just 10

years they had lost half of their

business so unlike in 1939 when Studios

vowed to never let you watch movies in

your home they were now forced to change

their tune a massive number of Americans

were choosing to stay home watch TV

drink and chain smoke while pregnant but

more importantly to Studios this meant

that people weren't watching movies at

all Studios needed to reach people in

their homes so they decided to try

screening movies on television formatted

down and split up by commercials real

quick Tony just texted me while sitting

next to me and said money money money

please so a quick word from our sponsor

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back to the tiny I'm tiny Tony and back

to the big video now we couldn't find a

reliable source on which movie event was

the first to grab the public but after

screenings of things like King Kong and

and The Wizard of Oz Drew massive

ratings they could no longer ignore that

sweet sweet cash and were forced to make

a deal with the networks to regularly

screen movies on television NBC Saturday

night at the movies in 1961 was the most

prominent program to do this on a weekly

[Music]

basis NBC Saturday night of the movies

presents Billy Jack inspiring other netw

like CBS and ABC to follow as well every

Network and by every we mean like the

only three started doing these events

all week NBC started Monday nights at

the movies ABC had Sunday nights at the

movies mid Wednesday afternoon at the

movies and CBS is that moment in the

morning where the sun shines through

your blinds at the perfect angle to hit

your eyes and wake you up at the movies

at this point The Well of films to

screen on TV starts to become pretty dry

with all three major networks airing a

movie like every day the amount of

properties they can make a deal with

Studios for get smaller and smaller this

forced them to start production on made

for TV movies I mean can you imagine a

tiny selection of powerful entertainment

companies controlling basically all of

atome film and TV distribution

swallowing up the right to every old

project to the point where the

competition is so saturated and

confusing that they have to start making

their own original content just to keep

up even if it meant tog grading the

quality of art good thing it ain't like

that now and the push of Technology

putting pressure and challenges on on

movie studios continued into the mid 70s

with the release of the betamax by Sony

in 1975 the betamax had a surprisingly

underwhelming appearance after doing

some digging we found a picture and this

is what a beta looks

like you see that reflection yeah that's

you you're the beta betamax was a

machine that allowed you to record live

TV and copy it onto a tape allowing

anyone to keep a collection of their

favorite shows good morning if you work

nights the way I I do you miss a lot of

great TV shows but I don't miss them

anymore thanks to Sony's betamax deck

which hooks up to any TV set while being

an important step in the evolution of

media the betamax was not the movie

Machine of the future this was mostly

due to two factors the first was that

the thing was expensive as hell the

first model in the 1970s was

$2,295 and that's not even adjusted for

inflation

$2,295 in 19 75 adjusted for inflation

is over $1 million today can you believe

that no not really yeah I just looked it

up it's

$3,669 the second Factor was that the

beta could only record one hour of

television on tape Max at this point

there were full movies airing on TV with

commercial breaks so while you could

easily record your favorite sitcoms or

news broadcast you'd only be able to

catch the first 40 minutes of Billy Jack

I just go B

now technically the betamax was not the

first home VCR the car division came

before it in 1972 And even offered a

small catalog of movies on tape I can

bring you whatever you want to see

whenever you want to see it sound

impossible not for cart revision due to

its own massive price tag it was not

adopted by the public enough to

revolutionize the industry just yet I

actually took a look at an old copy of

the movie catalog for the car division

and I found a horror movie called The

Tingler I'm William castle and I feel

obligated to warn you about the next

attraction you will see at this theater

the picture is The Tingler which I

directed so apparently The Tingler was a

horror released in 1959 where theaters

would attach electric buzzers to seats

and shock people to simulate The Tingler

tingling them it was guaranteed that The

Tingler will break loose while you are

in the audience and it was up to the

audience to scream loud to defeat The

Tingler yeah that's not going to be a

problem get The Tingler away from me I

don't want The Tingler anywhere near

betamax scared the studios so much so

that Universal and Disney sued Sony over

the device because they felt it was a

machine designed to solely steal and

copy their property a lawsuit in which

they lost so that's another Fat fortnite

L for movie studios and to make the

situation even worse for them just a

year after the betamax came the creation

of the VHS from the Japanese company JVC

it was cheaper than the betamax still

over $1,000 or $500,000 today still

wrong it was also not exclusive the Sony

products which meant you didn't need a

betamax or JVC machine to watch their

tapes just any VCR that could play a VHS

but more importantly it could hold two

or more hours of video on tape AKA one

godamn movie one full Billy

Jack in the late ' 7s these were still

way too expensive for the general public

but a man named Andre bla was paying

close attention to the technology he saw

the potential of VHS and betamax tapes

and how they could be used as a new way

to view movies after already being in

the tape business recording and

duplicating albums for music labels and

Industrial training videos he wondered

why the [ __ ] aren't we selling movies so

he reached out to the studios and found

a business partner in 20th Century Fox

or as we like to call it future Disney

they made a deal where Fox would give

bla 50 of their older movies to copy and

sell and they'd get a small Commission

on each purchase by special arrangement

with 20th Century Fox magnetic video

Corporation is proud to offer the

following major Motion Picture on video

cassette this led to the creation of his

Subscription Service video Club of

America we actually found a commercial

that was made in 1985 and uploaded to

YouTube 15 years ago unfortunately it is

still processing but hopefully it will

be done in just a few minutes video Club

of America was a huge success despite

the price at nearly $100 for some movies

people were buying movies far beyond bla

and Fox's expectations in the late '70s

these were still way too expensive for

the general public with blank VHS tapes

costing around $20 each or like $100 now

and it sparked another even better idea

from George Atkinson the owner of a

super a camera rental store in Los

Angeles he saw the potential in allowing

people to rent movies instead of

purchasing them forever especially due

to the large price tag for a single film

George then joined the video Club of

America and bought copies of all 50

movies that Andre bla was selling and

offered them for rent it was so

successful that George pivoted his

camera store to focus on renting movies

on VHS and betamax which became the

first official video rental store yet

another fortnite L for Studios gone were

the days of seeing a movie in theaters

and having to hope the studios would

rescreen it gone were the days of

waiting years for a movie to air on TV

no more waiting to watch it cropped down

from its original format with lesser

quality and commercial breaks like all

technology as the market progressed and

Manufacturing got cheaper the prices

also became more affordable finally you

could tingle yourself at home for an

affordable price except for one company

Disney it's no secret that Disney keeps

tight control over the properties they

own for decades they've succeeded in

changing us copyright law to prevent

Mickey Mouse from entering the public

public domain and their business model

for their films before television took

over relied on controlling the supply

and demand they would wow the World with

Mickey Mouse Snow White and other

animated films only to pull them from

theaters for a number of years before

ever screening them again they even as

we mentioned before sued Sony with

universal over the original betamax

because they didn't want people

recording Disney films from their TVs

because they were caught up in that

lawsuit which they eventually lost

fortnite L Disney caused them to enter

the VHS Market later than most Studios

but it wasn't long before Disney found a

way to start controlling their releases

again that came in the form of the

Disney

Vault don't you wish you bought

Pinocchio when you had the chance

wouldn't you love to have lady in the

[ __ ] in your

collection now they're gone and time's

running out for Cinderella too Disney

would wait 5 to 7 years before releasing

their animated films on VHS and then

they would price them higher than most

films to encourage people to rent them

instead of own them after a period of

time instead of continuing to sell the

movies like a normal [ __ ] company

they would pull the movies from shelves

locking it away in the Disney Vault

after March 31st Disney will stop

selling this Timeless classic hurry this

Easter is your last chance to add Bambi

to your collection before it disappears

for years to come did they put a [ __ ]

ticking clock on it by creating limited

supplies they turned their physical

releases into more than just VHS tapes

of their movies they became collector's

items this this is quite possibly one of

the most anti-art business practices to

ever exist hurry up and buy now before

we lock away this piece of art and film

history into a comically large Vault the

shape of Mickey's

head nothing's coming out of there not

even air Bambi can't breathe when we

were seven and we would see those ads

specifically on rented movies I would

feel like I'd lose the lion king forever

I'd never get to see sex spelled out in

leaves again i' never get to see Bambi's

mom get shot ever again yeah man can you

imagine uh yeah but during this time the

rental Video Store Market was exploding

by the late 1980s people all over the

country owned a vcr and wanted to rent

movies but in the United States the

story doesn't end there you've got a

burger shop that people like franchise

you got a family grocery store

franchised and what are we going to do

allow the money to go back in the

pockets of the local families oh my God

I rid of my water I rid of my water this

era also saw the rise of cable TV where

more and more channels not only screened

movies with commercials but started

producing shows and made for TV movies

at an increasing rate and for an

additional price you could also get a

movie subscription Channel like HBO or

Showtime where you could watch movies

all the time ad free with rental stores

on the rise the world was introduced to

Major franchises like Blockbuster and

Hollywood Video well the perfect video

store welcome to Blockbuster Video is

popping up all over the

country there's one near

[Music]

you this era was a major part of our

childhood our weekends would start by

going to our local Hollywood Video

nearly every Friday night and to sweeten

the pot for families who are renting on

weekends like ours Blockbuster had

multiple Partnerships with big pizza

chains I got your pizza movie what's a

pizza movie your buy a pizzeria stuff

crust pizza from Pizza Hut you get a

free rental at blackbuster Pizza movie

Get It Free how' you do that I'm Santa I

can do anything now at Pizza Hut buy a

large Pizzeria stuff crust pizza for

$9.99 and get a certificate for one free

rental of Blockbuster Video but the

reason this era is remembered so fondly

is because rental stores became a

gathering spot for your community if you

go to Blockbuster a Hollywood Video on a

Friday night you're likely to see a

friend a neighbor or Ricky from high

school that you're refusing to make eye

contact with do you want to come over

and watch the Extended Cut of Lord of

the Rings uh I I think I'm busy it's

only 13 hours I don't want to do that

this also allowed families to go

somewhere together at the end of the

school and work week pick a movie and

watch it as a family living in the

suburbs and not a walkable Community

some of our Fondest Memories were going

to Hollywood video with our family

ordering a pizza and having a movie

night I distinctly remember begging for

candy at the checkout aisle on a Friday

night ready to have a great weekend Tony

you remember those Hubba Bubba Squeeze

Pop candies we'd always get uh yeah

remember how we would just like slurp

those down as we were watching the movie

we rented just like absolutely going

into town on those things yeah I

remember do you remember what they look

like

oh why' they make them drip like that in

the picture by the late '90s video

rentals were a regular part of of

American life as years went by DVDs

joined the process of the movie and

Rental business as an upgraded version

of the

VHS this is

DVD and

this is what happens when you watch

DVD followed by the Blu-ray and Dad it's

like a way better deal if we get a PS3

it's the same price as a Blu-ray player

and it does that and plays games now I

know what you're about to say it's the

recession and the PS3 is

$600 but just take it from my college

fund what do you mean I don't have a

college fund did you tell him it also

plays games I told him so there were now

more ways to watch things than ever for

the most part we think this was a really

good thing compared to the studio

Monopoly there were more options and

plenty of different companies making

those options without home movie sales

and rentals a lot of mid-budget movies

wouldn't be made and without cable TV we

wouldn't have gotten to see Tony Soprano

cheat on his wife or Don Draper cheat on

his wife or Walter White Lie to his wife

or Gilmore Girls but technology wasn't

slowing down and the internet brought in

a new Evolution in video rentals n gly

what game GameFly oh Netflix netx

Netflix Netflix was the new kid on the

Block offering movie rentals through

their online web page Netflix's entire

business model sented around offering

rental video without having to leave

your home there's a better way to rent

movies as many as you want for only

$17.99 a month and no late fees go to

netflix.com make a list of the movies

you want to see and in about one

business day you'll get three DVDs keep

them as long as you want without late

fees then when you're done look prepaid

envelopes return one and they'll send

you another movie from your list it's

easy no more late fees no more having to

physically drive to Blockbuster to rent

no more realizing on Sunday night that

it's the last day of your rental now

you've got to go out in the middle of

the night and drive across town just to

toss The Talented Mr Ripley in the

24-hour Dropbox by the way watch out for

that Ripley guy he's [ __ ] nuts at

this point movies had a pretty solid

process to making money theater

screenings VHS and DVD releases to rent

and own and later screening it on TV

gave a movie the opportunity to reach

people multiple times in one year the

DVD was a huge part of our business of

our Revenue stream technology has just

made that uh obsolete the movies that

that we used to make you could afford to

not make all of your money when it

played in the theater because you knew

you had the DVD coming behind the

release and 6 months later you'd get all

you know a whole another chunk it would

be like reopening the movie almost and

when that went away that's suddenly a

massive gamble in a way that it wasn't

in the 1990s when they were making all

those kind of movies the kind of movies

that I loved and and the kind of movies

that were my bread and butter but with

the prominence of video on the internet

growing by the day things were about to

change forever again for like the fifth

time in 80 years just like the

transition to TV consumers were moving

toward the most convenient way to get

their entertainment the VHS and DVD

thing was convenient in itself but as we

all know not the big thing that changed

Hollywood Forever in 2007 Netflix

launched their new service that

completely changed the way we consume

movies and TV their video streaming

service oh hello I'd like to tell you

about

Netflix it's an amazing serice that let

you watch unlimited movies and TV

episodes instantly you watch Netflix on

your PC or on your TV through a game

console or other devices connected to

the internet wow that's ni and over the

next decade a movie rental company

became both the way you watch movies at

home and a major Studio themselves but

as we all know Netflix didn't kill all

other TV and movie studios to become the