Blockbuster blames bad movies for poor sales

It's about time someone besides the cosumer to explain why no movie ticket now sales.

Could it be that customers are sick of them constantly raising prices and changing their plans after having signed up? I know I am. I am about to drop them after 4 yrs. and sign up for Netflix and occasionally Redbox.

I do have to agree that most of the movies that have been released in the last couple of years have been the cinematic equivalent of a white bread and margarine sandwich. Not enough appeal to make membership in Netflix or Blockbuster or anything else worthwhile.

1$ more than before thats to steep

I'd agree.. last summer.. the only movies I really wanted to see were Indiana Jones/The Dark Knight. That had to be the least amount in a very long time. This fall there was nothing. and usually they'res some good flicks around christmas. This summer though.. there's a few I want to see.. star trek, terminator, angels and demons, transformers 2, wolverine..... last summer was pretty quiet in the movie department.

EDIT: It also occured to me that walmart puts on DVD's for ridicously cheap prices. Especially older ones. Wait 3 months and the price of a new dvd drops alot. Maybe the price of dvd's has gotten to a point where its better to buy than to rent.

yeah Zod, i agree with you on the wal mart thing. When i buy i get it at walmart or seller from amazon, and some times amazon it self.

Working as an Electronics dept manager I am sick of a movie being made a year ago then they wait to release a year later.
The problem is consumers have now more knowledge about the movie making business and inside leaked details.
Biggest one I know is the Christmas edition of Shrek was suppose to be out 2006 christmas but they ended up releasing it in 2007 christmas

Make it a movie RELEASE THE DAMN MOVIE!!!!! customers know already of the inworkings of movie studios and their media corporations tie ups..

Following up this is exactly like the Auto Industry..
The big 3 also make cars in the Uk, Europe and Asia Market'
In Europe the SAME GM, CHRYSLER, FORD cars get double the fuel mileage. Consumers now know this and are outraged and tired of these companies building the same damn model cars in other markets 0that have more quality, get double the fuel mileage and are built by people wearing proper uniforms not ripped shorts and tshirts wearing earphones listening to music.

I will not buy a new car here that was assembled by a guy wearing ripped shorts and wearing a tshirt NO OFFENCE!!!!! and you autoworkers know exactly what I mean.

@Coolios

And cars have what to do with this article?

2008 was a terrible year for movies. Only a few were released that I actually wanted to see. The Christmas releases really blew. Star Trek was supposed to be released but it got pushed up to the summer. I think one main problem is Hollywood can't think of anything to come out with so they redux old movies in hopes that it will do well.

I have to agree with all those who have said the new releases aren't worth while, hollywood hasen't come out with anything original in years and I REFUSE to pay the rental prices that blockbuster wants! Wait a few months, own it for $5.50 or less... and in my case at least, I can hit the local pawn shops and get dvd's for $3.00 (including 2-disc limited editions); the local video rental places sell off their extra or old stock... it's worth the wait for me

2008 had plenty of good independent films, if you know what to look for. Although, I don't buy movies, I just rent. :-)

I would think poor movies would increase rentals. Because no one would buy a bad film, but they might rent it for a dollar at RedBox, just for something to watch. Probably Blockboster needs to allow a 1 dollar fee if the customer brings back the movie in 24 hours. They used to have a lock on rentals, but that was over a decade ago, frankly I am surprised they are still around with their rental model- it sucks. to them 24 hours is a "two day rental".

Slumdog Millionaire, Doubt, Frost Nixon, Revolutionay Road, The Curious Case of Benjamin.Button, Bolt, Changling, Defiance were all great movies just to name a few. There are plenty of good movies out there. I just think Blockbuster isn't all that good of a service like when they first started the online rental service. Its now too expensive to keep the in-store trade in feature. Thats what kept Blockbuster different from Netflix. I used to trade all my mailed movies and get three new one from the store any time I wanted for like $17 a month. Now I think it's $35 a month for the same service. That's crazy!

Or maybe its their customer service that sucks with the online rental service of sending out wrong disks in the right package, send it back and reporting the problem and you get another copy of the same film, BUT its still got another different wrong film in the sleeve, again. Then ignoring your emails when you report the problem. You have a huge rental list but get constant emails saying you have nothing to rent from your list then get something in the post the next day, and other people having the same problems of nothing to rent regardless how big their rental list is. Ignoring all emails and not bothering to reply to any ..... ever

Oh and the prices they charge for renting films, plus if you rent from one blockbuster store and want to rent a film from another store in your local area you MUST join that store as a new customer, so each store operates as a single store even though its the same company. Wiping your customer records and your details if you don't use your account for a few months, so are expected to join again as a new customer, regardless how many rentals you have had over the past 2-3 years. The UK blockbuster sucks big time

Defiance was so so. Frost Nixon was sort of boring and should of been a made for TV movie. The Ben Button, didn't go see that. Friends told me it was tiring to watch and too long so I never bothered. Slumdog was released in 2009 in the USA. The other movies I wouldn't care seeing anyways.

Partly it's true , most of the new movies are ... well not interesting , not really.
Strange, but about a month ago watched Terminator 2 - old movie , modern special efects are way better BUT it's a good movie, movie interesting to watch. What we have now ? Dark Knight at best case ...

Most of the feature films in the past ten years have been purile garbage. Soulless remakes, mindless violence and dumb superheroe movies dominate the list. About the only decent film I've seen lately is Gran Torino - Eastwood still knows how to make a good, decent flick, not like these other hacks who ripoff each other.

Precisly the reason I added DVD rentals to my store.. we charge $19.95 for one months subscription that allows you to take out three movies at a time as many times as you want for a month.. when your subscription runs out you can renew or no, no automatic charges unless of course you fail to return them when the sub runs out...the your charged full retail

If you don't want to subscribe then we offer $1.99 rentals Sun - Thurs and $2.99 Fri & Sat ... Older movies are .99 every day

It's worked pretty well for us... openeing a Brick and Morter store and cutting back on Ebay /Amazon has been a Big plus for us... people will tell you traditional stores are dead.. everything's online... and that's simply not true... Most of our customers won't shop online unless they have no other choice.. and then there's plenty that wont.

Just in case for some reason any of the higher ups at BB should ever read this... all I can say is this:

Keep doing things the way you are, cut back on stores and install those dumb ass Red Box type kiosks, get into the on demand downloads business... every ignorant concept you want to come up with like that that has brought your revenue down over the past several years will only increase my business.... If you really want a concept that will work and get you at least another 5-10 years or more.. give me a shout... I'm available to help you straighten out your core business.... and you won't have to pay me until I've put you back on top... :-)

I agree with you. We're paying more for poorer service. They've backed themselves into a corner by overextending their services and are now
finding ways to renege by charging more and providing less.
Of course, many of the movies available are garbage, too. That doesn't
help.

[ agree the new releases are very much of the same plus the price of renting they dont seem to have good offers on films instead its on drinks sweets and other stuff offers should be on films

The blockbuster that i have went to for years is a joke....I never really had a problem with them until this past january. I had rented 4 movies. I rent about 4 at a time every couple of months. They have this thing of life after late fees. You rent and if you don't take them back by a certain day, they charge you full price. Now mind you 2 of the movies were new release and 2 were old movies. Due to a family issue i took them back 2 days after the day of being charged full price which when you do that they charge you a 2 dollar restocking fee. Never have been late. So going on with life i started getting calls on the answering machine. I called the store. they told me that i owed 68.00 for the movies because they charged me full price for them. I said how can you do that when i don't have the movies and it's been over 3 weeks you had them. They told me the restocking charge of 2.00 was changed didn't i read the back of my receipt? I told him why would i do that. He said we change our policy all the time. I told him how is that my fault i don't rent much. You think their associates would bring up there's been a change in our policy. But no. I then asked him where these movies are that i now own at his store, he told me on his shelf. I said oh being rented out? So does that mean i get the money for every rental on it in the last 3 weeks? He didn't say anything so i said since you have the movies i don't owe you anything close my account and i'm going to netflix. They have the worst customer service why would i pay full price for 2 older movies, one was the incredible hulk(first one) i can get it new cheaper at wal mart then paying 21.99..So i would say their issues is not the movies which there wasn't alot to pick from this year but it's more in house then anything.

Right. The Main idea is that..... bad/stupid/worse/crazy movies will always be OK for bad/stupid/worse/crazy people. So... 1 question: Who are U doing movies for, Hollywood? Vampires? Drogged people? Pedofils? Low mind people? As far as I know, people are becoming smarter every day. So U're making worse movies every day... so... U're getting close 2 close U're business, Holli wood.
Do U remember one of the last TOP 10 LOVE MOVIES? The main 5 positions belongs to.... '54, '56, '... movies... Only TITANIC reached that top. If U're still sleeping... get lost! Sooner, the better, holliw od. Let others take U're place... And remember: One bump in U're ass is one step forward. I'm that one who's kikking asses... see ya. U may come 2 1st possition with animated movies like Walt Disney. The OOOOOLD ONEEEEES... that make U smile.... or commedies. Smart ones, not stupid ones. I waste enough of my spare time (that's getting more and more small every day) 2 watch U're stupid movies... Last one was Panda Ninja. 4 last 5 years....

as a good one (Panda..)