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Why do people buy movies instead of renting them?

Z

zoiks

Lifer
When I was going to school, I used to work in the Tv dept at Montgomery Ward (if any of you remember that store). We used to have people come down and buy all sorts of movies all the time. In fact it was quite common to see people used to buy like 5 copies of some newly released movie like Disney cartoon so that they could give em to their relatives and have an extra copy for backup.

The practice is still popular today as lots of people buy movies and have big collections. In this day and age, you have Netflix or other places to rent your movies. Why the need to buy em? I often see people trying to sell their collections on CL claiming that they paid a lot of money for the movies to try and justify the price they're asking.
 
I'm impatient. If I decide to watch a movie one night it's nice to have a copy to just pop into the player rather than having to wait a few days for a rental to show up, or having to drive to the video store and pay a ridiculous price. I also tend to watch movies more than once so it makes sense to just buy a copy.
 
As someone who has a very large collection of movies, I think I can answer. Part of it is convenience. If I suddenly get a hankering to watch Dumb & Dumber or GoodFellas or Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Shawshank Redemption, I want it on hand right there. I'm fairly impatient, and I don't want to be bothered to go to the video store and pick out a movie. Services like Netflix are virtually useless to me because when I'm in a mood to watch a movie, it's right then, not two or three days from now; I quit my Netflix subscription after getting three movies I didn't feel like watching at the same time and holding on to them for 10 months (which ended up costing more than just buying them).
Another part of it is the urge to collect. It's a hording thing. It's a hobby, as much as anything else. I take pride in my movie collection. No matter who comes to visit, I'll be able to throw on a movie that they will enjoy watching (which doubles as an opportunity to show off my home theater equipment). Some people work on old cars, some people collect baseball cards, some people collect movies. It's all just a hobby.
 
Cause I like movies?

Granted there are a decent number I've only seen once, but most movies I buy are movies that I would watch more than once. I buy a lot of TV boxsets.
 
I buy a lot of movies at the evil empire... err walmart. There is always some movie on the $5 rack that I would love to own. 80s flicks or old war movies are my favorite genres.
 
I'm not a big movie fan, but there's a few I want to own for collector purposes, and so I can watch them any time I like. Here's some video I either own, or would like to own...

Shrek series
Harry Potter series
Lord of the Rings
Mirror Mask
John Waters films
Any silent film, especially Buster Keaton
Twilight Zone TV series
Addams Family TV series
Monty Python TV and Movies
a bunch more....
 
I have a small DVD and HD-DVD collection (< 75 titles all together). I reached the same conclusion as you. I'm never watch this stuff again, so why buy it? Doubt I'll buy a single Bluray when I eventually get a player.
 
There are plenty of movies I will want to see again and again.
Having said that, I just looked over my shelf and my CD case and theres a buttload of movies I am sorry I paid to buy. Should have gotten into Netflix a LONG time ago. Would have saved me at least a thousand bucks by now. If you can rent something as frequently as you want and basically dont pay for it, theres not much incentive in owning.

Also, I do have several movies you cant rent anywhere, like the NC-17 version of Bad Lieutenant.
 
Because blockbuster often charges $4 to rent a movie that I'm only gonna watch once, and I don't like to feel like I'm being ripped off to watch a movie that retails for $5. I'm too impatient for netflix, and don't watch enough movies...
 
Originally posted by: aircooled
I rarely re-watch movies. I'll buy something I do particularly like though.

Otherwise, Rent-copy-store-delete.
Click to expand...

i use to copy movies too but even that is a waste of time, i just threw them all out
 
A) Get movies on sale and its fairly cheap, can watch whenever I want, and not worry about going back and forth to the movie store.

B) Disney movies - I assume they are for kids... who watch movies 50 times and don't get bored of them.
 
DVDs are Cheap. I don't watch a lot of DVds, but it's nice to once in awhile to go to the shelf and grab one. Besides that, it seems that 1/2 of Rental DVDs are seriously fucked up. It's a major downer to have a Movie just Stop, jump ahead, or some other such nonsense just because there's a barely discernible scratch somewhere.

What's even better is VOD.
 
Originally posted by: shortylickens
There are plenty of movies I will want to see again and again.
Having said that, I just looked over my shelf and my CD case and theres a buttload of movies I am sorry I paid to buy. Should have gotten into Netflix a LONG time ago. Would have saved me at least a thousand bucks by now. If you can rent something as frequently as you want and basically dont pay for it, theres not much incentive in owning.

Also, I do have several movies you cant rent anywhere, like the NC-17 version of Bad Lieutenant.
Click to expand...

Blockbuster /= everywhere.

Find a decent independent video store and you can find pretty much anything you want. Fuck BB and their pro-censorship campaign.
 
I have never bought a DVD for myself. The closest I came was when I got the Band of Brothers boxset for my dad. I figured I could borrow it if I wanted to see it again. Mianily I'll just watch whatever is on TV. Not like there's lots of time to watch movies anyway.
 
I buy lots of movies because I love movies.

Also, I let family/friends borrow them, and I borrow them (or get movies as gifts from family/friends).... if you loan it to 2 or 3 people ... then it's pretty close to the cost for buying a $10 dvd than it would be for 3 different people to rent it ...
 
There are some movies that some people have to own.

For example: As a zombie movie fan, I have to own every zombie movie made. I also had to buy The Dark Knight.

There are others that I had to own as well (some of my favorites) like 'When Harry Met Sally".
 
so true, in fact why even bother download and waste hdd space if you can stream it. too bad download is free and stream is paid. rofl
 
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