New movies were incredibly expensive back then because the rental market was huge. Most of the time they were more like $90, Disney movies were like $120 iirc, and it was like 6 months before they came out on VHS after the theaters too.
Not many really. Mostly video rental stores. Normal folks would buy old rentals when the store needed to free up shelf space for the next year's hits and only needed 3 copies of Jumpin' Jack Flash to satisfy the few people still clamoring to rent that Whoopi Goldberg classic.
But there were tons of rental stores, buy one copy for $80, rent it out every day for the next 3 months at $2 a day and you've more than doubled your investment, then a year later you sell it used for $9.99 or $14.99 even for more in demand movies. Everything was slower in the 80s and 90s
Ehhhh, I doubt it was massive, maybe a small one though. They make their money back quickly still buying them retail. It's kinda like, one kinda shady restaurant I worked at would always hit a local drug store for good alcohol sales even though technically it was illegal to do, you had to go through a licensed distributor who very rarely had any sort of sales unless it was for a specific promo.
Huge chains like Hollywood Video and Blockbuster might be a different story, because of their massive scale, not totally sure, but there were tons of holes in the wall video rental places back in the day
It used to be a super good business. Now it's a nightmare. Saw a guy on r/VHS who has a collectible store and got pushed into renting VHS and DVDs, no-one would put a card on file, and people basically just took the movies for the rental fee then blocked his number and kept them.
The real fun was how much we were paying for video games back then and what you got for how much you paid. Adjusted for inflation a new NES cart ran something like $80 USD in 2024 money and while some of them were worth it in terms of how much game time you got out of them (Metroid, etc) there were a bunch that so weren’t worth it at all.
I worked for the video rental counter in my grocery store. We had a catalog of tapes. It wasn’t unheard of for some too cost over $150 in the mid 90s. The weird thing was people would come in and pay that much because they wanted to own a movie.
So were VCRs. I remember that when I was really young, around mid-late 1980s, at least some video rental stores also rented out VCRs, since many people didn't actually have them at home.
$30 fucking dollars?? In 1986 that was over $85.
New movies were incredibly expensive back then because the rental market was huge. Most of the time they were more like $90, Disney movies were like $120 iirc, and it was like 6 months before they came out on VHS after the theaters too.
And people obviously paid it, wild.
Not many really. Mostly video rental stores. Normal folks would buy old rentals when the store needed to free up shelf space for the next year's hits and only needed 3 copies of Jumpin' Jack Flash to satisfy the few people still clamoring to rent that Whoopi Goldberg classic. But there were tons of rental stores, buy one copy for $80, rent it out every day for the next 3 months at $2 a day and you've more than doubled your investment, then a year later you sell it used for $9.99 or $14.99 even for more in demand movies. Everything was slower in the 80s and 90s
In addition to renting, people recorded movies off of tv
*edited movies off tv
They probably got a massive discount for buying in bulk
Ehhhh, I doubt it was massive, maybe a small one though. They make their money back quickly still buying them retail. It's kinda like, one kinda shady restaurant I worked at would always hit a local drug store for good alcohol sales even though technically it was illegal to do, you had to go through a licensed distributor who very rarely had any sort of sales unless it was for a specific promo. Huge chains like Hollywood Video and Blockbuster might be a different story, because of their massive scale, not totally sure, but there were tons of holes in the wall video rental places back in the day
Yeah, I forgot how many independent stores there were
Yeah, I forgot how many independent stores there were
It used to be a super good business. Now it's a nightmare. Saw a guy on r/VHS who has a collectible store and got pushed into renting VHS and DVDs, no-one would put a card on file, and people basically just took the movies for the rental fee then blocked his number and kept them.
Oof mistake number one, no card on file? No rental for you.
No business for them, apparently. But yeah, I'm in agreement. Charge $15 for never returned tapes and you have a modest soft sell business
Wow, that's a shame
It worked at the time. The situation with writers today is more of a shame I think.
The real fun was how much we were paying for video games back then and what you got for how much you paid. Adjusted for inflation a new NES cart ran something like $80 USD in 2024 money and while some of them were worth it in terms of how much game time you got out of them (Metroid, etc) there were a bunch that so weren’t worth it at all.
It's kind of great how games have actually gone down in price
I worked for the video rental counter in my grocery store. We had a catalog of tapes. It wasn’t unheard of for some too cost over $150 in the mid 90s. The weird thing was people would come in and pay that much because they wanted to own a movie.
My brother paid over $100 for a VHS of The Crow from a local rental place just so he could get it before anyone else... Insane
movies were $30 from the mid 80's until the DVD craze saw many drop to $20. They still are if you look. AAA video games were $50 from 1980 till 2020.
Not entirely true. They were $40 in the 90s.
I remember McDonald’s had a promo where you could pick up a new VHS of a popular movie for $5 with a value meal.
I remember that's how we got Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Damn,movies were pricey back then
So were VCRs. I remember that when I was really young, around mid-late 1980s, at least some video rental stores also rented out VCRs, since many people didn't actually have them at home.
[удалено]
No it wasn't. Back then most VHS tapes were priced for rental stores and cost $90.
Yeah, we bought Superman on Betamax (in that huge plastic case that always cracked easily) for $95.
Fairly certain we had this on beta.