Hollywood Video Changes Rates
od Video here is changing its rental rate structure, allowing customers to keep all movies out for five days, but increasing the fee for a new release to $3.49 from $2.99. The retailer began changing the rates last month following a companywide managerial meeting.
At a store in the Cleveland area, signs characterized the program as "a limited-time offer," but store employees did not know when or if it would end. When SN visited, a Blockbuster Video store in the same shopping center had not yet matched or countered Hollywood's offer, although it was charging $2.49 for new releases. Like Hollywood's old policy, titles newer than 30 days could stay out one night at the Blockbuster, while older new releases could be kept five days. Store signage also said, "All movies for five days... Yes, that does include new releases."
Blockbuster Opens Supermarket Stores
DALLAS -- Blockbuster Entertainment has opened three leased-space, store-within-a-store video departments, confirmed Liz Greene, spokesperson. The departments range from 1,000 to 1,800 square feet and are in a Greensboro, N.C., unit of Kroger, Cincinnati, a Virginia Beach, Va., store operated by Harris-Teeter, Mathews, N.C., and a store operated by City Market, Grand Junction, Colo. They are corporately owned. Further details were not available, including what Blockbuster is doing with the eight leased-space departments it opened two years ago in Wal-Mart Supercenters in Texas.
Blowout Expands in Ralphs, Fred Meyer
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Blowout Entertainment here has opened leased-space departments in two new stores this summer. One is in a new Redondo Beach, Calif., unit of Ralphs Grocery Co., Compton, Calif. The other is in a Portland, Ore., Fred Meyer store. With these openings, Blowout now operates 13 store-within-a-store video-rental departments in Ralphs units and four in Fred Meyer units. Blowout executives did not return repeated calls for comment.
Top 10 Supermarket Video Rental Titles
Title (Weeks Out) Studio Retail Last Week
1 Good Will Hunting (7) Buena Vista $107.37 1
2 The Man in the Iron Mask (2) MGM $104.17 4
3 U.S. Marshalls (5) Warner $107.37 3
4 The Wedding Singer (3) New Line $107.37 2
5 Wag the Dog (8) New Line $105.77 8
6 Jackie Brown (3) Buena Vista $107.37 5
7 The Newton Boys (1) Fox $104.16 New
8 Hard Rain (4) Paramount $102.56 7
9 The Borrowers (1) Polygram $22.95 New
10 The Big Lebowski (2) Polygram $108.01 6
The chart on this page, tailored for the supermarket video market, is based on information taken from more than 1,000 supermarket rental locations serviced by Ingram Entertainment, La Vergne, Tenn.
