While plenty of people still prefer the physical over digital, rental discs are no longer viable as a business as bankrupt Redbox shuts down, closing its thousands of kiosks around the US. Comically labeling the company “Deadbox,” Variety reports that Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, Redbox’s parent company, has changed its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case to a Chapter 7 — liquidating all of the movie rental service’s assets into the ground.
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment bought Redbox back in 2022. Those living in the US or Canada have probably seen the iconic bright red kiosks sitting in front of gas stations, grocery stores, fast-food joints, and other establishments people frequently visit. The company has been around since 2002, when physical media was more common than it is today. Why Chicken Soup thought a DVD/video game rental business could succeed in 2022 and beyond is quite baffling, yet this bankruptcy news is a telltale sign of where things are going with physical media in general.
While many might reminisce nostalgically of the good ol’ days when everything wasn’t digital, a top comment in r/movies on Reddit reminds us of a ‘not-so-good’ aspect of such rental services:
“Remember when Redbox had games? That was awesome — until people started photo-copying discs and inserting the paper slips into the Redbox cases.” Another user chimed in, “People stopped using red boxes. That was easy.” A third comment makes one of the best points, “The issue with Redbox was that they were poorly managed.”
Digital media is doubtless more convenient for everyone, not to mention easier to pirate and obtain “for free” online. But Gabe Newell, the President of Valve Corporation, put it perfectly when he said, “Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem.”
The same goes for Redbox: This is not a problem solely with digital surpassing the physical — it’s a service issue. Millions of people still buy and collect physical mangas, movies, video games, vinyl records, and more. But as a user on r/SanDiegan states, “Renting physical movies is a dead business,” and it’s not only because no one wants physical media. Companies like Blockbuster and Redbox just don’t know how to get it right in today’s age.
