Serenity DVD rental check-up.

POSTED BY: jonathan
UPDATED: Sunday, January 8, 2006 16:43
VIEWED: 5637
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JONATHAN

Wednesday, January 4, 2006 9:44 PM

I already own the dvd (of course), but I went to my local Blockbuster today (Wednesday morning) to try to rent a copy and support it that way too - and to ask the clerk how it was doing... There's good news and bad news.

The good news: All of the copies they had at that store were already rented out. When I asked the clerk about that, he said they were ALWAYS rented out. They can't keep them in the store. I didn't look closely at every selection in the store, but Serenity was the only one I noticed where every single copy was checked out.

The bad news: They only had eight copies available to start with, and they were located on a bottom shelf where they were very difficult to find (although people are obviously finding them anyway). Other movies (like Wedding Crashers) had two full racks (maybe 200 copies) displayed very prominently. When I asked the clerk about getting more copies of Serenity, he said that they didn't have that capability - they were stuck with what they were sent, which obviously isn't enough to meet demand.

Anyone else have any similar/different experiences?

CBY

Wednesday, January 4, 2006 10:35 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by jonathan:
they were located on a bottom shelf where they were very difficult to find (although people are obviously finding them anyway).

I know what you mean. When I bought my Firefly Box in a German multimedia store the boxes were hidden underneath boxes of other tv shows. I had to play stupid DVD hide and seek

I left the stack more visible, don't know if that had any effect though.

°°°°°°°°°°°°
http://www.byond-trax.com - my selfmade ambient/lounge/chillout music

DONCOAT

Wednesday, January 4, 2006 10:52 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by jonathan:
I already own the dvd (of course), but I went to my local Blockbuster today (Wednesday morning) to try to rent a copy and support it that way too - and to ask the clerk how it was doing... There's good news and bad news.

The good news: All of the copies they had at that store were already rented out. When I asked the clerk about that, he said they were ALWAYS rented out. They can't keep them in the store. I didn't look closely at every selection in the store, but Serenity was the only one I noticed where every single copy was checked out.

The bad news: They only had eight copies available to start with, and they were located on a bottom shelf where they were very difficult to find (although people are obviously finding them anyway). Other movies (like Wedding Crashers) had two full racks (maybe 200 copies) displayed very prominently. When I asked the clerk about getting more copies of Serenity, he said that they didn't have that capability - they were stuck with what they were sent, which obviously isn't enough to meet demand.

Anyone else have any similar/different experiences?

Let's see if we can spin this into a positive.

Maybe it's evidence that the Serenity DVD is selling so well, they can't make them fast enough -- so they don't have enough available to fulfill the rental store orders.

Yeah, that must be it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ain't about you, Jayne. It's about what they need.

WAGEDOMAIN

Thursday, January 5, 2006 12:12 AM

My local Family Video has a half-shelf of Serenity. What I mean is, you know those big 8-shelf units or so? They had 4 of those shelves on one unit, with about 3 DVDs behind it. Guess what? Been constantly rented out since release. Not a single copy left, and I rent a lot of movies.

Also, before Christmas they had one of each Firefyl disk available, and they were always there. Now they have two of each disk, and they are also constantly gone.

Blockbuster didn't have as many copies, maybe about 10-15, but they are also constantly gone.

So my experience is a bit different, in a positive way.

ANONYMOUS1

Thursday, January 5, 2006 3:07 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by jonathan:
They only had eight copies available to start with

I checked out 5 Blockbusters and only 1 had 12 empty placeholders. All the rest had 8 empty placeholders.

Some had 1 Serenity left for sale. Some had none left for sale.

None of them had Firefly for rent or sale.

Have not found any Blockbuster gift cards yet.

PHOEBE

Thursday, January 5, 2006 3:13 AM

It's so odd seeing you guys complain that there are only eight or twelve copies... in all the video/dvd rental stores I know, a film's successful if there's more than one or two copies available for rent. The idea of having eight copies of one film in one rental store just BLOWS the mind!

OMELET

Thursday, January 5, 2006 3:17 AM

Due to the difficulty finding our BDM on the shelves and Firefly put behind other lame shows in comparison, I suggest we go to Blockbuster at night and secretly place every Firefly-related object front and center for everyone to see. Or you could just do that at the store when you're by yourself. People might stare though.

Jayne: Are you saying River's a witch?
Wash: Yes, Jayne, she's a witch. She's had congress with the Beast.
Jayne: She's in Congress?
Wash: How did your brain even learn human speech? I'm just so curious!

SAMEERTIA

Thursday, January 5, 2006 3:19 AM

Our local video store brought in 5 copies. They've been constantly out since they got them, and the clerk tells me he believes that two of them have been 'stolen'.

(We're in a vacation town. People rent ski cottages, rent movies for the weekend and then take them home. Not like they're gonna have to live here, right?)

The bonus is, how often are people gonna say, "But I REALLY wanted to see that movie! Oh, look, Best Buy is on the way home. Let's swing by and see how much it is to just buy it."

ROCKETJOCK

Thursday, January 5, 2006 4:04 AM

Report from Northern California: Our local Hollywood Video had a full wall display, approx 20 copies--all rented, according to my daughter.

Just proves it:

Firefly ain't Star Trek;
Serenity ain't Star Wars;
What we are folk, is The Little Engine That Could!

"She's tore up plenty. But she'll fly true." -- Zoë Washburn

ANONYMOUS1

Thursday, January 5, 2006 5:20 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Phoebe:
It's so odd seeing you guys complain that there are only eight or twelve copies... in all the video/dvd rental stores I know, a film's successful if there's more than one or two copies available for rent. The idea of having eight copies of one film in one rental store just BLOWS the mind!

Do you have Blockbuster stores in your area? They usually have like 75 or a hundred copies of each new release in my area.

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