Are Movies By Mail Worth It?

In the past few years, mail-order movie rental services have taken aim at the retail rental stores that came to dominate the market in the '80s and '90s. With their competitive pricing, online account maintenance, and speedy shipping, services such as Netflix keep giving film fans more reasons to join. More importantly, perhaps, they provide an all-around better value than the Blockbusters and Hollywood Videos of the world.

Why else would devoted chain store shoppers suddenly change their minds and sign up for online subscription plans? Well, for one thing, some Internet-based businesses offer better selection. Sure, Blockbuster may have thousands of videos and DVDs in every store, but dozens of these are copies of the same title, especially when it comes to popular new releases. As a "family-friendly" corporation, Blockbuster has no qualms about stocking 50 copies of Shrek 2 at once, but what if you're just dying to rent Eraserhead or Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer?

Another selling point of mail-order rental services is their "all-you-can-eat" proposition. Gone are the days of late fees (a banishment the chains have just adopted) and one-, two-, or three-day limits. Mail-based clubs allow subscribers to keep titles as long as they please since they're paying a flat fee for their membership. Want to memorize every line of Chinatown or Casablanca? Feel free to keep these classics on top of your entertainment console for weeks at a time. Of course, you're better off buying them outright at a retail store for 15 or 20 bucks, but if the shoe fits?

One variation on the buy-and-hold theme is diversification. Some online rental clubs allow you to pay more for the right to borrow a greater number of titles at one time. While three at once is average, you can up your allowance to eight DVDs at a stretch, which enables you to keep and watch more films simultaneously. Say you have a term paper on Ingmar Bergman, but you know you'll need some comic relief to break up all the shame, grief, pity, and darkness. With an eight-disc plan you could keep Cries and Whispers, Persona, Winter Light, and Through a Glass Darkly for an entire month or more while rotating out titles such as Office Space, Mean Girls, Dude, Where's My Car?, and American Pie every day or two.

The question then is the following: is there any reason to stick with your bricks-and-mortar movie store? Actually, there are a few good reasons. If you don't have Internet access, there's little benefit to be derived from a mail-in rental service since most require members to select their movies online. Second, as mentioned, some rental chains are dropping their late fees altogether in hopes of luring back lost customers. Third, many of these same companies are also reducing their rental fees. Lastly, there are always shoppers who prefer to handle the merchandise in person. For a select few folks, a trip to the video or DVD store becomes an event in its own right, complete with clashes of taste not only over movies, but concessions as well. As strange as it sounds, there are still couples and families who prefer to duke it out in the store over Cary Grant and Adam Sandler when a mail-order rental service could accommodate both sensibilities.