
How do I start a DVD rental business?How and what do you need to get into this business? I have two teenage sons who would love to own a dvd rental company. It would be a chance for them to learn and generate money. If you could contact me on how to invest into a machine -- I would appreciate your thoughts. If you're talking about just opening up a storefront or even a room in your house where you'd have a library of DVDs that people could rent for a dollar or two per night, I am pretty sure that the only cost you have is inventory. But that's not easy to manage... If you look at how companies like Blockbuster operated, you'll see that when a hot new movie comes out, they'll buy dozens, if not hundreds of copies for each store, incent people to return the movies quickly so they can have lots in active circulation, and then as soon as enthusiasm dims, put them up for sale as "previously viewed". After a while longer, they go into the bargain bin and might be $9.99 or cheaper, far cheaper than the brand-new DVD would cost. In a perfect business where there's zero overhead, you could buy new movies for $25/DVD and rent them out for $2/rental 50-100 times before the disk is trashed, making a pretty good profit (that'd give you $75-$175 profit/disk). If you can get it perfect. The problem is, you'll buy the wrong movies, people will break the disk, some manufacturers will make disks that only stand up to 15-20 playings, and you will have overhead, inevitably. The advert in the local paper, the fliers, the computer you use to track rentals and followup on people who forget to return the movies, the write-off for theft, loss, a business license, etc., all of these are going to be overhead costs and I'd be unsurprised to find out that it's not insignificant, and doubly so if you have any sort of retail space. But you're talking about an automatic DVD rental device like those used by Redbox and the like. Definitely a cool idea, but remember that not only are those devices going to cost a good amount (I'm guessing over $50,000/device, actually) but you are going to have to rent space in front of, or inside of, a retail merchant. They might want a flat fee plus a percentage of the rental revenue. Having said all of that, I'm sure that rental companies get DVDs for far less than us consumers. There's no way that Blockbuster is spending $25/DVD when they buy thousands of copies of any given movie for all their outlets. That doesn't mean you could get in on the deal if you're buying 2-3 copies of a given film, but you should be able to work something out with a distributor. If you have a business license and storefront or other sign of legitimacy (and "selling them on eBay" is not likely to work :-) Perhaps someone who has actual numbers can jump in here, but I would say that acquiring a DVD rental machine is likely prohibitive for your sons, but an informal out-of-the-house operation could probably work out pretty well and would be a fun business.
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Tagged: blockbuster, dvd rental, hollywood video, redbox Previous: How can I have VLC play my DVDs automatically? Next: Can Macs automatically log out after inactivity? Subscribe!
Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader. Sorry to be anal, but... "unsurprised to find out that it's not insignificant" Ack! Triple negative! Sorry, but these sort of things keep us up at night. Posted by: Grammar police at October 15, 2007 12:50 PMWhen you open your own dvd/video game rental business you are always suppose to remember that the key of the success is the right choice of the software. You have to make sure that video game/dvd rental software you are running absolutely secure, powerful, stable and ready to grow together with your business. Thats why its important to decide what system will suite your business best - let us show why choose W3Rent rental software. Contact our team using info at w3rent . com and we will response to any questions you may have about rental business. Posted by: paul ryazanov at May 25, 2008 8:43 AMHow much money is needed to start the business Posted by: John at March 21, 2009 8:13 PMIf you follow this advice you will be running an ILLEGAL business... you cannot buy retail dvds and rent them out.. you MUST buy RENTAL DVD licences which cost more to do this legally, otherwise you could go bankrupt Posted by: DVD Rental at August 23, 2009 2:26 AMwhere can I buy a rental DVD licences business. And documents will I need. Posted by: noxolo at October 16, 2009 3:02 PMWhy did this thread die down? I had the same question that was posted last. Where can i buy DVD's which i can legally rent and how much do they cost? Approx price for a latest release DVD. Posted by: neoanderson at December 8, 2009 2:15 AMi have recentley opened a dvd rental store in a small town. I started with some dvds from a pawn shop about 150 and than i signed up with access ingram a dvd dist. than i prchased a winrental software. than purchased clear slimdvd cases well any way to give you an idea the people at access ingram are real good or my sales rep any way i get two of each a movie and really i dont have to do too much just i could go into great detail about this. i can be contacted at oc319s@hotmail.com i do have dvds for sales for starter invnetory. and other things would be glad to help. Posted by: jason at December 24, 2009 1:36 PMI heard that dvds where going to be a thing of the past in the next couple of years an we are all going to get our movies of the net if we want them through downloads. What do you think? Posted by: nicole mckinlay at December 29, 2009 6:55 PMMovies will always be around for several reasons. I had nexflix and cancelled. When I want a movie to watch the heck with waiting for the mailman. Redbox you gotta stand out in the cold and wait, and watching a movie on a computer screen? NO WAY! If you want to rent movies you must have VERY low overhead. For example you could fix up your garage and put a store in. Remember you also need to sell soda, candy, chips, etc. A membership with Sams or Costco really helps too. Posted by: Chum at January 3, 2010 5:25 PMI have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!
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