When freshman Reece Potter heard the Movie Gallery on Main Street would be closing, he hoped the movie rental chain would not be gone for good. Potter, a film production major and movie buff, frequents the Main Street store and the one in his hometown of Germantown, Ohio to rent and buy DVDs with his friends.
Due to Movie Gallery Inc. filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Feb. 2, the Main Street store will soon be closing its doors without plans to reopen. Potter said he hopes Movie Gallery will rethink its business model so the remaining stores can emerge better than ever.
The economic and competitive realities of the video rental business were cause for the filing, according to the Movie Gallery Web site. After closing hundreds of locations over the past two years, MGI decided drastic but necessary measures had to be taken.
According to a Feb. 2 press release, MGI is closing 760 of its non-profitable stores to focus on improving its 1,111 remaining locations.
Movie Gallery on Main Street refused to comment on the subject.
New release movies line Movie Gallery’s walls, marked for sale at $9.49 each. Older films from the larger gallery selection are marked three for $15, and used video games are 40 percent off. Everything must go, from action figures to theater-themed candy to the video rack fixtures.
Potter said it’s understandable that movie rental stores are shutting down during this economic struggle.
“It’s halfway expensive,” he said. “It’s $5 or $6 to rent a movie you may or may not like.”
He said he prefers to buy DVDs because it’s more cost effective.
“If I’m going to spend money on [a movie], I’m going to go all the way,” he said. “My way of seeing it [is] if I’m going to spend $6 to rent a movie I might as well pay $12 to just own it.”
The store’s new release section could particularly benefit from a little change in order to attract more customers, Potter said. Instead of featuring, for example, a whole wall of ‘Inglorious Basterds’ in an effort to please every customer, Potter wishes Movie Gallery would make room on their new release shelves for more variety.
“A lot of it seems to be just fluff,” he said. “Whenever they have ‘Transformers’ right next to it is a knockoff movie called ‘Transmorphers’ or ‘Snakes on a Train.’ Nobody’s going to rent ‘Snakes on a Train.'”
Senior Caitlin Golich owns 167 DVDs and counting. She said while she sometimes rents movies, it gets expensive.
“Up here at college it’s more cost effective to go buy a $10 movie,” she said. “If you really like a movie and you watch it 10 times a year, that’s $5 each time.”
Golich said she prefers smaller rental stores like Video Spectrum because they offer a wide variety of older, not-as-popular movies as well as blockbuster hits.
MGI is the second largest movie and game rental company on the continent, and operates Movie Gallery, Hollywood Video and Game Crazy stores. MGI anticipates future store closings throughout the restructuring process.
Movie Gallery is open Monday through Saturday 10-9 and Sunday 11-9. Students can check the status of the Movie Gallery in their hometown at www.moviegallery.com/restructure.
