Online Movie Renting Overtakes Stores

Remember the good ole' days when your favorite Saturday night pastime was strolling through your favorite free-standing video store, hand-in-hand with the one you love, carefully examining every title in the New Release section and eventually choosing the best of three by flirtatiously playing a game of Eeny, Meeny, Miny Moe?  Then after relying upon the childhood game of fate, wondering whether popcorn or candy was the appropriate compliment for Date Night.  Well, it looks as if these innocent, relationship shaping days of movie selection are coming to an end - unless you hold hands while selecting a movie on Netflix.

In case you haven't noticed, free-standing movie stores are slowly crumbling to their nemesis - The Digital Conquerer, or the Internet for the less dramatic.  It seems as though online kiosks like Netflix are becoming the preferred medium for movie mavens and are beginning to result in an epic defeat of their erected counterparts.

In the past year and a half, Netflix stock has dramatically increased from $22.98 per share in November 2008 to a May 2010 closing of $99.47.  This is largely in part to offering rental patrons a multitude of rental options, which cater to the American way of convenience and laziness.  By constructing a business plan that offers immediate online movie viewing,  DVD mailbox delivery, and video game lifestyle adherence with X-Box, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii movie streaming, Netflix feeds our hunger for instant gratification and minimal movement.

A slightly depressing glance at Blockbuster Video's stock numbers since November 2008 suggest the one time movie rental monarch has been dethroned.  The numbers show a steady decline from $1.19 per share to a current, debilitating presence of $0.35.  Blockbuster also announced they would be closing between 500 and 545 stores by the end of 2010.

Another soon-to-be defeated pile of bricks, Movie Gallery, has reported a shocking number of store closings since 2005.  At that time, Movie Gallery operated over 4,500 stores.  Now, the decaying, Internet-conquered rental chain predicts they will run 1,610 stores, after 805 store closings in 2010.  This could be in part due to the failed acquisition of Hollywood Video at the height of the company.

And what will happen when Neflix undeniably annihilates every single free-standing movie rental structure?

Older generations will tell stories of movie rental hardships, trudging through eight feet of snow, snowshoeing up two flurry filled mountains, just to rent their favorite romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock.  Younger generations will say "OMG, LOL!" because their digital friendly parents will be sharing these rental sagas via instant message - likely browsing through the New Release section of Netflix, or something similar.  And when this happens, the innocent, simple days of the Saturday night movie stroll will be only a memory.

Article first published as on Technorati.com.