A video rental shop/store is a physical retail business that rents home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game discs and other media content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms agreed upon in a rental agreement or contract, which may be implied, explicit, or written. Many video rental stores also sell previously viewed movies astores rented VHS and Betamax tapes of movies, although most stores dropped Beta tapes when VHS won the format war late in the decade. In the 2000s, video rental stores began renting DVDs, a digital format with higher resolution than VHS. In the late 2000s, stores began selling and renting Blu-ray discs, a format that supports high definition resolution.
Blockbuster Video was an American video rental store chain. It was founded by David Cook in 1985 as a stand-alone mom-and-pop home video rental shop, but later grew into a national store chain featuring video game rentals, DVD-by-mail, streaming, video on demand, and cinema theater. The company expanded internationally throughout the 1990s. At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster consisted of 9,094 stores and employed approximately 84,300 people: 58,500 in the United States and 25,800 in other countries.
Rogers Plus was a brand name for the retail operations of Rogers Communications. It was formerly two separate brands, namely the Rogers Wireless chain of telecommunications stores previously operated by InterTAN under licence from Rogers, and the Rogers Video chain of video rental stores. In early 2007, Rogers retired the Rogers Video and Rogers Wireless brand names from its stores and re-branded them as Rogers Plus.
Hollywood Entertainment Corp., more commonly known as Hollywood Video, was a home video and video game rental shop company started in 1988. The chain was the largest direct competitor to Blockbuster Video until it was purchased by Movie Gallery in 2005.
Video Ezy was an Australian home video rental business that offered titles on VHS, DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray, as well as console video games, for rent. At its peak in the mid-2000s, Video Ezy had over 500 company-owned and franchised video rental shops in the country, and owned 40% of the Australian video rental market after taking over Blockbuster's Australian operations. The company also expanded internationally into New Zealand and Asia.
Xtra-vision was a video, film and music retailer that operated across the island of Ireland. Founded in 1979, it had 200 stores at its peak before running into financial difficulties, changing ownership a number of times, and ultimately closing in 2021.
Redbox Automated Retail LLC is an American video on-demand streaming and video rental company specializing in DVD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD rentals and purchases and formerly video games via automated retail kiosks and TVOD, AVOD and FAST services via its website, Android and iOS apps and many consumer electronic devices. Redbox kiosks feature the company's signature red color and are located at convenience stores, fast food restaurants, grocery stores, mass retailers, and pharmacies.
George Atkinson, was an American businessman, credited as the father of the storefront video rental store in the U.S. When the first videocassettes became available to the public, he was already in the movie business. Customers in the form of hotels and pizza parlors would rent movie projectors and public domain 8mm movies, and later U-Matic videotape. When VCR's first went on sale in 1975, studios thought they would be a luxury item and that customers would want to buy films to own. Atkinson, however, was the first to see the possibility of a video rental market.
Movie Gallery, Inc. was the second largest movie and game rental company in the United States and Canada, behind Blockbuster Video. The company rented and sold Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, VHS tapes, and video games. Founded in Dothan, Alabama, the company was headquartered in Dothan, and later in Wilsonville, Oregon.
Erol's can refer to any of three companies, all founded by Erol Onaran, a Turkish immigrant to Virginia.
Hastings Entertainment was an American retail chain that sold books, movies, music, and video games and functioned as a video rental shop. As of 2016 it had 126 superstores, which were mainly located in the South Central United States, Rocky Mountain States, and in parts of the Great Plains and Midwestern states. Hastings Entertainment stores were also located in many college towns in the U.S. Hastings Entertainment was headquartered in Amarillo, Texas.
GameCrazy was a video game retailer based in Wilsonville, Oregon. It was a subsidiary of Movie Gallery. The stores were often, but not always, located adjacent to Hollywood Video rental stores.
The Record Bar is a former U.S. retail music/entertainment store chain founded in Durham, North Carolina. The company eventually grew from a single location to 180 stores. One of the largest music retailing chains, it was located primarily in the southeastern United States. From 1960 until the late 1980s, the owners were the (Barrie) Bergman family of Durham. In the mid-to-late 1980s, Record Bar began opening large new stores and remodeled Record Bar stores under the Tracks name, to better reflect the changes taking place in retail music merchandising.
KPS Video Express (金獅影視超特店) was a Hong Kong-based multimedia store which sold and rented videos, CDs and movies. It was established in 1981 by Garrie and Kitty Roman, and by 1997 expanded to 39 stores with 450,000 members. It also had stores in Taiwan, with further plans to expand in the Asian region.
West Coast Video was a chain of video rental stores founded in 1983. The company became defunct in 2009, but some existing stores continued to use the West Coast Video banner and run independently. As of 2019, there are currently no West Coast Video stores open in North America.
Minit Mart LLC is a chain of convenience stores operating in South central and Western Kentucky, Northern middle Tennessee, Eastern Wisconsin, Kansas City, Northeast Illinois, and Northeast Ohio. Its corporate offices are located in Cincinnati, OH, and the chain consists of 231 locations scattered around the United States.
MOD Pizza is an American fast-casual pizza restaurant chain based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 2008, MOD has more than 500 locations as of May 2021 in the United States and one location in Canada.
John Antioco is an American businessman, known for being the former CEO of Blockbuster Video who missed an opportunity to purchase Netflix before it became a multi-billion dollar streaming platform. He is now the chairman of the board of directors at Red Mango and the Managing Partner of JAMCO Interests LLC.
Blockbuster, colloquially known as the Last Blockbuster, is a video rental store in Bend, Oregon. In 2019, it became the world's last remaining retail store using the Blockbuster brand.
