I can't remember the last time I walked into a Blockbuster, for my family Redbox has been the way to rent movies for some time. Only now are the movie studios realizing that the novel and convenient concept of movie rental at your local grocery store is a threat to their bottom line. As such both Universal and FOX have forbade wholesalers from selling movies to Coinstar, owner of Redbox, until 30-45 days after the initial DVD release.

Coinstar has in turn pursued legal action on the grounds that the studios are "engaging in anti-competitive behavior and abusing copyright law." I'm hopeful the two parties can come to some sort of arrangement however I'm not convinced the studios will allow Redbox to keep it's $1 per day rental rate. I'm also skeptical of the touted threat to DVD sales. Redbox is more of a threat to NetFlix and Blockbuster than to other outlets due to the downright shoddy condition of some of the rental disks plus the lack of ancillary packaging materials.