The expansive list of streaming services is ever-increasing, all paving the way for how we consume movies. This pushed out more archaic ways of watching movies through Blockbuster or Redbox. However, Letterboxd wants to change this with their new streaming service, Video Store that came out on Dec. 10 this year.
Video Store was made specifically for cinephiles in mind, returning to these older ways of watching movies through rental. Their official launch announcement on Letterboxd’s website, described their service as “…our own curated rental spot,” commonly compared to the employee recommendations of Blockbuster.
Letterboxd stresses that Video Store will not be another movie-renting service. Although it mimics movie-renting services of the past, what differentiates it from Blockbuster is that it covers movies that are a lot harder to get your hands on that often would require a hunt across the web.
Video Store offers nine different films on its platform, each with a price range of $3.99 to $19.99. With only 30 days to rent and watch them. This exclusivity of films could encourage people to go out and rent these films more often because of the scarcity.
Video Store stands out amongst other movie-rental services by planning to include films currently in the festival circuit. Festival circuits have a variety of films that are played at film festivals across the world to expose new audiences and get picked up by streaming services or put in theaters. However they aren’t available to be watched by the everyday consumer.
Video Store would solve these issues and offer those films for rental to the general public to watch and experience without having to pay the exorbitant prices that many of these festivals with popular new films entail.
The fact that this new platform is launched through Letterboxd has the added benefit that they can just skim the data of people’s accounts and tailor the service to what people want to watch. In their official announcement, they said, “these shelves are built from what our members are actually hunting down.”
Video Store will be available to watch on your phone, whether it’s running iOS or Android, on your Apple TV, on a regular smart TV or even through AirPlay in a pinch, making it easy access for all users who want to give it a spin.
However, Video Store, to some avid film fans, seems too good to be true. “That’s a cool idea, but I’m not sure how they’d manage to get the rights to those movies,” said Meb2x on Reddit, scepticizing about how realistic Lettboxd goals truly are, as some users fear that specific prices for the rentals are a little steep, with the $19.99 price tag for certain rentals.
The benefits of Video Store are enticing, with the showing of films that are either hard to find or going through the festival circuit making it a new, exciting way to watch movies. With its release earlier in December, there’s a lot to explore and to find out how they live up to the expectations.
