“Screw Netflix!!!!!!” “Don’t be stupid!!!!!!” And with one final missive taped to the shelf between copies of Syriana and Shoot ‘Em Up, another doomed Blockbuster store fell to the tyranny of Netflix’s superior business model. Might as well screw Netflix with three months’ free rental, eh Blockbuster loyalists? (What about those Redbox bastards, with their $1.20 rentals?) All is not lost, indeed.
[Reddit via Movies.com]
Full Story »Happy Friday! Everything’s terrible: “Perhaps, then, people are staying away from movie theaters not because the economy’s bad, but because movies cost too damn much. And because the movies being shown aren’t particularly good. And because paying an extra $5 for a mediocre film in 3D is a rip-off. And because most households are already paying around $100 a month for cable and movie channels at home, as well as another $9 or more for Netflix or some other service. And because a DVD rental at Redbox costs just a bit over $1. And… well, you get the picture.” And let’s not forget that scourge known as other moviegoers
. [Time]
[Photo: Shutterstock]
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings probably wasn’t prepared for the earful (or Internetz-full) he received last month when he announced plans to spin-off Netflix’s DVD rentals into a new company called Qwikster. “It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult,” he wrote in a blog post today. “So we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.” Read on for more flip-flopping, and rejoice?
Hastings kept it short and sweet in Monday’s follow-up post, explaining that Qwikster, which was intended to have its own separate website requiring separate log-in information and film queues, will basically just not exist at all.
“This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, no Qwikster.”
And:
“While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.”
Kudos to Hastings to listening to the people. But seriously; wasn’t the hubbub going to die down eventually? Shouldn’t he have stuck to his guns, if streaming is indeed the future? Moot questions at this point — unless Hastings has yet more changes of heart. And time will tell if his initial instinct to stay on the forefront of a changing market was the right, if unpopular, choice.
Meanwhile: Looks like @Qwikster can go back to Tweeting about girls and being bored in school about 10,000 followers richer.
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It looks like you’re going to have to mail that copy of Crash back to Netflix. The online rental site announced new pricing plans on Tuesday, which effectively phase out DVDs for the frugal consumer. Gone is the unlimited streaming plus one DVD for $9.99 per month option, replaced with two separate $7.99 options — one for DVDs and one for streaming. If subscribers want the choice of both, the package costs $15.98. Begin shaking your fist at the sky… now. [The Netflix Blog]
The glum cunt just got a little more glum, because a judge has ordered that he must empty out his swastika-shaped wallet and pay the thorn in his dick hole an extra $15,000 a month in child support for their baby Lucia. TMZ says that Oksana Grigorieva was hitting the battle field to get $60k a month from Mad Mel, but the judge in the case gave her $20k a month instead.
Oy well, I guess Baby Lucia will have to get used to regular diaper cream instead of imported stuff made from the anal tissues of a rare Kenyan pink hippo. And those custom-made ear plugs she uses when Mad Mel flies into another rage because NetFlix accidentally sent him Schlinder’s List again will have to be traded in for regular ole’ cotton balls. I know. How is Baby Lucia going to survive? Mad Mel really is a new brand of cruel.
And when Mad Mel asked if he could get his receipt every month in blow job form, every lawyer in the room shook their head no. Poor Mel. Stay glum, gum cunt.
