(picture courtesy mcstate.com)

By: Blake                                          

Usually my family has a movie night on Saturday where we watch one of the latest movie releases. We used to go to Hollywood Video to rent the movies until we found out about the Red Box alternative. Red Box offers movie rentals for a fraction of the cost. Instead of paying $5 a week for a rental we now only pay $1.

Red Box offers a great, cheap service. Using Red Box is very convenient and is a great way to see the latest releases.

A Red Box is a type of vending machine that you can rent movies from. It only cost one dollar for a 24 hour rental and you can pay with your credit or debit card, in fact you have to pay with your debit or credit card. This is how they keep track of who is renting the movies and when they return them. Of course they have a renting policy that the customer must follow, I’ll explain. When you rent a Disc, you will be charged $1.00 for the initial Rental Period. You can keep the Disc as long as you like. You will not be charged any additional Rental Charge if you return the Disc prior to 9:00 p.m. (local time), on the day following your date of rental. If you return the Disc at any time after the 1st Rental Period, you will be charged the Rental Charge plus tax for each additional Rental Period that you keep the Disc; provided, however, you will be charged a total of $25.00 (the “Maximum Charge”), which Maximum Charge includes the Rental Charge for the initial Rental Period, plus tax. If you do not return the Disc before the expiration of the 24th Rental Period the Disc is yours to keep. This information can be found on the Red Box site.

These things are every where. If one doesn’t have the movie you want to rent another one may, but you don’t have to drive to each one to find out of it has the movie you want. You can find a movie you want to rent on their site, find a location to get it from and you can reserve the movie with your credit/debit card. When you go to pick it up all you have to do is swipe the card you used to reserve it and the Red Box will spit out your movie. And when you want to return your rental you can bring it to any of the machines in your area.


This new movie renting device has forced my local Hollywood Video to drop their rental cost from $5 to $3. But I think that the Red Box still has them beat. $1 rental is tough competition, especially if it is convenient as well as cheap. I think that Red Box is the best way satisfy your urge to view the latest movie releases as long as you return your rentals in a timely manner.