The days of heading to the red kiosk to rent a DVD are ending as Redbox announced that after 22 years, it is officially shutting down.
As Variety reports, Redbox’s parent company, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, changed its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case to Chapter 7 yesterday. As a result, Rebdox will shut down all its DVD rental kiosks and streaming services.
Redbox was launched in 2002. Redbox’s DVD kiosk rentals were spotted at various locations, including fast-food restaurants, grocery stores, and pharmacies. Its convenience and affordable pricing made it widely popular among consumers, and five years after its initial launch, it would surpass Blockbuster in terms of the number of locations.
In addition to movies, Redbox also offered video game rentals. Unfortunately, the company would stop video game rentals altogether in 2019. Additionally, Redbox delved into video streaming, launching Redbox On Demand in 2017 and Redbox Free Live TV in 2020, the latter a free live TV streaming service with ads. Several months later, the company announced Rexbox+, a yearly subscription offering subscribers incentives such as extended return times and 12 or 24 rentals.
The announcement of Redbox’s shuttering comes as physical media becomes obsolete in favor of digital-only options to obtain media. Streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ have become quite popular with consumers, providing them with a vast library of TV shows and movies to watch at their leisure for a monthly or annual price.
Beyond Redbox’s closure, some retail stores are also changing their strategy on physical media. Last April, a Target spokesperson confirmed to IGN that it would limit the number of physical DVDs it sells in its retail stores. Last October, Best Buy revealed it was phasing out of physical media sales, noting it would discontinue physical DVD and Blu-ray disc sales in-store and online in early 2024.
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Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
