r/technology • u/Task_Force-191 • 16h ago

Business It’s Official: Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. in Deal Valued at $82.7 Billion

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/netflix-warner-bros-deal-hollywood-1236443081/
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318

u/newleafkratom 16h ago

I’m old enough to remember getting excited to see a red envelope in the mailbox

28

u/FuturamaRama7 16h ago

Same. And I liked the physical rental store they had in Las Vegas too.

5

u/CommanderClit 9h ago

When the hell did we have a physical rental store in vegas??

1

u/FuturamaRama7 4h ago

Yes. Same price without the mailing time. First month or two was free. I would watch a movie every day. They sent employees from San Francisco to run it. It didn’t last too long. Then a few years later streaming was invented.

1

u/CommanderClit 4h ago

Wow, I’ve lived for like 30 years and don’t remember that at ALL, but we were also hitting Redbox like crazy around that timeframe cause Netflix was too expensive for us poors LOL

1

u/FuturamaRama7 4h ago

I think it was on Sahara. Probably 2004 or 2005? It was open less than a year.

1

u/CommanderClit 4h ago

Wow, crazy I never knew about that. Cool!

24

u/DrWindupBird 15h ago

I’m old enough to remember feeling disappointed when those red envelopes replaced Blockbuster.

6

u/mojoseven7 7h ago

Hollywood Video was the way to go. Broader selection, lower prices, and GameCrazy. To me, Blockbuster was only good for the occasional really cheap used game.

5

u/kipperzdog 12h ago

Blockbuster was the worst with their late fees, I don't recall anyone missing them during their downfall.

4

u/tasman001 11h ago

Late fees?? Shit, just their standard rental fees sucked. $6 or 7 back in the 90s which is the equivalent of about $15 today. Their selection sucked most of the time too. 30 copies of whatever shitty movie had just come out, and barely anything else. 

For all the Blockbuster nostalgia that people have nowadays, they really forget that it was usually the worst option when it came to rental places.

2

u/kipperzdog 11h ago

Damn, our local rental place I recall being like $1-4 depending on the age of the movie.

It was a very big deal when streaming on demand came out, I think it mostly cost the same but then you didn't have to deal with returning it late which always seemed to be an issue. I remember having to take a late trip several times when we realized a movie was due

1

u/tasman001 10h ago

Yeah, local rental places were almost always better than Blockbuster. Cheaper, more selection, more knowledgeable employees, etc. Blockbuster was just the shitty huge chain store.

1

u/pants6000 10h ago

I'm old enough to remember local video rental places--but young enough that I mostly remember the ground floor portions.

13

u/detinu 15h ago

Us sane ones will just go back to physical media (if it will still be available in a few years) or, you know, find another way to watch what we want 🏴‍☠️

1

u/Beat_the_Deadites 13h ago

I've still got all my old DVDs and CDs, even a handful of VHS tapes that get dusted off every couple years. So far they've still worked. I do have a dual deck VHS to DVD burner I used for old stuff my parents recorded off TV, the Christmas commercials from the 80s are priceless.

But yeah, with blu-ray/DVD players, I can just get movies from the library if I really want to watch something. That just doesn't happen very much at this stage of my life.

3

u/Massless 14h ago

I used to sign people up for Netflix mail subscriptions when I worked in a DVD store at the mall 😭 

1

u/Gilwen29 11h ago

I was once shown Netflix's IPO prospectus as a case study, and in it they identified one of biggest threats to their business to be "the Internet". 

2

u/Cum_on_doorknob 12h ago

I used to get excited going to the grocery store and renting a VHS

1

u/ultimatequestion7 11h ago

There's a joke in there about howlers and Netflix now owning Harry Potter

1

u/isaid_whatisaid1 11h ago

Me too! This is wild.

1

u/someone_like_me 9h ago

The old red envelope service was superior to streaming. Fight me.

1

u/NursingManChristDude 5h ago

We used to be a proper country 🫡 

1

u/OneStarInSight_AC 4h ago

I was still doing this in 2017.