Blowout Blu-Ray and Game Sale as Hollywood Craters
Blu-rays, DVDs and videogames are bearing closeout sale tags at Hollywood Video as the crumbling of the movie rental business continues. We stumbled on this recently when rolling into an Austin-area Game Crazy, Hollywood’s game subsidiary, for the usual dose of videogame overexposure, and instead got a cold shot of business reality. The shelves were bare at Game Crazy, and next door at the Hollywood, all the games, Blu-rays, and DVDs were wearing eye-catching red sale tags.
This is actually the second bankruptcy filing for the country’s second-largest video and game rental company. Hollywood’s vomited red over the last several years, with revenues plummeting 30% from 2008 to 2009. They’re closing all of their locations in Austin, and two-thirds of all their locations, down from a peak of 4,500 in 2005.
Meanwhile, the #1 movie and game rental company, Blockbuster, is also riding the downward spiral, closing 1000 stores.
The game writer guy snagged several used games at tasty prices, but the movie offerings were weak. However, they also handed out flyers about an online DVD and Blu-Ray sale. If you’re not near a Game Crazy, try the online sale, where you can get Blu-ray movies for about $7 each, with free shipping, if you do it right.
Getting the Best of the Blu-Ray/Game Sale
The Hollywood Video site is behaving a little funky right now. When I first created my account, it showed me three addresses of complete strangers and asked me to pick my address. A little disturbing. And it showed an amazing talent for forgetting the 25% discount code that I got at the store.
So here’s what to do: pick out your DVDs and Blu-rays, and use the promo code 25PV. Make sure the code discount is being applied at every stage, because it will try to forget, the sneaky devil. After you’ve finished the transaction, go back in and edit your account. Delete your address entry so no one else can accidentally stumble on your personal information, Google map your house, and send ninjas to purloin your hard-won Blu-ray movies. My picks: Hellboy 2, The Simpsons Movie, and the Swedish vampire rework called Let the Right One In, which was a big hit at the last Fantastic Fest.
