Warner Bros., one of the world's major film studios, will no longer be supplying Blockbuster with DVDs for rentals. This decision was made after Blockbuster offered some Warner Bros. titles on a day-and-date basis without the studio's permission. There is a 28-day industry standard between the date DVDs go on sale and the date they become available to stream. Warner Bros. is attempting to enforce this same window on Blockbuster. Blockbuster has been resisting this 28-day window as a strategy to outperform streaming rental services and position itself as the go-to place for early rentals. However, movie studios are not welcoming Blockbuster's business move kindly, with Warner Bros. being the first to crack down. Tensions escalated when Blockbuster put up rentals of "Horrible Bosses" and "The Green Lantern" earlier than the 28-day window without Warner Bros.' permission, as reported by Josh Halliday at The Guardian.
Blockbuster plans to fight back by simply purchasing Warner Bros. movies when they are released and putting them out for rent. This is clearly a risky strategy since the rental chain is accustomed to acquiring films at wholesale prices. It certainly won't win Blockbuster any favor with the studios. "They felt it was important to continue to offer day-and-date rental so rather than work with us they went around us," Warner Bros. Home Entertainment President Kevin Tsujihara told the Financial Times.
Interestingly, both Blockbuster and Warner Bros. are partners in UltraViolet, a new streaming service supported by a coalition of Hollywood and industry organizations. Warner Bros., like most studios, is at risk of losing even more sales to piracy and streaming services such as Netflix and Redbox. The 28-day window provides a temporary measure where DVD sales are relatively protected. Warner Bros. and other studios are rumored to be trying to extend this window further to boost sales.