When can a video rental establishment rent new releases?
My son works at a local video store and recently had a patron come in to look for a movie that was not supposed to be released until the 12th of the month. The patron stated that the business down the street already had several differant new release movie on their shelf for rent. What exactly is a release date, and can you get in trouble for renting before the release date?
I used to work at Blockbuster. Movies generally come out on Tuesdays. The specific release date is decided by the distributer. Rental establishments get the movies a week to two weeks before they are assigned to come out. The rental establishment can be heavily fined for breaking release date and renting movies out to people (other than employees) before they are set to come out.
Yes, your son could get into HUGE trouble if he rented the movie to the customer before street date. There is a set date for all dvd movies to be released to the general public for rent or sale. If any establishment rents or sells a dvd before the set release date then they may receive a fine of up to $50,000. Normally the release dates are sent out to video rental stores so they know when they can put the movies on the shelf. Usually new releases are put out every tuesday there are some exceptions to this. The customer was probably trying to trick your son into letting him rent it early. If someone else is renting before street date the best thing to do is report them. I know this information for a fact because I have managed a video rental store for several years. I hope this information was helpful.
Videos are released when the Studio owning the film releases them. There is no set time period.