Monday, August 11, 2008

Saturday Night Videos

On Saturday I stopped in at my local Blockbuster Video to rent a movie to watch. I was firstly interested in Superbad, from the Judd Apatow comedy factory, but I didn't see it on either the new-releases shelves nor the comedy shelves, so I went with Todd Haynes' I'm Not There, which I'd been meaning to watch for a while anyway.

The DVD of I'm Not There was emblazoned with a roofline label reading "Blockbuster Exclusive." (There's also another label, in the Blockbuster colors, noting "Exclusive Bonus Footage: Director Q&A/The Making of I'm Not There." I don't know whether this is exclusive to the Blockbuster release or not, but since there is apparently no other source for this DVD unless I want to go out and buy it, it doesn't really matter.)

I got to wondering, then: Why wasn't Superbad on the shelves? Neither was Apatow's Knocked Up, for what that's worth, although I can't find any evidence that either of those films have some sort of exclusive arrangement with Netflix. Is there some sort of war of exclusivity going on between the major video-rental outlets? Or maybe our local Blockbuster outlet is just squeamish.

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