With all the bad news about the economy, it’s hardly surprising that American consumers are continuing to seek refuge in the form of popular entertainment. But going out to a movie is expensive, so, as discretionary income shrinks, low-cost options for home delivery such as NetFlix and others are emerging as alternatives to the local Cineplex. Combining convenience with the lowest possible cost, Redbox is the biggest emerging threat to the big movie chains. So next time you want to get away it all, pick up a movie along with your groceries. Make your own popcorn and save even more. Our latest infographic is based on the aggregate data from over 1 million Mint.com users, a representative sampling of US consumers.
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21 Comments so far
leave a commentI’m curious on this, were the same 1 million users used over the course of the entire study? The types of people using Mint could have skewed as it became more popular.
Also, Mint users are hardly a representative sampling of US consumers (just because it’s a large number of users doesn’t mean it’s automatically representative of the population as a whole), but that’s ok, I guess. This isn’t really meant to be scientific…
Interesting. Few mint.com users use budget friendly Redbox. What does that say about deeper pockets of mint.com users?
Hi Sushant,
What the data shows is that Mint users are flocking to Redbox over the past few months. While the overall percentage of transactions for Redbox is still below that of the other choices, their penetration in the market is much smaller than any of the others. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues over the next six months. We will be watching!
Damn this is cool. I totally realize this isn’t at all representative (unless you’re munging your data to be so), but it’s really cool to see the aggregated stats.
Hi Jonathan,
We did not use the same million people over the course of the year. We have in fact seen the user base expand in less populated zip codes over the past year.
The Mint user base is now trending closer to a representative sampling of US consumers compared to a year ago. As we grow, this will become an even more accurate sample.
This is not a scientific study; however, it does closely mirror national trends, as reported by the merchants listed here, as well as analysts covering the space.
Our goal with these infographics is to shed insights into consumer spending trends in an effort to educate and make our readers aware of potential savings opportunities.
Please feel free to provide further comments.
I’ve written about netflix, redbox, and getting movies on my blog about the movie business and saving money – http://copyandcredit.blogspot.com
I still say the most cost effective method is the local library, borrowing from friends and/or watching videos online via hulu and such.
How was the Netflix data compiled on the transaction per user? Considering they are subscription based, I’d assume not many families would have multiple subscriptions?
I believe another number should be shown. Cost of movie per hour. Assuming that each movie is two hours and the dollars are spent effectively.Using the ‘Dollar per Transaction Spent’ from the graph shown, we are able to come up with an idea as to what it could be used for. At Redbox, for example. $3 potentially get you roughly 6 hours of movie magic. Seems the most viable option, at $1 per hour. However, if the biggest movie buff maximizes the use of his NetFlix subscription, he has the potential to watch 30 movies which would average a cost of $.47 an hour. So AMC and Regal fail to meet the requirements of frugality with an average of $8.50 an hour. (If that’s just one person. If its a date, its an average of $4.25 per user because there would be cost for two in the one transaction… Which begs the question of how many people watch the Netflix movies. Maybe its a party and there are 5 people watching it… well that changes everything…
How can you put Netflix at $14.50 in the graph next to a $3 Redbox rental or a $16.50 (or whatever the number was) AMC Cinemas experieince?
That’s completely misleading and disingenuous – unless of course you assume the average consumer is on the 2 DVDs out at a time plan and only watches one movie per month.
I would expect better from Mint.
This is an odd infographic to post, especially on this site. The first infographic is misleading. It says it’s the cost of a movie, but with the exception of the theaters and the redbox rentals, it seems to reflect a monthly fee. Which would only be accurate if the subscriber only watched one movie per month.
The bottom graphic is also misleading. Of course Redbox is going to have more transactions per month: you’re renting movies on a per visit basis. So it makes it seem like people are using that more than, say, Netflix, which is a subscription service, and thus would only have one transaction a month, consistently.
So I’m not sure of the purpose of this infographic. At all.
Why isn’t the library listed as an option? Our library has hundreds of new release films for free. Popular ones cost $2 for the first couple weeks that they come out, but you can inter-library loan for DVDs held by any library in the region and they’ll be shipped to your local branch.
This infograph is misleading at best. It appears to be an advertisement sponsored by redbox. Please explain how you determine the costs, etc. How do you determine that Redbox costs $3, while Netflix costs $14? You can watch more than one movie for $14. Also, how do you represent “online movies” that are included in Netflix subscriptions? I understand you are trying to compare apples to oranges, but an explanation of the data would be appropriate.
uhm, isn’t the Redbox per movie rental while Netflix is *per month*? totally skews both cost and frequency figures…
Along with the quote “What the data shows is that Mint users are flocking to Redbox over the past few months”, my radar says “did Redbox finance this”? Is this a financed, planted “study”?
Is there a way for me to opt out of mint using my data like this? I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with it.
While I don’t mind, I agree there should be a way to opt-out of using our data like this. There may be something in the TOS about this, but I haven’t taken the time to read over yet. I feel my purchase information is used in a good/trusting ways at Mint. Let’s hope so for the better.
Yeah, this infographic can be piled along with all the other ones you have done: into the crap pile.
When will you get it through your head that you need to either do a graph right or not do it at all!
Misleading every single time. Go back to school before you start adverting crap like this. I hope you aren’t in charge of anything else at Mint.com.
The only way I could see the above advert being confusing is if you had a severe learning disability. And, while I’m sure that’d be frustrating to live with, it doesn’t mean you have to lash out at a graphic designer – just find someone to help explain it all to you
i dont see torrents?
Is there a way for me to opt out of mint using my data like this? I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with it..
with torrents you can find anything even games lol people keep shareing
The purpose of this graph is NOT to figure out the average cost of a movie rental… I’m confused how some of you could think that.
I think a lot of the information in here is very interesting. Let me explain what I got out of it because a lot of people are saying this is pretty pointless.
-On average, people are spending $3 per Redbox Transaction. This could mean one of two things. 1) People are buying on average of 3 movies at once to watch within 24 hours, or 2) People are keeping movies longer than 24 hours and getting charged for additional days (or an average of the two). I find this surprising, as I use Redbox primarely for saving money! My average Redbox Transaction is $1. I never get more than one movie, and I never keep it for more than one day. It makes sense that Netflix averages around $14.50, when the 2 out plan is $14. And since not many people go to movies alone, that the average ticket price is about $8 a ticket if they are on average buying two tickets.
-Also… the average Blockbuster transaction is $15.50?!? Who goes to Blockbuster and rents THREE overpriced movies at once? Maybe a $5 and a $9 game pushes up the limit, but I’m surprised people spend an average of that much at Blockbuster these days when they could subscribe to a $14 Netflix plan for less.
-It seems like Redbox is geared more towards the casual new release movie watcher, as they are only averaging 2-3 rentals per month from its users, and they only really offer new releases. I can see how this crowd would probably want to stay away from Netflix, which specializes in a library of thousands of movie and is pretty difficult the get new releases on the week they come out. But still, that percentage of people is smaller than those that use Netflix. If Redbox didn’t get new releases until after 30 days, I wonder how that would effect Redbox users and if they would go somewhere else.
For the record, I am a former Netflix and Blockbuster customer who has canceled their service. I was never getting the movies I wanted since I only really watch new releases, and use Redbox about 4 times a month. I also use Promo Codes like crazy too for free rentals.