I jumped on the Kickstarter as well, but I'm nervous as to whether it will work. Reclassifying as a non-profit doesn't change the fact that employees have to eat, and movies need to be purchased. I'd personally be willing to pay a membership fee or recurring donation in order to keep them in business, but I don't know how well that scales.
Their cache is in obscure movies, but their bread and butter is the new releases, just like any other video store, and the latter is being supplanted by online streaming, which fails to address the former.
Worse, the entire business model is dependent on the availability of shareable physical media, and the legal permission to rent them to customers. In the shift to digital formats, video stores will end up cut out of the equation entirely. What happens when the video store can no longer offer new movies? Will they be able to cover their expenses with just legacy content? I'm somewhat doubtful.
Their cache is in obscure movies, but their bread and butter is the new releases, just like any other video store, and the latter is being supplanted by online streaming, which fails to address the former.
Worse, the entire business model is dependent on the availability of shareable physical media, and the legal permission to rent them to customers. In the shift to digital formats, video stores will end up cut out of the equation entirely. What happens when the video store can no longer offer new movies? Will they be able to cover their expenses with just legacy content? I'm somewhat doubtful.