It used to be straightforward: If you wanted to rent a movie, you picked one up from your local video store.

These days, that arrangement is about as fresh as Molly Ringwald’s career. (Fun fact: Nearly 30 Molly Ringwald movies are available at Netflix.com.)

Although 75 percent of movie renters still get their flicks this way, the past few years have seen a boom in alternative movie rental methods.

Here’s a closer look, dear cinephiles, at three options.

DVD subscription services

In short: At the turn of the millennium, a little red company with a daring idea shattered the old way of doing things. Now, Netflix.com mails out about 2 million DVDs a day to its 8.4 million customers. Netflix expects to serve 9.1 million to 9.7 million subscribers by the end of the year, the company says.

Eventually, Blockbuster got into the mix, launching a similar Web-based service called Total Access. Several other online renters have popped up as well, including DVD Avenue, CafeDVD, EHit and Peerflix. 

How it works: Forget video stores. Log onto your movie queue, load it full of the movies you want to watch, and then, via some magic (and a flat-rate credit card payment), those movies end up in your mailbox (your REAL one, not e-mail).

On the downside: A few glitches in the system have led to delayed movie arrivals.

Redbox

In short: It’s red, but it has nothing to do with Netflix.

Since 2003, the Redbox kiosks have become a staple of fast-food joints and grocery stores, with 10,000 of them scattered throughout the country, including five in Lincoln (four at Hy-Vee stores; one at Walmart on North 27th Street). Entertainment Merchants Association ranked Redbox as the fifth-largest DVD rental company in the United States.

How it works: Reserve a movie at Redbox.com, or just go to one of the kiosks. Feed the machine some cash ($1), and your movie pops out like Pringles. Return the DVD, which is due the next day, to any Redbox. The kiosks hold more than 600 DVDs with 70-200 titles updated weekly.

On the downside: The boxes have a limited selection of films, especially compared to other options.

Downloading and streaming

In short: A series of companies have begun offering digital downloads or streams of feature films.

How it works: With Apple’s iTunes or Amazon’s Unbox services, you download movies to your computer. You’ll then have that movie file on your hard drive until it expires after a certain amount of time (usually a month).

Streaming allows you to watch movies right on your browser. Sites like Hulu.com offer free streaming of full features, such as “The Karate Kid” or “The Karate Kid II.” And Netflix offers streaming of thousands of titles for those with an account.

On the downside: Not everybody likes watching movies on computer screens. You’ve got to buy an extra cable or two (and have some patience for trouble-shooting) to hook up your PC or Mac to your TV.

Reach Micah Mertes at 473-7395 or mmertes@journalstar.com.

Technology to kill the video store?

Technology hasn’t been kind to the bricks-and-mortar video store, and some old-school competitors are having to adapt to stay in the market. 

Though 75 percent of DVD renters still pick up their flicks at video stores, services such as Netflix and Blockbuster Total Access have cut into their rental revenue, which declined from $10 billion annually in 2001 to $6 billion today. 

Randy Abel, general manager of Lincoln’s Audio-Visual Video Rental for the past 25 years, remembers when the city had three Audio-Visual stores. One closed about five years ago; the other shut its doors last year.

DVD subscription services such as Netflix, he said, have delivered several devastating blows to mom-and-pop video stores over the years. “They’re trying to put the little guys out of business.”

One of the things keeping his store open, he said wryly, is the little room for adult movies in the back — something Netflix hasn’t jumped onto, yet.

Audio-Visual is a 6,000-square-foot store, he said, and that 200-square-foot back room accounts for one-third of the store’s business.

“We might have been under by now,” he said, “if we didn’t have that little room.”

Music and video rental store Spindle Records, 122 N. 14th St., doesn’t have a little back room, but it does boast a series of hard-to-find specialty DVDs. (So does Netflix.) The mail-in services have hurt his store’s business a bit in the past couple years, said co-owner Spencer Munson, but people are still renting.

Some just like the old way of doing things. Like Ann Whisinnand, 24, who gets movies from Blockbuster stores. No Netflix for her.

“I just don’t want to hassle with the mail,” she said. “I’m kind of a stick in the mud, I guess.”

— Micah Mertes