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Kuwait Movies

Blockbuster Kuwait

How come we don’t have a proper DVD and videogame rental store? I doubt it’s because of censorship because there are a ton of movies that don’t need or have anything to be censored. The last barely decent rental place I remember was The Video Club and that wasn’t anything close to a Blockbuster in the States or Canada. We’ve never had a proper rental place in Kuwait. It’s really strange.

94 replies on “Blockbuster Kuwait”

The whole rental thing is failing worldwide anyway and blockbusters are closing by the dozens so it’s not a big deal anymore.

Mark blockbuster here in the united states works on peoples trust. While in Kuwait would you trust a stranger to take a 30 dollar DVD and return it in 2 days i wouldnt. Remeber you cant take his credit card number in kuwait because its a K-Net not the same as here. If you didnt return it on the right day they will charge you the full amount. Not only that you can buy any movie in Kuwait for 1.5kd why go and rent one.

Your doubts are misleading my friend. The reason we don’t have a blockbuster DVD store is the same reason they tried shutting down Virgin megastore, and the same reason the “Axis of Evil” stand up comedy was held off the record and no official media coverage.

The religious or conservative parties in the parliment won’t allow it and will make sure that the greatest efforts are allocated to shut it down.

a) u have credit cards in Kuwait
b) u can download pirated movies in the states a lot faster than here plus in the states u have TiVo and sites like hulu which compete with movie rentals unlike here

Shoosh virgin was selling movies that has nudity or scenes that needed to be censored but not all movies require censoring. Plus axis of evil was left low profile because tickets were already all sold out without any press publicity.

I think the market for that is too small. we got uncut pirated DVDs, downloads. and they will get them faster than any local DVD store!

In Kuwait most people watch movies either on Cinema, Paid satellite networks or pirated copy from shops or internet.

Legit DVD market isn’t very attractive for investors in Kuwait. Same can be said about Video games (so censorship isn’t really a main factor).

But things are changing in the very recent years, with the opening of both Virgin shops and modern supermarket such as Carrefour. They all are sources for legal versions of home video products, as long as they keep pumping the market, sooner or later it will become mainstream products, and competition war will start resulting new services such as video rental and others.

it’s not 3kd it’s like 3$ to rent a movie at blockbuster and if they apply a system similar to netflix with a fixed monthly fee and unlimited rental it’s even better

Why do u need Blockbustshit when u have torrents, why do u need Blockbustshit when you have AppleTV, why do u need Blockbustshit when u have Netflix movie streaming service, why do u need Blockbustshit when you have Amazon movie download service, and the list go on and on and on….

Oh and why do u need Blockbustshit when you have the Bangladeshi guy who sells pirated DVD

Oh yes we do, i have both….its easy if you really want it and you could have both running in less than 15 minutes, FT used to give out Apple TV including an iTunes account so you can download movies.

Oops i forgot u don’t like FT 😉

u need to have a us iTunes Account which needs a us credit card which we don’t all have. FT made a mistake with apple tv there was a good conversation about this awhile back.

You know they opened a gamestop branch in rihab….but i doubt they will include a rental service like the one in the US.
Are they an official dealer here?, I’m guessing did Al Aqsa plagiarized Game Stop.

FT will give you both, there is no mistake wit FT, 2 friends of mine were using my US itunes account.. now both got their own accounts from FT.
You can get a US prepaid credit card thru internet retailers and can also get iTunes gift cards which u can use against your iTunes purchases.

See i told you..u can if you want to…and those who can’t there is the Bangladeshi guy.

I remember a website that tried to imitate Netflix in Kuwait a while back. But I can’t remember it’s name, plus the website was of very poor quality, didn’t really attract much attention.

For me personally, even if they do introduce a Netflix-like service, I wouldn’t really be interested because of 2 reasons:

If it is a legitimate company, then it has to follow Kuwait’s laws, which means:
1- Deleting scenes
2- They have to follow strict DVD release dates which are usually very late

Therefore, it’s much more convenient for me to go buy a 1.5 KD DVD that is uncut plus is out on DVD earlier than it actually has to be.

I say we should start introducing DVR and TIVO services. Ah, I miss my DVR.

it was a mistake by FT because they didn’t know u needed a US card. They were giving itaway yet few people could use it. U could get one online from those shabby sites but they r not very trust worthy. If u want try it and tell us how it goes 😉

Mark am sorry to tell you that u don’t know what ur talking about, FT was giving away the US prepaid card from day one of the promotion and thats for sure, i checked it out myself.

U see i wanted to get rid of my friends that ere using my iTunes account.

blockbusters is closeing alot of its branches in the states, and the vid club used to rent copys
u know now the prices of dvds are so cheap in the usa it dosent make sense to rent it

btw moi “e3laam” would rather let u have pireted movies then origenal ones
for vid games every thing is illegale gta5 hulk soul calibar its all illegle in kuwait wtf its much easyer for u to sell copies then the real things

I don’t know about Kuwait, but at least in the UAE:

a) Pirated movies are prevalent

b) Multicultural society demands a very wide selection

c) Trust issue

d) TV in UAE is very different from the US/Canada. Half the channels are 24/7 movies. In Canada, we have very few cable channels that play 24/7 movies without commercials.

e) With broadband, downloading is faster and even here (Canada), blockbuster is slowly dying.

lfc-q8:
U said it all…. blockbusters and other US video rental shops are either going into digital download or closing down, even Netflix went into streaming in a step to stop physical DVD rentals.

This has been going on for more than a year now, thanks to the Bangladeshi guy of course.

I think to answer your question you only have to look at the amount of pirated/ copied dvds being sold on the market for only 1kd, thats probably an imporant factor. People would much rather (not always the case) just go by a handful of dvd great quality copies and watch them at home then pass them on to their buddies with no worries of the cost etc. Plus you have the internet at your fingertips so downloading the latest tv series and movies is not a problem anymore, you can get them the minute they are released anywhere in the world.

Take Care , Stay Safe AJ.

y rent when u can buy a copy ? guy comes to ur door step and sells dvds at 500 fils. who would rent older movies?

Simply: when a guy decides to bring a franchise to Kuwait…he will be thinking about easy money. In that case, opening a rest. rather than opening a place such as Blockbuster. Plus he won’t hear nothing from nobody.

U can get any thing you want from rapidshare

I mean you can download the very recent movies and series before the come to pay channels or Kuwait cinema theaters

Ok.. iTunes gift cards [prepaid cards] don’t work in Kuwait. If FT have another method to Access the US iTunes store that I don’t know about, that’s a different story..

iTunes Requirement: US Credit Card with a US Billing Address.

Mark, Blockbuster’s a little “out there” for Kuwait, seeing as those types of services haven’t caught up yet here. Business here seems to be very superficial. Basically, when you compare television broadcasting in Kuwait and collaborated television broadcasting in the States, it’s DIFFERENT.

Copyright and community censorship issues are another thing that hinder Apple for instance from opening an iTunes store in Kuwait. I mean, the UK just got movie rentals and tv shows on their iTunes.

Just imagine all of the other services, that I believe are on your wish list Mark :p as well as mine, that have many many MANY requirements before we can even think to obtain any of them.

For the iTunes gift card, it is easiest to get someone from the US buy it online and send you the code number via email.

If you don’t know anyone in the US, then find a close-knit community (like the SA Forums) and get someone from there to buy the gift card. I have done this and it has never failed for me.

Simple its cheaper to buy Pirated movies than to rent and historically the customers , here in kuwait, have problems with returning back the movies they rents.
Pirated movies cost u from .750files to 2 KD how much would u rent a movie. in addition , the net download services … etc .

i dont know who u get you copies from buddy ? but i feel sorry for u !! and btw … if u dont mind paying 1kd to rent it … pay 1 kd to own a decent pirated copy

@ 41. dj_will, do you sleep with all your movie DVDs? If I buy a pirated crappy movie, chances are that 99.9% I’d never bother to look at the DVD again. I wouldn’t bother where that movie is, or if any of my friends or relatives borrowed it (for good). So even though I’d “BUY” it… I’ll only be watching it once.

So I rather pay a little more to get excellent sound and picture quality to truly ‘enjoy’ a movie and instead of throwing it back in the box to never see it again, I can return it back to the store.

Not that you’ll understand, because you’ll still stick to your “decent” “pirated” “copy” theory.

People who buy a shitload of pirated movies need to see the advantages of a DVD rental place.

One advantage of a dvd rental place is that it’s not illegal. Have the common decency to realize what you’re doing is illegal when you pay for a pirated dvd. Its sad to see that no one really cares about that one fact.

Another advantage of a dvd rental place is that it would benefit both the society and the industry. Especially in Kuwait, where the word “responsibility” doesn’t really exist, or actually taking care of public property is just… non-existant.

Piracy is bad. Get it right.

Piracy is wrong for many reasons. But most of the time its about the bucks $$$. Torrents are nearly free (ISP costs for your bandwidth) but if the studios don’t make any money then we get more crap films released and lets face it there have been quite a few recently.

Don’t use Hawally or Mr 1 KD seller anymore as I am tired of seeing rubbish quality. I would rather wait and get it from an infamous Swedish site.

Most of the piracy happens when a film is first released (or the DVD Screener). Imagine if you released it on DVD rental at the same time as cinema?

I think the only way Blockbuster would work here (or anywhere else in the future) is if they released cinema movies onto DVD at the same time (Using some DRM stuff to protect Mr Copier from copying it so easily).

Then I would rather pay 2KD to rent it and have nice picture and audio, allow me to pause it when I take a leak, eat anything I want, answer my mobile, lie down, stand up, rewind, fart loud etc

Or I would pay 4KD and go see it at the cinema, whilst restraining bowl movements.

Kuwait – I did say I restrain my bowl movement at the cinema, I go into stealth mode “silent but violent”.

“(Using some DRM stuff to protect Mr Copier from copying it so easily)”

This is torture. Because Mr Copier can and will find a way to copy thru the DRM, and good old Joe Blow will get screwed if he wants to back up his movies or watch them on another device.

Abid – I expect Job Blow to get round the copying, but as you know – you build a wall and some one knocks it down so you build a new type of wall. Thats how its always been.

When you rent from Blockbuster your not meant to make a backup copy! LoL

A little off topic.. But dont you think worry beads or masabee7 should be banned from cinemas… Nearly every time I go to watch a film in a cinema in Kuwait, I’m always unfortunate to be sitting near some guy playing with a misbaa7… The noise it makes is far more distracting and annoying “click-click-clickertyclick”.. The noise from these people last throughout the whole movie as aposed to a telephone that would just ring for a moment..
I know its a little off topic, but its something I had to get off my chest!!

“When you rent from Blockbuster your not meant to make a backup copy! LoL”

That I agree on, but Blockbuster has no right to impose its own proprietary DRM on DVDs that they don’t really make.

Only the producers of the DVDs (aka the movie studios) have the right to impose DRM on their discs which Blockbuster can then buy and rent out, and this is the major issue with DRM: if they make DRM too tough, then buyers cannot back up their movies and if they make it too lenient, then piracy prevails.

We don’t have rental service in Kuwait because it is cheaper to buy pirated DVD and because the government is not taking digital piracy seriously. They only do their campaigns after the world report on digital piracy is released and Kuwait is at the top.

Regarding AppleTV and Netflix. They are nice but still will not replace Blockbuster or Hastings. Many people, including me, love the renting experience not only the movie watching part even though I have a 8MB internet connection. I love to go to Blockbuster or Hastings and walk around while looking for a movie to watch. Getting of your house once and a while is good for your health 😛

Abid – I don’t see forms of protection as a way to move out of piracy. Basically lets say DRM works and the industry see’s less piracy. What happens? The prices start to go up again.

One day cyber kiddie decides that he can’t be paying the prices they charge any more, puts his thinking cap on and voila posts a solution all over the web on how to hack it. 2 minutes later we are back to square one and shopping in Hawalli picks up again.

There has got to be a way of balancing it so that both producer and consumer win. Not sure if it will ever be solved!

Bow n Arrow :

iTunes prepaid cards works only if u have an account, so with FT prepaid credit card you open the account and then just use iTunes prepaid cards to top it up.

SIMPLE.

Sadly, FT don’t offer those prepaid credit cards anymore. The only way would be to call your bank and have them change the billing address of your credit card to your ARAMEX address in the US.

Then you create and iTunes account with that information, and you’re done.

I’ve been told that it’s one way that actually works.

Before anyone does anything rash, please not that the US iTunes stores says that is requires and AMERICAN credit card with and American billing address.

Has anyone tried using their Paypal account to create an account on iTunes? It just might work.

Paypal only works if your Paypal account is a US account, it will not work with Paypal Kuwait because Apple checks it when you try to use it with iTunes.

Calling ur bank and changing the address won’t work either, because its not the billing address that Apple check only, its the card number that tells them who is the card issuer.

I tried both of the above, neither worked.

There is another way to do it, create a brokerage account with Etrade, you will have to transfer $1000 to your account once the account has been created, then they will send you a debt card which you can also use as a credit card where ever a credit card is accepted..ATM, POS, etc… then create a US Paypal account using the Aramex box address and the Etrade card, once your Paypal account is activated you can proceed and create a US iTunes account.

Transferring money to your Etrade account is done thru NBK and it takes 3 to 5 days for the money to be available in the account or you can just transfer money from your Kuwait Paypal account to your US Paypal account.

Complicated huh?

Running great for me 😉

I think FT did a great job with this offer.

Adrenaline:

Don’t you need a SSN to open an account with Etrade? or are you using their UAE branch? I know that you need a SSN because I have 3 accounts with them.

wow… too much info.. *danger* *does not compute* :p~

Thanks for the info Adrenaline! I’ll be sure to give that a try soon 🙂

Thanks BoBader 🙂 getting a prepaid visa card from Walmart seems like a simple enough plan.. but what about the billing address?

Bow n Arrow

I heard that you can also get prepaid Visa card from bank of America. Personally I never tried any of those but they should work. You only need an address and a phone number in the States that you can get from Aramex.com or ushopweship.com mailbox services for $20.

I was thinking about the old days when Video Club was still existant. We used to get tapes that were censored in Kuwait or Saudi I think, I’m not sure. What I did not understand was that if it was being censored in Kuwait or KSA then, who was censoring them? Were they religious people who decided what was to be censored or just normal people like u and me? And if they were religious people then how come they would get to see the so called “sex scenes”. I mean they are religious people right, they are not supposed to see such indecent things. And if they are not religious then, why were they exempt from the rest of the public. Where they better than the rest of us?

I used to get my videos from Jazz recordings and Al Bader audio. They were uncensored bc they were recorded from laserdisc.

All you need is a decent internet connection preferably 4Mbps or more currently Qnet have a Double Bandwidth offer + Rapidshare premium account and you can download the entire planet into your computer.

Yeah QNet’s offer are very good. Services are good too.. except for that whole thing with Youtube the last couple of days. My one-year 2 MB subscription got bumped up to 4MB. It’s been great so far.

BoBader:

I opened my account years back, i did not need need a SSN then, but i don’t think you can open it online now unless you have a SSN, otherwise u need to download some forms and mail them back or call.

Adrenaline

I open mine with another broker 12 years ago who was bought by etrade. However, today to open your account with etrade you have to apply through etrade UAE unless you have a SSN and a US address. I know this because I open an account for my brother last summer through them. I also just found out that it is hard to buy prepaid Visa cards online. You have to buy them in person. Sorry Bow n Arrow.

this has to be the most controversial and most discussed topic on this blog. i am truly amazed. and fyi Blockbuster rules.

A little off-topic again, I’ve been seeing a trailer for a Kuwaiti-made movie in all cinemas for the past month or so. I think the movie is called “ONE LAST CHANCE” or something like that. It’s hilarious! How come there’s no info/discussion about it here?

Piracy is an equalizer.

Hollywood makes crap films, they gain millions in the box office, and the greedy bastards want more money from DVDs, but piracy helps equalize our losses from buying movie tickets with their millions’ worth of profit.

It’s nature’s law.

lol! Well said Suspic.

Piracy is a crime. But, what can I say? I’m a criminal. I don’t condone downloading movies and music online, but I do it anyway. I’m a walking contradiction, and I know it. :p~

But I’m trying here. Trying to get access to legit online stores. Copyright and censorship censorship, not to mention lack of communication on many parts, is pushing people to illegally obtain music, movies, and tv shows.

One questions though… is piracy a crime that can’t be stopped?

Alright kids…I do see a solution…I see it…..I see it..

After 88 comments, the whole idea about “why there is no movie rental in Kuwait” still hangs !!! So, I think if every one who has (Original) DVDs in Kuwait had a place where an “EXCHANGE” could be done legally, privately, I think this issue can be curbed.

This way every one buys one (Original) DVD, watches it and gives it up for exchange, then he / she gets another one. Effectively, everyone need only buy 5 -10 DVDs and register the names so there are no duplications.

The idea being, buy one and get one!!! the loop never ends.

A National DVD exchange!.. and Im sure colelctively we should hit about 100K Originals among the population…

btw, we may have to contibute towards a central physical repository, maybe in the free trade zone… dunno yet…But we can figure this out!!

When i say “buy one get one” it can also be “bring in 10 and take back ten”…and then it goes on and on…… like the energizer bunny

@mojojojo …..Pyramid scheme?? dude.. im not selling sh1t o’er here!! …its just an idea! to share…Pyramid scheme is to “sell” sh1t…

suspic: “Hollywood makes crap films, they gain millions in the box office, and the greedy bastards want more money from DVDs”

Thats somehow true, but there are a lot of great indepedent movies (or movies that didn’t do well in the box-office) that rely solely on DVD sales. Buying a pirated DVD or downloading a rip is basically stealing money they never had in the first place.

I feel so guitly when downloading a great movie that didn’t make squat in the box-office. sigh, *Brick*.

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