Brandon Muramatsu

Netflix History Analyzer

I was reading an article somewhere this morning and found a link to a Netflix History Analyzer website. (Funny how it’s only been like 15 minutes and I’ve forgotten where I found it! Hrm.)

I bought my first DVD player in 1999, and by 2000 had joined Netflix. At the time it was the best thing since sliced bread.

For the first two years I was doing pretty well:

  • You’ve rented 129 DVDs over 25 months from July 20, 2000 to July 22, 2002.
  • Your plan costs $17.99/month so you’ve paid $449.75 total.
  • Your average price per rental was approximately $3.49 each.
  • Average rental costs elsewhere are $3.75 each (not including late fees).
  • You’ve saved approximately $34.00 over that time period or $1.36 per month.

Here’s some more about your renting habits…

  • You kept each rental for around 19 days on average.
  • The longest you kept a single DVD was 108 days: .
  • You rented about 5 DVDs each month.
  • You’re not taking full advantage of your current plan. You could be renting 19 DVDs each month.


By May 2005 when I started building my house, the tide had turned in Netflix’s favor…

  • You’ve rented 233 DVDs over 57 months from July 20, 2000 to April 07, 2005.
  • Your plan costs $17.99/month so you’ve paid $1025.43 total.
  • Your average price per rental was approximately $4.40 each.
  • Average rental costs elsewhere are $3.75 each (not including late fees).
  • You’ve overpaid approximately $151.68 over that time period or $2.66 per month.

Here’s some more about your renting habits…

  • You kept each rental for around 26 days on average.
  • The longest you kept a single DVD was 213 days.
  • You rented about 4 DVDs each month.
  • You’re not taking full advantage of your current plan. You could be renting 19 DVDs each month.

And as of today…Netflix is definitely “making money” off of me.

  • You’ve rented 303 DVDs over 99 months from July 20, 2000 to October 07, 2008.
  • Your plan costs $17.99/month so you’ve paid $1781.01 total.
  • Your average price per rental was approximately $5.88 each.
  • Average rental costs elsewhere are $3.75 each (not including late fees).
  • You’ve overpaid approximately $644.76 over that time period or $6.51 per month.

Here’s some more about your renting habits…

  • You kept each rental for around 37 days on average.
  • The longest you kept a single DVD was 354 days.
  • You rented about 3 DVDs each month.
  • You’re not taking full advantage of your current plan. You could be renting 19 DVDs each month.

So, what are my thoughts?

  • Netflix is definitely convenient, I almost always have a movie that I want to watch, when I want to watch it.
  • I probably watched more movies than I would have if I had to go to a video store to rent them.
  • It was convenient to be able to take movies with me when I traveled (or was commuting between Oakland and Logan) and not have to worry about when/where to return the movie. (Though I could have also rented movies at the airport from InMotion).
  • I can rent high def DVDs from Netflix (Blu-ray, and previously HD-DVDs). (Though it’s about to cost more.)

Cons:

  • It’s sometimes challenging to have the right mix of movies out. You know, there are just some times when I don’t want to watch the four heavy dramas that I have out.
  • While on the surface it looks like I “overpaid”, I’m not sure that’s the case. Certainly at various points in time when the cost/rental was closer to 1:1, I’d say that I’m definitely ahead. Even now, I’d argue that I’m ahead. The convenience of having the movie delivered directly to me versus driving to a rental store, watching the movie in the specified period of time, and then returning it on time is worth $6.50 a month. When I first started renting it was much easier to find a local store, even if that local store was a Blockbuster. As time progressed, Blockbuster and other chains began pushing out the local video store. And then the rental chains started having problems, so finding a video rental store nowadays is a bit challenging. So, while it’s a vicious cycle, I did pay for convenience, so this is a qualified “con”.
  • The website analyzer is an approximation at best. My plan is actually a 4 movie at a time plan, and it’s averaged about $19.50 per month including taxes. And I have no idea what it costs to rent a movie in a store these days. In any event, yes I’ve “overpaid” for the rentals, but probably not for the experience. so this is also a qualified “con”.

Would I do it again? Definitely for some of the time. I’ve been keeping the subscription because I have a grandfathered 4 movies at a time for less money than the current plan. But probably I should have cancelled my subscription in 2007.

What would I do today? That’s for another post.

What’s your Netflix history? Post a comment!

/by