Mitch Lowe, a Netflix co-founder and former Redbox president, is now chief executive at New York-based MoviePass, a company that pitches a subscription service for moviegoers. The user gets a debit card, which starts at $30 a month, to attend as many movies as she likes, in movie theaters that cover 90 percent of the country. But movie theater owners are reluctant to fully adopt the non-traditional idea. To gain acceptance, Lowe plans to launch the company’s first major marketing campaign, expand its services and raise more money. Continue reading New MoviePass CEO Hopes to Get Theater Owners on Board

Redbox announced that it will begin offering video games for the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 21,000 of its 31,800 self-service kiosk locations around the country starting June 17.

According to the company’s press release, Redbox has been testing video game rentals alongside movie offerings at 5,000 locations since August 2009. “Redbox has rented more than one million video games in less than two years at these locations, underscoring the popularity of video game play in America,” said Mitch Lowe, president of Redbox.

Redbox parent company Coinstar Inc. believes the select market testing suggests that the company can potentially “increase revenue by replacing 10% to 15% of the DVD slots in its kiosks with games.” (Each machine holds between 70 and 200 titles.)

Games – ranging from Call of Duty: Black Ops and Mortal Kombat to Super Mario Galaxy and Star Wars III – will cost $2 per night (compared to the $1 rental fee for DVDs and $1.50 for Blu-ray discs). For a complete list of initial game offerings, visit the Redbox Games page.

Related Home Media Magazine article (with interesting financial stats): “Redbox to Increase Video Game Presence” (4/28/11)