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Arts & Entertainment

Movie Night Still Features Top Titles

Video stores come and go, but there's always plenty of choice in Eureka and Wildwood. Now you can even check out the most popular selections from our area through Redbox before renting more movies. See how.

Way back in 1977, if you happened to live in Los Angeles and had one of those amazing new home videotape units, you could have been one of the first people to go to a store, rent a movie and watch it on your own TV. The idea caught on. Within a few years, even and Dierbergs had their own video departments, and “movie night” became an important part of the American family ritual.

Times have changed. Eureka’s is just one of several in the area that have closed, and the trip to the video store has given way to on-demand cable, Internet downloads and Netflix queues. But when you have the urge to watch something different, the area still offers many options from which you can pick up movies.

For selection, nothing beats the of the St. Louis County Library. According to the county library’s communications manager Jennifer McBride, the branch now has 3,555 DVD titles, including movies, television episodes and instructional materials, as well as access to the County Library system’s more than 143,000 titles. The newest additions at Eureka Hills include Abduction (rated PG-13), Circo (not rated), Dream House (PG-13) and Outrage (R).

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has boosted its popularity. McBride said the number of visits increased by 12.9 percent between October and January with videos accounting for 30 percent of Eureka Hills’ transactions.

For 24/7 convenience, Redbox picked up where the older video departments left off. With one unit in and four in , Redbox typically features 100 or more recent video releases in each unit, with new titles added each week. This week’s most popular titles in both Eureka and Wildwood include The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (PG-13), The Rum Diary (R), and Drive (R).

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Click here to find out which Redbox movies are the most popular in Eureka and Wildwood via the number of rentals by filtering through zip code. One also can filter by the last seven days or previous month. Local Redbox nearest kiosks are located at:

Eureka

  • 131 Town Center (WalMart)
  • 12 Hilltop Village Center (McDonalds)
  • 250 E. 4th (Walgreens)
  • 2145 E. 5th (Schuncks)  

Wildwood

  • 2460 Taylor (Dierbergs)

While convenience and selection are the hallmarks of today’s video entertainment, back in 1977 it was a status symbol. Impressing your friends wasn’t cheap. While a ticket to a first-run movie cost $4, a home VCR unit had a list price of $1,400, a membership at that first video store cost $50 per year, and a one-night rental would set you back $10.

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