Who doesn't like popping up a bag of popcorn, filling up a soda cup, and plopping down on the couch for a good movie? Redbox put Blockbuster out of business, but did you know there is another option for getting movies on a budget, and not having to take the disk back to avoid late fees?
Digital Movie Code Collecting is something I have been doing for a little over a year now I guess. There are hundreds of resellers out there who sell the digital movie code for movies, often before the movie even makes it to the Big Box store shelves. You buy the code, plug it in to your Vudu, iTunes, Movies Anywhere, or other movie collection app, and off you go to watch your movie.
So how does all this work? People are out there who get dozens, or even hundreds of code slips. These are the same sheets of paper you would get if you went to the store and bought the brand new Blu-Ray disk at the Big Box stores. Most of these folks are buying the movies in bulk, separating out the code slips, and then selling the Blu-ray disk at flea markets. They make more by selling the code and disk individually than they would just selling the combined product.
If you want a New release, or even "pre-release" it will set you back about $6-8 for the code, but you get to watch it early. If you are willing to wait awhile, or want to watch an older movie you can often get older movies for $4, $2, or even a bargain basement $0.99.
Some of my favored places to check out for codes are:
dudedigitalcodes.com
happywatching.com
uvdigitalnow.com
There is also an aggregate site at ultravioletcinema.com. But I have hardly ever bought from one of the vendors advertising there. Mostly I use that site as a benchmark of the most I should expect to spend on the movie. Then go bargain hunting. Though if I am looking for an older code, that is unlikely to be predominantly on the market, this site is a good place to start the search.
Not for the faint of heart, there are also Google communities that center around code buy/sell/trade and is strictly peer to peer. With these you are well advised to check the profile of the person you are buying from before sending any money. For the most part these are "I'll send you $X by paypal and you send me the code". I've made many painless successful transactions, but I have also been scammed out of money a couple of times as well.
There are four Google Communities I check out when looking for movies.
Ultraviolet Codes (Buy/Sell/Trade/Free)
Digital Entertainment Bargain Hunters
Digital Movies
Ultaviolet Digital Movie Locker
The best part about these communities is that every once in awhile you could catch a completely free code. Maybe not a movie you were looking to buy at the moment, but a free movie, is a free movie. And you get to keep it in your online account forever.
That's what happened last night for me. I was browsing through and saw a post that Vudu was giving out free codes for Deadpool 2 as part of Comic Con. A little patience and trying a couple of different codes, and I got the redemption at the top of this post. I free copy of Deadpool 1 & 2. I already had Deadpool 1, so that's not a big gainer. But Deadpool 2 is now on my Vudu account and I will be able to watch it as soon as it goes live on 8/7.
Is it Legal?
Meh.... it is a grey area. Technically, the code slips do say on them that they are not for resale. But the code slips, once sold in the stores, are private property. So there really isn't much that the movie studios are likely to be able to do to put a stop to the practice. It is a piece of paper with some numbers and letters on it. Eventually, could the studios slap some kind of legal action on the practice and either get the reselling sites shut down, and or remove the movies from our accounts.... I suppose they could. But I think the government and the studios both have bigger fish to fry than who is redeeming movie codes.
Have fun... let me know if I can answer any questions about getting your digital movie collection going!