Don’t ask Dylan Wise why he opened a video-rental store in 2026.
He’ll just point to the 800 people who showed up at the opening of his Little Movie Store in South Philadelphia late last month and say, “Those who get it, get it. Those who don’t, don’t, and that’s fine.”
That opening weekend, Wise met families with young children who picked two movies to watch together. He watched Gen Zers discovering DVDs for the first time. He met a man — likely in his 70s — who spent about 40 minutes browsing and then purchased an old Western VHS.
“I’m hoping that opening weekend was an indication of how much people have been missing this sort of space,” Wise, a self-proclaimed movie nerd, said.
Little Movie Store works like this: A $160-a-year membership gets you access to the full rental library. You can rent three movies at a time for 14 days. The membership also gets you 10% off anything you buy in store (like movies and merch), invitations to member events like in-store screenings, and a free movie ($17 or under) on your birthday. DVD players are also available to rent (members can rent them for free).
There’s also no late fee. Their policy is that “no one is going to call your house, but if we see you out in the neighborhood we’ll mention it,” according to the store’s FAQ, but you can’t check out more movies while something is overdue.
Wise is strategically focusing on building a local membership of movie lovers.
“We’re purposely doing that because we want to build a community of people who are willing to invest in having a movie store in their neighborhood,” he said.
Wise’s three weekend movie recommendations (the first two you can find at Little Movie Store):
- “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” which Wise calls a "Thanksgiving classic"
- The Criterion edition of “KPop Demon Hunters,” with special features
- “David Byrne’s American Utopia,” a concert film directed by Spike Lee
