What did a Netflix DVD rental cost in 1998?
Netflix opened on April 14, 1998, describing itself as the first internet store for DVD rentals. The catalog held 925 titles, which at the time was close to every DVD released in the United States.
The pricing looked nothing like the flat fee people remember. A seven day rental ran $4 each for the first two discs and $3 for any additional title on the same order. Shipping was charged on top of that, $2 for the first disc and $1 for each additional one, capped at $5 an order. Late fees applied.
The first disc the company ever mailed had gone out a month earlier, on March 10, 1998, and it was Beetlejuice. Netflix repeated that detail in 2023 when it published the history of the service.
The flat monthly subscription with no due dates and no late fees arrived in 1999, and that is the model that broke the video store. Blockbuster turned down the chance to buy the company in 2000, a decision that reads worse with every passing year.
How big did the red envelope business get?
Netflix shipped 5.2 billion discs in the United States over the 25 year run of the service, a total the company published when it announced the closure in 2023.
The subscriber peak sits in Netflix's own filings rather than in press coverage. The Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2011 reported 13.93 million domestic DVD subscriptions. The mail business never got larger than that.
At that size the operation was a logistics company wearing a movie company's name. Discs moved through regional shipping centers timed around first class mail, which is how a disc dropped in a mailbox on Monday could be swapped for the next title in the queue within a couple of days.
The most rented title across the whole 25 years was The Blind Side, the 2009 Sandra Bullock film, which Netflix confirmed when it released its all time rental list in 2023.
Discs also paid for the pivot. While the streaming library was still thin and the licensing deals were still small, the envelopes were the part of the company that made money.
Why Qwikster broke the DVD business in 2011
In July 2011 Netflix split the combined plan that cost $9.99 a month into two separate plans at $7.99 each, one for streaming and one for discs. Anyone who wanted both went from $9.99 to $15.98, an increase of 60 percent.
The reaction was immediate and loud. On September 18, 2011, Reed Hastings, then chief executive, published an apology that opened with "I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation." He wrote that members felt the company "lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming, and the price changes."
In the same message he announced that the DVD half would be spun out under a new name, Qwikster, with its own website and its own queue. Subscribers would have kept two accounts, two ratings histories and two credit card charges.
Netflix dropped the Qwikster plan within a month but kept the price split. Domestic DVD subscriptions never recovered, and the 13.93 million on the books at the end of September 2011 stayed the high water mark for the rest of the service's life.
What did Netflix say when it pulled the plug?
Netflix announced the end on April 18, 2023, alongside its first quarter results. Co-chief executive Ted Sarandos framed it as a service problem rather than a money problem: "Our goal has always been to provide the best service for our members, but as the business continues to shrink, that's going to become increasingly difficult."
In the same post he set the date, writing that the company wanted to "go out on a high" and would ship its final discs on September 29, 2023.
The shrinking was real. Domestic DVD subscriptions had been falling every year since the 13.93 million of September 2011, and by 2023 the disc operation was a rounding error beside a streaming business with hundreds of millions of members.
Netflix called 2023 the final season of DVD.com and kept shipping for another five months so subscribers could work through their queues before the doors closed. Streaming accounts were untouched. Households that paid for both a streaming plan and a disc plan simply lost the disc half.
What was in the last red envelope?
The final discs went into the mail on September 29, 2023. Netflix said the last one was a Blu-ray of True Grit, the 2010 Coen brothers western.
The send off was unusually generous for a shutdown. Subscribers who opted in by August 29, 2023 were mailed up to 10 extra discs pulled at random from their own queues, and nobody was billed for keeping them.
Returns were accepted until October 27, 2023, but returning anything was optional, and Netflix said it would not charge for discs that never came back. Millions of discs that had spent years cycling between strangers stayed wherever they last landed.
DVD subscriptions were cancelled automatically on the final shipping date, so no subscriber had to remember to close an account or fight a renewal.
It was a softer ending than physical rental usually gets. Redbox kiosks went dark in July 2024 in the middle of a Chapter 7 liquidation, with no farewell and no free discs.
Is the Netflix DVD service coming back in 2026?
No. DVD.com has been closed since September 29, 2023, Netflix has announced no plan to restart it, and nothing in the three years since suggests the company wants back into shipping and warehousing.
What replaced it is partly streaming and partly nothing at all. Streaming rights expire and discs do not, so the disc library held thousands of older, foreign and out of print titles that sit on no service anywhere today.
Rental by mail did not die with Netflix, though it is a cottage industry now. DVDInbox runs the same flat envelope model with no due dates and no late fees, mixing DVD, Blu-ray and 4K discs across four plans that ran from $9.99 to $29.99 a month in 2026. Public libraries across the United States lend DVDs and Blu-rays free with a library card. Mail order media has a habit of hanging on: Columbia House kept taking orders until 2026.
Where to find one today: the discs are worth almost nothing, so the collectible is the envelope. Unused red mailers, disc sleeves and DVD.com promotional items are cheap ephemera rather than valuable collectibles, and Etsy sellers list them under Netflix red envelope. Check the photos for the return address panel, which is what tells a real mailer from a reproduction.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Netflix stop sending DVDs in the mail?
Netflix mailed its last DVDs on September 29, 2023, ending a service that began on April 14, 1998. The company announced the closure on April 18, 2023, accepted disc returns until October 27, 2023, and cancelled every DVD subscription automatically on the final shipping date.
What was the last DVD Netflix mailed?
Netflix said the final disc it shipped on September 29, 2023 was a Blu-ray of True Grit, the 2010 Coen brothers western. The first disc Netflix ever mailed, on March 10, 1998, was Beetlejuice, and the most rented title across the 25 years of the service was The Blind Side.
Can you still rent DVDs by mail in 2026?
Yes, but not from Netflix, which closed DVD.com in September 2023 and has not revived it. DVDInbox still ships DVD, Blu-ray and 4K discs in flat envelopes with no due dates, on plans that ran from $9.99 to $29.99 a month in 2026, and public libraries in the United States lend discs at no charge with a library card.