Little Movie Store is set to open in South Philly’s ‘analog media haven’

The shop is the city’s first movie rental store to open in more than a decade, adding to the analog haven in South Philadelphia. After a trip to see the last surviving Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon, Wise was inspired to open something similar. When he, his wife Keri, and their seven-year-old son returned to Philly, he noticed a lack of physical media stores that centered on cinema.

“It’s always been a dream to own a place in the neighborhood [for movies] that people could go to,” Wise adds.

Little Movie Store presents what Wise claims is a “harder way of watching movies,” but Philadelphians seem receptive to going back to basics.

“People miss this sort of third place,” Wise explains. “They want a place in the neighborhood like this to go with friends and family, and seeing that is really affirming.”

Community building through analog

The rise in analog also fills a gap left by streaming services.

“Seeing people pull out movies as they browse our store and say ‘Oh, I’ve been wanting to see this one, this isn’t on streaming.’ is what it’s about,” Wise said. “You go on streaming and look for something just to see ‘sorry this title isn’t available.’ People are sick of the bait and switch.”

Rather than charging per movie, Little Movie Store offers a yearly household membership price set at $160. This grants membership holders a year’s worth of unlimited movies in whatever format they choose. The membership also provides customers with a 10 percent discount on in-store purchases, and a free movie on birthdays.

“That breaks down to $3 a week. It works out so that if you’re watching three movies a week, that’s roughly 75 movies a year,” Wise explained. “We didn’t want to create a business where people are just coming in for the sake of nostalgia, to rent [a familiar film] and then never come back. I want to build a community and culture of people in Philadelphia who are willing to take a detour in their movie-watching habits by checking out something they weren’t super familiar with.”

Community and culture seem to be at the epicenter of Little Movie Store’s ethos. The shop launched membership on October 2, 2026 at the Bok building, which attracted people from all walks of life, including those from beyond Passyunk bounds.

“We had a couple from Fishtown, [and] we had someone who came in across the bridge from New Jersey,” he illustrated.

Community involvement is part of its launch success. Without asking, people are stepping up to the plate.

“It’s really hard for me to accept help right now,” Wise said, “But we had one of our founding members message us and say the other day, ‘You know, I’m right down the block. Can I come help set up?’ And he came and helped us curate our shelves and alphabetize things.”

Comfort classics and the unknown

Little Movie Store not only offers rentals but also copies for purchase so customers can own the movies they love in the original form, without being edited or censored. Streaming platforms such as Disney+ have been called out for changing scenes or editing out dialogue, which makes his shop a big draw for analog lovers. He recalled rewatching a 1987 classic.

“You know the line in Adventures in Babysitting where she says ‘you don’t [expletive] with the babysitter’? They edited that out on Disney+, and that’s the best part of the movie,” he says. “It’s a combination of things like that [bringing people back to analog].”

Wise has been busy stocking the store’s shelves with 4Ks, Blu-rays, DVDs and VHS tapes, including a box of upcoming Criterion releases he has been asked to keep on the hush-hush.

“The excitement of finding something you’ve never heard before, it’s what gets people out for analog stores,” he said. “We’re trying to build out a collection that’s a mix of comfort classics and things you’ve never heard of. What we’re really hoping is that people will take a chance.”

Little Movie Store will host its grand opening on Saturday, October 24. For those curious to learn more, information on its launch event, as well as membership prices and titles available in the catalogue can be found on littlemoviestore.com.

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