Where/How To Watch Recent Movie Releases

Watching Movies: Which Do You Choose?

I used to get a DVD in the mail from Netflix every three days. Now that the closest distribution center has shut down, the wait time has gone up quite a bit, but I'm paying the same price. Where is the best place to rent DVDs?
The choice came down to Netflix or Redbox, while my research only reinforced the shame I should feel for watching Patient Zero.

Netflix DVD has been my source for recent releases to DVD. While I have streaming, you just don't see recent DVD releases on Netflix streaming.
I used to get (2) movies a week, (8) a month. I'm now averaging (2) a month.
I didn't get a notice the distribution center was shut down, all I know for a fact is that the discs no longer come from the closer location, I get a quarter of the discs I used to, the shipping time has tripled, and I'm paying the same price.

I began tracking the shipping times for Netflix DVDs in December. My average is 9 days between movies. You can see that 3 days after I ship it, Netflix sends me the next disc before they notify me it's received.
My effective price is between $2.60-$4 per movie depending on whether I would get 3 or 2 movies a month.

Recent Netflix activity:
Movie                   Shipped-Watched-Returned
Darkest Minds      12/04/18--12/07--12/13
Patient Zero          12/05/18--12/09--12/27
Blindspotting        12/10/18--12/14--12/27 (7 days between)
A Simple Favor    12/17/18--12/25--01/03 (11 days between)
BlacKkKlansman 12/28/18--01/05--01/10 (11 days between)
Kin                        01/07/19--01/11(Received)/01/13(Watched)--01/23 (6 days between)

Yes, technically I paid to rent Patient Zero. I pay $8 a month for Netflix DVD. My cost went from $1 per disc to $4. I want my monthly cost to remain at $8. What are my alternatives?

Options
I reviewed my options. Among the most popular movie services are Vudu, Crackle, Amazon, Youtube, iTunes Movies, or Redbox.
Netflix streaming is not an option as the streaming library is limited. Amazon Prime is limited too.
With Redbox, Amazon, or Youtube, I would just rent movies on a per movie basis. Netflix also has a $5 DVD plan with a maximum of (2) movies a month, but I don't like that option either.

Cost
Comparing the cost to what I saw through Netflix; my baseline is Darkest Minds, Patient Zero, Blindspotting, A Simple Favor, BlacKkKlansman, and Kin.

I don't know how Vudu works, but each online movie rental was a $6 rental with Patient Zero being $4 (probably to reflect quality).

Crackle is a free streaming service through Sony. They don't have new releases, though they currently have the Alien franchise which is pretty cool.

Amazon online rentals are $6 with Patient Zero at $5. Youtube online rentals are $6 across the board, even for Patient Zero! Same for iTunes Movies. I'm beginning to notice a trend for online streaming rental prices.

Redbox is a $5 online rental.

Redbox DVD rentals from a kiosk are $1.75. With tax it's $1.87 for a DVD ($2.00 for a Blu-ray/$2.14 with tax). The rental period is from the time you rent it to 9pm the next day. There is a location extremely close to my commute, though Redbox didn't have Patient Zero (who can blame them). They also only carry recent DVD rentals, though they sometimes have movies five to ten years older.
You can join Redbox Perks for 1 free rental a year, and a free rental after every 15 rentals.

With Netflix, most of my rentals have been newer releases as I've already watched a lot of earlier movies.  Redbox allows me 4 movies a month for $8.56 (for Blu-rays), more than the 2 or 3 I'm currently getting from Netflix.
If I want to see an older movie, I could always rent it on Amazon Video or a similar streaming service, the going rate seems to be $4 for older releases, and that still leave money for (2) Redbox rentals a month for a total of (3) movies in a month, still matching Netflix at it's potential best.

There's a local DVD rental place (imagine that), but it's a twenty minute drive out of my way. That's just not going to work. Plus the cost per movie is more than Redbox for new releases. On the upside they have quite a few older movies. On the downside, I've seen most of the older movies. They probably don't have Patient Zero. It's for the best.

Conclusion
Netflix DVD is great if you are near a distribution center and can get a movie every few days, but more of them are closing every day. It seems probable that Netflix DVD will phase out.
It's just not the most economical choice for me to rent movies anymore. The upside with paying per transaction at Redbox, I hopefully won't have to wait like I do for some of Netflix's newest DVDs, and paying per transaction will force me to ask myself whether I really want to pay money to rent Patient Zero. No longer can I just operate on auto-pilot and mindlessly get movies sent to me.

At best I'd pay Netflix $8 for (2) or (3) movies. I will spend $8.56 on (4) Blu-rays from RedBox, (4) DVDs would only be $7.48. I'll use Amazon, Youtube, etc for older movies which will cost $3 or $4 for an online rental.

I'm cancelling Netflix and will sign up for RedBox perks. That allows me to reserve a movie ahead of time online. I just have to swipe my card at the kiosk to get it. Cost is a big factor, but the convenience of a RedBox kiosk directly on my commute also helps.
I'm thinking I will rent Blu-rays. The extra cost is marginal and I will accrue award points quicker for that free rental.