Last video store in Milford will close by end of the year

The last movie rental store in Milford will close by the end of the year, continuing a long industry slide that has left the region with barely any stores left. “About seven years ago, we could see the trends start to change in the industry,” said Lee Gentile, co-owner of MovieScene in Milford’s Lorden Plaza on Route 101A. MovieScene, which has been in Milford for 15 years, will close by the end of the year and is starting to sell off its inventory, although it will continue rentals, including some new movies slated to arrive, like “Men In Black III.” After the closing, the only major video store left in the area is the independent Main Dunstable Video on Amherst Street in Nashua. Gentile and her husband, Brian, opened their first movie store in 1992 in Derry as a franchise of the now-defunct chain VideoUpdate, changing from their backgrounds as restaurateurs to take advantage of a booming business. They did so well that soon they had nine stores stretching from Milford to Portsmouth and their Derry store was “the busiest VideoUpdate in the country,” she said. They got out of the franchise agreement after a court fight more than a decade ago, changing the name to MovieScene and going independent, and growth continued.