I rent individual movies for $3-4 apiece, and that turns out to be a big win over Netflix because I typically only watch 1-2 movies per month, and the rental service has a bigger library.
But I think that I'm a very unusual consumer in that respect. If I liked to watch TV series more then I'd be bingeing those, and that's where I think Netflix really attracts consumers, not movies. I don't think there's an economical way to do a la carte viewing of TV series on a regular basis.