Over the past decade, competition from mail-order supplier Netflix and automated Redbox facilities put the pressure on Blockbuster, forcing the video rental giant to file for bankruptcy protection in 2010. In 2011, the company and its remaining outlets were purchased by satellite provider Dish Network, which kept the business on life support until 11 November 2013. The company announced that its final rental was, ironically, the comedy This Is the End, which was reportedly rented from a Blockbuster store in Hawaii.
However, that wasn't truly the end. As of 2015, about 50 Blockbuster locations (all franchises) remain open across the United States, for those who prefer renting movies the old-fashioned way .
A brief rewind of Blockbuster's history:
- The first Blockbuster store opened on 19 October 1985 in Dallas, Texas. Blockbuster quickly became successful, due in part to the company's ability to customize each store to fit the demographics of the local neighborhood.
- In 1987, the company won a court case against Nintendo, which allowed Blockbuster to offer video game rentals in its stores.
- In 2000, Blockbuster reportedly turned down a chance to purchase a fledgling movie rental company called Netflix for $50 million (USD). The rest, of course, is video history.
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More Info: The Hollywood Reporter
Discussion Comments
I remember renting movies from Blockbuster when I was young, we had one right down the street from us. We would go there and pick a movie and then go to the 7-11 right next door and pick our snacks, etc.. We then went home and had our weekly movie night!
I loved that sort of fun, old fashioned type of regime we had. I grew up in the 80's and early 90's so we had video tapes only and no cell phones and the big old computers (no laptops, kindles etc.)
Just going to the store and renting a video is so much better and convenient than "mail order video" (Netflix)? that they had or still do have. I'm not into that or really online movies either and it's totally not worth the price for these things. I think that it was perfect when you just rented a video and we had a wonderful time back then.
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