The Rise and Fall of Blockbuster? A Brief History of Blockbuster Video
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- Опубліковано 30 тра 2024
- Blockbuster Video was an industry giant, with thousands of stores across the world and a chokehold on movie and video game rental services. So what happened? Why did Blockbuster fail? And what impact did it have on the larger market? Your nostalgic love for the video store giant may not be as positive a thing as you want it to be...
Let's dive in to all of this with a brief history of Blockbuster Video, from its earliest days in Texas to its worldwide expansion, billions of dollars in revenue, and eventual bankruptcy.
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Redbox/Netflix/the internet/digital/streaming, is what eventually took BlockBuster out, it would have been a different story if blockbuster went the mailing route and then they should have had a streaming service, they also OBVIOUSLY NEEDED to move MUCH faster, with ALL of these transitions, I think redbox, in the beginning, is what hurt Blockbuster the most, in the beginning anyway, and also Netflix by mail and then streaming/digital, also slow inovation/adapation.
Blockbuster could have used their physical locations as hubs/warehouses/distribution centers, in the beginning, but you can't compete with an automatic box/red box, even by mail takes longer than that, then a streaming service, released fast enough, would have been good, also when redbox is cutting prices, when a company has a building/employee expense/over head, thats a problem as well/a kiosk has A LOT less over head, convenience/subscriptions/packages/streaming was/is the future though.
It's odd to think, many years from now, Blockbuster will be seen as merely a small anecdote in history. At its peak, it was as ubiquitous with the middle class as Walmart. And yet, nowadays, even though millions of people are sad it's gone, I don't think many of them would be willing to trade the convenience of modern streaming with bringing the physical rental format back.
I’m all for physical media! But in terms of rentals, it’s obviously far easier to rent digitally or stream.
I miss Blockbuster. I mean, I still love buying and owning physical media, but there was something special about going to a store and renting a movie to see whether or not it’s good if I’ve not seen it and heard some thing about it. My family didn’t always go to Blockbuster, Family Video or any other sort of movie rental place, but going to such places was nice and I look back at those days quite fondly. Thank you for making this video Jeff, I hope you’re doing well. Keep up the great work and have a great rest of your day and a great weekend!
I loved going there because I became friends with the employees, and we would recommend movies and games to each other. It was a great time to be alive!
I feel the same way.
There one last left
@@thomasanthony4012what about Hollywood video
I used it a lot for video games
My best memory with Blockbuster was me in 2012 raiding every closing store in my city 😂
The key business lesson here is, "No one in America ever lost money by making things lazier."
I lived in a town that was too small for a Blockbuster. We had Video Vault, which was basically exactly like Blockbuster. I remember there was a curtain where adults would go to pick out dirty movies. It later became Movie Gallery. That’s what I remember the most. Finally, it became Family Video, which closed right before the pandemic. That was the last video store in my hometown.
Great video Jeff! I worked at Blockbuster on and off from 2007 to 2011. I was there to see it go from the top to the bottom. I remember in 2007 when I first started they were offering week long rentals for 2.99. I also remember the online rental service was actually a pretty sweet deal if you lived by a BB, because you could take your dvd mailer into the store to swap it out for a free rental but I think they ended that pretty quickly. It was one of the best jobs I ever had! Free movies and games whenever I wanted, and you could rent new movies a week before they released. I used to have so many cool posters/cardboard signage from so many movies over the years but I stupidly sold them at yard sales over the years. I did manage to hold onto a giant window poster of the original Iron man, as well as some cool Nintendo signage.
I miss the ma and pop video stores; those were the days I remember the popular slogan on the VHS tapes. "Be Kind and Rewind". Excellent video on Blockbuster! 🤗
Blockbuster was a big part of my childhood and even my cousin worked there and had fun telling customers about the movies and games. I rented SNES and PlayStation games. But even though Netflix was the biggest factor in killing Blockbuster, it wasn’t what actually bankrupted them, it was Blockbuster’s reluctance to digital distribution and their heavy investment on Blu Rays. Even though Blockbuster did make efforts in competing with Netflix, but it wasn’t about the revenue sharing with studios, which Netflix had over Blockbuster at that time.
Hollywood video was
@@donnellcoleman7784 I forgot about Hollywood Video, they weren’t in my neighborhood, but I did go there occasionally for used movies and video games.
Loving these quick history videos! Man, I miss rental stores so much - I too used it for game rentals. Never a week where we didn't have a rental video or game in the house!
I worked in Blockbuster for years back in the day. I live in a small town and on a Friday or Saturday night the store would be absolutely full of people. It was a place people came to hang out and chat as well as renting movies etc. I still see some of the guys that worked there and all of us say the same thing, it was the best job we ever had. Great times and a real shame what has happened to retail across the board. Cheers Jeff, good video mate.
One of my favorite places man I have to explain to my kids how this feels now it’s been gone for almost 15 years
I was born as a long time ago, I am a 92 year old Japanese man who lives in Hawaii.
So I have lived through it all and I miss blockbuster
I'm 40. And i still remember like it was yesterday riding my bike to my local blockbuster and renting a N64 game.... awesome!
I remember going to Blockbuster as a kid on a regular basis, that fresh popcorn smell when you enter the store was definitely something. Sadly the last time I entered was the closing down sale from that specific store back in 2014, all blu rays were gone, mediocre DVD's at best were still available... and even the shelves and furniture were up for sale.
Fun fact, I still have Gossip Girl Season 4 on DVD with the full custom Blockbuster rental cover for it 😂, I even recreated a template of it on Photoshop. Might do a modified one for blu ray cases.
My local video store had a 5 movies, 5 days, for $5 deal on their older movies. My mom would take me during the summer and man, I would try to find the best 5 movies and watch the heck out of them. I loved watching movies as a kid.
The fact that Blockbuster is down to one store is shocking! People still love be physical media and that is how movies and music will survive
I stopped by this past Tuesday and bought a couple of stickers. My name is Bicycle Bob and I approved this message.
Worked there for 8 years. Still remember my employee number. Great memories.
Growing up in the early 2000s, I had a Blockbuster in my small English town. Whenever I went out as a kid, I used to drop by and just browse for however long I was allowed to. Films were upstairs and video games lay in the basement. I actually rented more video games than films. The store had a quick drop mailbox you used to send rentals back. I had no idea it was a global brand and to my tiny brain, I was sure it was the only one of its kind in the UK. In the early 2010’s when it was announced the company was closing, my store proudly limped on. I want to say it finally closed around 2012 and an off licence now stands in its place. All that remains of my favourite childhood store is the old rental mailbox, that has been taped over and rusted over time. God I miss it.
You should do a history video of Hollywood Video.
good idea!
Suncoast too!
Jeff, something new. I REALLY enjoyed that. A brief history and walk down memory lane. Thank you!
You can still experience some of the joy of physical media rental by heading down to your local library. Plus it's free :).
I live 90 MIN from THE LAST BLOCKBUSTER. That was my store for years, awesome owner who been OG foreverrrrrrrrrr. Miss my store!
I use to hide the case for the game or movie I wanted in the kids video section earlier in the week and I would grab it Friday night for the weekend. Good times!
Great job, very professional. Definitely remember calling my local store and asking them to check the return bin just in case… :-)
Nice work Jeff. I have fond memories of going to blockbuster but also mom and pop stores as well. Both still existed at the same time where I lived.
I love seeing docmentary content like this on your channel. Great job, Jeff.
Back in ‘95-‘96 we had a nice size privately owned video rental store. I think what kept them going was the large adult section they had.
They had everything new in quantity but I think the adult stuff was the bread & butter that kept them going for so long.
As greedy as they were, in shutting down local mom & pop video stores, you gotta admit, Blockbuster made a huge impact in the world of Home Video. Which is why my Physical Media library, in the living room, since 2022, includes homage items that pay tribute to Blockbuster, as a way to remind myself of the glory days of Home Video, through Blockbuster.
By the way, Great video, Jeff.
In my area, we had Family Video. Family Video lasted until the covid lockdowns.
I used to go Blockbuster video store as a kid whenever I want to see some new and old movies during the 2000s until early the 2010s. I do have Blu-rays still from Blockbuster before it closed down and I still wear a Blockbuster T-Shirt to this day to remember the video store. I miss them very much from my childhood.
I knew they were in trouble when DVDs arrived and for a L-O-N-G time I had more titles in my DVD collection than my local Blockbuster carried.
I don’t think we ever had a local Blockbuster. We had several Video vision stores and a Mr Movie. I finally had to quit renting movies as I never seemed able to return them onto time and constantly had a late fee.
I think you made a good point regarding Blockbuster's rejection of the offer to buy Netflix early on. They could have screwed it up just as bad as they ended up doing to themselves. Netflix succeeded because they embraced new technology and business models and Blockbuster failed because they were unwilling or unable to do so.
I remember rushing down to Blockbuster on a Friday after school in the UK around 2000-3 trying to get the latest game release, was always already fully rented out lol
I miss Blockbuster stores...but I miss the Mom-and-Pop stores more.... On The Sopranos, Christopher Moltesanti said that he got high from the MIX OF SMELLS in the store -- the carpet and popcorn. If you know anything about The Sopranos, you will remember.
I remember as a kid Mum would take me and my brother to Video-Ezy for the new release family film for the weekend and we’d grab a pizza at the restaurant next door, Video Ezy was the big rental chain in Australia and they bought the rights to Blockbuster’s Australian operations.
By the mid 2010’s we were mainly streaming stuff or renting digitally and Video-Ezy completely shut down in 2016 after Blockbuster’s ending in 2011 or so, I think a local law firm is now in the building where our the store used to be.
While there’s greater convenience in having films available in an instant at home with the Internet and streaming, I miss the days of going to the store to browse and pick out a movie and it’s sad the demise of physical media had a big flow-on affect onto the types of movies that were being made, comedies and mid-budget movies were made with the vision in that even if they didn’t do great at the box office they could still bring word-of-mouth and big profits off of physical media rentals and sales. Most of the films we saw in the 1990’s and heading into the 2000’s there’s just not the appetite to make today.
The death of Blockbuster and the removal of physical media from Best Buy still depress me and will continue to do so for a while I think. These places were my go to for social interactions with friends and strangers alike.
Barnes and Noble is another store that was part of that. I hope it doesn’t share the same fate as Blockbuster.
Thank you Jeff. 🙏🏻
In 1990 I got my first home theatre A/V system, surround sound was new to me but I had a Laser Disc player as part of my system which also created a need for playback material, and there it was “LASERLAND” where I could rent movies with record size shiny discs and great cover art work, so I bought some but the cost was a bit much so I mostly rented. Then DVD’s were the new it thing and LD’s were phased out, technology is always changing. BD, 4K HDR UHD and on and on……
Cool video, Jeff. I miss the VHS days, but I'm not nostalgic for Blockbuster Video.
They put too many Mom and Pops out of business.
I never had a ton of nostalgia for BlockBuster, near me we didn't have one maybe till after the 2000s so I went to it but wasn't the main place we rented from, We had a HollywoodVideo much closer near me which I LOVED and then a place in the local walmart that you could rent from as well. But I did most of my renting at Holywood Video and I liked how the store was HUGE.
The town I grew up in was small with just a mom and pop shop. But the town over was a bit bigger and had TWO rental stores. Video Unlimited and Family Video. The “big city” had blockbuster. I had zero experience with it until I worked at a Family Video in a college town and had to take accidental returns from my store to Blockbuster right down the street. Then it just closed one day. And yet somehow Family Video only recently closed all of their shops.
Yes the same Family Video from Stranger Things. I grew up in Indiana after all.
I agree it was a missed opportunity but I personally believe the innovation by Netflix likely wouldn't of happened under Blockbuster's umbrella. As you pointed out, they invested and tried to diversify in other areas and none of it became big. This is a leadership issue. Netflix grew because it faced stronger headwinds and had to thrive under the pressure to succeed, which wouldn't of been the case if they were bought out by Blockbuster. Who really knows what would've happened, but what we do know is the leadership at Blockbuster at the time became complacent in their operations.
I worked for Blockbuster in 2000-2001. I still recall my membership number by heart. If the last BB wasn't so far away, I would go to it and ask if I could use my old membership number! LOL
Our next blockbuster experience is gonna be a virtual reality recreation owned by a streaming service where you get to pick 1 movie per day and there is only a certain 100 movie selection the changes every week.
I am really enjoying this new style of video. Keep up the great work!
Great history session on Blockbuster. I'm one of the many former customers who loved renting movies in person and truly miss that interactive/social experience. I still prefer going to a book store inside of purchasing books online or through a kindle, likewise I like to purchase electronics from Bestbuy whenever I can. Blockbuster's demise is all based on greed, arrogance, and a lack of "outside of the box" thinking. You could also include Hollywood Video in this corporate downfall as well....
I miss blockbuster. I got a lot of DVD’s for my kids when they were young for the player in my wife’s minivan.
im only 17 , but i do rmb sometimes goin to a blockbuster where i lived at in texas w/ my ppl . it wasn’t until recently det i noticed how the store doesn’t exist anymore which makes me a lil sad .
This unfortunately reminds me that watching movies just isn’t as fun anymore. I’m not saying movies themselves aren’t fun, but the act of watching them isn’t. In the past, it used to be much more of an event. You went out to a movie with your friends and talked about it after. Or, you went to the rental store, maybe got some snacks, and then came back and enjoyed it with your friends/family. These days with streaming, you push a button a few times, and that’s it. More convenient, yes, but not nearly as memorable.
Blockbuster briefly tried the kiosk thing at the time Red Box did, but it didn’t last long at all.
I worked at Texas blockbuster 97-98, loved it and we had endcaps with employee selection
Hollywood video is better
I never rented from Blockbuster, and only rented from Hollywood video a couple of times. My primary place of rentals started with a local business called Video Warehouse, which later became part of a local chain called Video Update. Over time, the chain became Movie Gallery. Once Netflix came into my life, I very rarely went back to Movie Gallery. I don't remember if I stopped going before or after they went out of business.
The funny thing is you can go to the public library and get any movie for free for a week or tv series for 3vweeks. Then renew it twice with no late fees now(at least in my state)
I remember some local video rental outlets; I rented mostly to BLOCKBUSTER, however; my head wasn't on straight to support local businesses more, but I did support a local bookstore, so I wasn't all bad.
Great retrospective! I was wondering if you were going to mention Hollywood Video which was a west coast chain that copied Blockbusters model and stole some of their market share but eventually suffered the same fate
Netflix just dropped Godzilla minus one . They are the king of streamers worldwide. 25 years ago I would have rented it a local video store.
We didn't have Blockbuster in my little south Alabama town, but nearby was headquarters for Movie Gallery located in Dothan, AL. So Movie Gallery competed quite well with Blockbuster before drowning in same pool as big brother.
Cool and informative little Doc thanks for sharing.
I remember on their last years my dad paying for a subscription to be able to trade movies daily. Man during the summer my brother and I would walk down the street and keep changing movies all the time. We didn’t have internet for a good while so while people were on Netflix we kept renting till they closed it down
I miss the pre Blockbuster era, when the video stores were more cozy and homey. Blockbuster is the McDonald's of video stores.
I miss Blockbuster. We had a Blockbuster and a Hollywood Video across the street from each other. The weird thing is we would go to both sometimes. If Blockbuster didn't have what we were looking for we would go to Hollywood Video and see if they had it. Sometimes they did and sometimes they didn't.
Great watch, blockbuster was a big part of my childhood like many!
Mine was front row video Crooksville Ohio aww the memories
*Lovin these video topics!*
🤙🏽🤟🏽🤙🏽
I miss browsin Blockbusters for possible straight-to-dvd cult classics.
Interestin take on the net negative, I hadn't thought about the independants, you've given me somethin to think about, not just romanticise Blockbuster without seein the bigger picture, thanks!
I loved going to the Hardware/Video Store it was a great time to be alive!
Jeff@:02 The Address is near my where I went to HS in Oak Lawn, such coincidence. Although now live in Northern California.
If blockbuster bought it for $50 million before it offered streaming, who’s to say netflix would be where it is today. Netflix may never have done streaming if owned by Blockbuster.
I have a blockbuster exclusive DVD in my collection, it's the movie miss Potter on it. The jewel case as well sleeve and the card inside of it advertised how to rent video threw the mail or in store.
How long until we see this for Redbox? I just saw one in my local grocery store that was shut down. Searching online indicates that isn't just an isolated instance.
Good video but there were a LOT of other mitigating factors involved in the company going under.
I remember when copys of mega man legends 2 was out copys to rent.
I have fond memories of Blockbuster but as an adult, I don’t get the love. They killed the mom & pop stores, corporatized rentals and ultimately led us to streaming. It would be like being a fan of Walmart.
1985-2014 was peak America
please please please can you do a home video history on apocalypse now
I can drive to Blockbuster right now so idk what you're talking about
My Oregon Bend store is still open alive and well
Imagine where physical media would be today if Netflix never existed 👀
You did forget that the website came back online and there was new stores opening up in California. So Blockbusters hasn't officially died and I don't know if bringing it back it was a good idea or a bad idea. It's cool to see that California is getting it and who knows if it will ever be Nationwide like it was originally and how well it will do now that Digital streaming is picked up and that's what everybody else is doing
Those were like pop-up events. The website is still dead
The Blockbuster in Bend Oregon is still open and functioning.
How i built my movie collection
Next up funcoland aka gamestop😮
I still have my card lol
You’re a better person than most people Lee, take it from a 92 year old Japanese man who lives in Hawaii
On netflix the last blockbuster
Blockbuster killed every store then took a suicide
The reason game rentals eventually failed is because games got too long.
This subject has already beaten to Death on youtube c'mon
Typical corporate America!
It had to go. That rental format was becoming outdated.
I think it had a chance to make a comeback!
Blockbuster made a lot of success here in Brazil as well! I really miss those golden days of movie renting. It was a ritual, mom would drive us to the store after school and we would pick our movies and games for the weekend 🥹
Bons tempos!!