Wednesday, November 13, 2013

The End Of An Era: Blockbuster Officially Closed


For nearly 3 decades, the video rental industry has been dominated by one company, Blockbuster.  From VHS, to DVD, to Blu-Ray, and even video games, systems and other movie merchandise, Blockbuster has become a household name.  I remember spending many days in high school wandering around my local Blockbuster, in search of the perfect movie.  But those days are no more.

Opening their first store in Dallas, Texas in 1985, Blockbuster began paving the way for home video viewing.  The just two years later, in 1987, the company won a court case against Nintendo of America, Inc, which paved the way for the rental of video games.

Over the next several years, they expanded, becoming the largest video rental company in the world.  Then in 2000, they passed on an opportunity to purchase a fledgling video-by-mail company for only $50 million, that company being the now multi-billion dollar company, Netflix.  As video-by-mail and video streaming took off, Blockbuster fell behind, not starting their own until four years later.

Then in 2010, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy, and began closing stores.  These closures continued to happen until November 2013, when the last movie was rented out at a store in Hawaii.  That movie was the aptly titled, This Is The End.


Kids nowadays won't have the experience of searching the shelves for that one great movie.  It's something that will die with us...the Blockbuster Generation.


Blockbuster Video
R.I.P. 1985-2013

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