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There was a time in American history when parents who wanted a night to themselves would drive their children to a video rental store, where those children could browse through categorized rows of hard-copy movies as a way to keep them busy while their exhausted progenitors had some wine and maybe even an after dinner cocktail for once in their fucking lives. That era has officially ended. From the LA Times:
After dominating the home video rental business for more than a decade and struggling to survive in recent years against upstarts Netflix and Redbox, Blockbuster Inc. is preparing to file for bankruptcy next month, according to people who have been briefed on the matter.
Blockbuster is hoping to use its time in Chapter 11 to restructure a crippling debt load of nearly $1 billion and escape leases on 500 or more of it 3,425 stores in the U.S. Maintaining the support of Hollywood’s film studios during the process will be critical so that Blockbuster can continue to rely upon an uninterrupted supply of new DVDs.
Blockbuster has lost a total of $1.1 billion since the beginning of 2008 and has been severely hamstrung in efforts to grow its business due to interest payments on $920 million in debt. Earlier this month the company announced that most of its debt holders had agreed to a forbearance on interest payments until Sept. 30, during which time it would attempt a recapitalization.
Man, I don’t understand THREE QUARTERS of the words in that article. I think that what it means is children these days are going to have to continue not giving a shit about movies in favor of designer drugs and streaming trampoline accidents to their BlueTooth eye-chips. END OF AN ERA. Now I know how Littlefoot felt in the Land Before Time. Incidentally, the photo used to illustrate this post is of a woman in Liberia using a VHS drop box as an oven to feed her family. LOL. The poor people of the world are going to be devastated to hear about how Blockbuster needs to rewrite its licensing arrangements with major Hollywood studios and amoritize its debts in order to slim down and remain competitive against upcoming rental services like Netflix and Redbox. They will also be devastated by their lack of access to potable water and medical services.
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I had a brilliant idea that could have saved Blockbuster, but I still resent them for that one time they charged me $74 in late fees so I kept it to myself.
Yeah, they get mad when you don’t return the first season of Desperate Housewives.
“People love TV! Let’s charge them $5 per DVD to rent a 4-disc box set of Desperate Housewives. They’ll never catch on and we’ll be rich!” –Former CEO of Blockbuster
I believe that was probably the current CEO as well
This is karma for all the mom-and-pop video stores they put out of business
The city in which I live has seen Hollywood Video, Movie Gallery, and now Blockbuster all come and go, and yet the independent store with sections like “Kung Fu” and “Mondo Cinema” has been in business as long as I’ve been alive, and still is. And it’s in a basement.
Does this mean all video store employees are being released back into the world? Hide your video games, nerds.
Instead of releasing them, Blockbuster will be selling its former employees as previously viewed, for quite a discount from the market value!
OK, one bad joke about selling other human beings is enough for a Friday. I’ll see myself out.
I STILL have late fees at Blockbuster. I’m sure I’ve contributed, in some small way, to its demise. Oh well. Back to watching keyboard cats view double rainbows all the way! So good! Requisite gif here.
“Blockbuster has lost a total of $1.1 billion since the beginning of 2008 and has been severely hamstrung in efforts to grow its business due to interest payments on $920 million in debt.”
Tomatobank strikes again!
My brain always mixed up Blockbuster with Best Buy and Kinko’s of all places. I knew where I was going— what my destination actually was— but when I would state my business people would look at me confused because no one goes to Blockbuster to make photocopies.
It hasn’t happened in a while though, as I don’t frequent any of those stores anymore. I do it all from home because the future is now.
There are a lot of R.I.P.’s today. The Fishers must be overwhelmed.
cannot upvote faster or with more sincerity.
Michael C. Hall will never be anyone but Dexter to me, so I was confused at first but then I substituted “Morgans” for “Fishers” and it still made sense. That guy has kind of a creepy career.
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Everything you say mystifies me. We clearly do not live in the same circle of references.
Kids in the Hall had a character called Cancer Boy played by Bruce MacCulloughk (sp?) and the Dexter guy successfully fought and won his personal battle against cancer so I am celebrating that victory with an obscure reference to a classic comedy skit. Sorry you do not pick up on my Dennis Miller brand of comedy stylings, friend.
“Did you see? Did you see the scientist and me?”
Why couldn’t the executives at Blockbuster foresee this happening? I mean they couldn’t have created a down-sizing strategy after every Blockbuster in the Mid-West was turned into a P.F. Changs or Pottery Barn?
Or a Cosi…or a Burlington Coat Factory. Whut up, Chicago!
Save big money at Menard’s, friend
In WA, I keep seeing Blockbusters and Hollywood Videos turning into liquor stores. It’s only because people haven’t figured out a way to illegally download and stream booze…..yet.
In WI they are empty buildings. So many empty buildings.
If only they kept investing in brilliant ideas like this they would’ve stayed above water:
God damn it, yes.
My childhood, summarized in one photo.
Actually if we were to really summarize my childhood in one photo it would involve a lot of clandestine masturbation to the dirty parts of my mother’s romance novels, but I don’t think anyone needs to see that.
I’ll give one thing to Blockbuster, their employees always gave the best recommendations. Anytime I was in the mood to see a movie, but didn’t have anything in particular in mind, I’d ask one of the dudes (always a dude) working there for a suggestion and was never disappointed.
That’s probably because all the dudes working at Blockbuster looked like they had no lives and did nothing but watch movies all night.
One I was at Blockbuster with a few other friends, and we all became obsessed with this one guy who worked there because his employee picks were so good. We would always ask after him and tell him how cool his picks were and we were very concerned with what he thought about our selections.
Super glad all my friends are all as totally crazy as I am.
Fake (and Gay, come to think of it)
I haven’t been in a Blockbuster in like forever, but I will always miss overhearing the awesomely inane conversations between couples who inevitably spent an excruciating amount of time yelling to each other across the store as they agonized over whether to get The Abyss or Jury Duty. RIP, good times.
“What do you think honey? Sliding Doors or….”
The Hunt for the Most Beloved Videogum Gif of All Time: The Conclusion.
have you BEEN to corgi’s on a treadmill?
i thought we retired this gif.
Both of the Blockbuster movies that I kept too long, got charged 2x full price for “losing”, caused me to never go to another video rental store, and still sit on my movie shelf are BOTH on the WMOAT list.
sad trombone sound
I vowed never to go to a video rental store again after my wife rented The Heights (whatever that is) from Blockbuster, which we subsequently lost, and Blockbuster charged us $40 some dollars for. I actually found it later, attempted to return it for some of my money back, was denied, and threw the stupid movie away without ever watching it.
I always hated Blockbuster anyway, and have no sympathy for a company whose business model was predicated on a product that must have broken even after a single rental, late fees that defied all logic, and miminum wage employees, who still finds itself in billion dollar debt.
I mourned the brick n mortar video rental business when Mondo Kim’s sold their video collection to some town in Italy or something, I forget. Things done changed.
Mondo Kim’s. Never forget.
I’m guessing a lot of khakis will be hitting thrift store racks soon.
There’s still Target!
There were two Blockbusters in my home town. We basically only ever went to one, but sometimes we ended up at the other. At some point, we accidentally returned something to the further away one, and after a while were notified of a monstrous late fee. This was the moment of banishment. From then on, whenever someone in the family would be looking for something at the Blockbuster we were allowed at and not find it, there was a moment of silence as we considered attempting to break through our banishment, but we never took the leap.
Let’s relive our favorite Blockbuster memories!
One time I returned a movie without the DVD in the case. I didn’t realize it until the next day when I turned on opened my DVD player and saw Memento still sitting there. I was a little worried that they would charge me late fees, but when I went to return it the guy working there looked at the DVD and made some lame Memento reference (memory problems, moving backward, etc.). I forced a laugh and slowly backed away before he could bring up late fees.
That may have been my last time in a Blockbuster…
My favorite memory is when my parents approved me to rent rated R movies when I was 14. I thought i was the shiiiiiiitttttt.
*approved me on the account, as to not be given a hard time by the nerdy guy behind the counter.
Blockbuster was one of those “family chains” that carried movies that had been re-edited by studios to be more “family-friendly.” Hell with them.
Yes, there was that whole fiasco with The People Vs. Larry Flint where they either didn’t carry it or carried a heavily edited version. I demand to see everything!
The thing I will say about Blockbuster is they had an EXCELLENT deal bin. 2 movies for $20, or 4 for $20, something like that. However, I bought a copy of Birth from the bin that was labeled $2.99, and when I returned to rent movies 2 weeks later, they were like, “You’ve had Birth for 2 weeks and owe us a ton of money” and I was like, “Uh, no, I bought it from the bin. They didn’t charge me, but I always felt like they just had no clue what was going on there RIVETING STORY
Watching a movie from Blockbuster and then watching the same movie years later from anywhere else could be like watching an entirely different film. Male frontal nudity was a no-go, but vampire erotica was widely available for some reason?
Those copies of Bikini Babes #4: Back in the Wild are going to go to a good home.
I am getting so many Red Shoe Diaries.
Damn Gabe.
Damn grimakins, way to produce a well thought-out comment on the hilarity of third world poverty.
I never had a Blockbuster card, so I rented movies by impersonating my mother. One time, while renting The English Patient double VHS (for real), I handed over my mom’s card. I guess they only had my dad’s info, with my mom showing up only as “spouse” on whatever high tech computer system they used. The exchange went like so:
Blockbuster employee: Are you Linda?
Me: Yes.
BE: You’re Linda?
Me: Yes.
BE: You’re married to someone born in 1947?
Me: Yes.
BE: Ooooh. No judgement. Just asking.
I was 14 at the time.
Do you have to polish your brass balls, or are they just naturally lustrous?
I used to use my mom’s card all the time when I was 12, but it was probably easier to get away with since we had the same haircut.
Used to be that when a video or record store went out of business, I’d get excited about the final sale. These days, physical discs are just another thing to dust around and worry about packing the next time I move. I don’t think I’d take them if they gave them away.
I actually work at Blockbuster (only on the weekends though. I’m a normal human being on the weekdays.) When I saw this article my heart skipped a beat because I was really excited that I might not have to go to work tonight. I think I’m still going to have to go. Oh well.
I feel like some sort of time-traveler. I didn’t have a home answering machine until 2000, one year before I got a cell phone. I didn’t get a cell phone with a camera until 2005, the same year that I bought my very first computer. From all this, you would assume that I am a ninety-one-year-old grandmother, crouching in my cat-covered sofa to hide from all the technology. But I am only thirty.
All that to say: I still go to Blockbuster, along with all of the other people stuck in the early 90′s. Where am I going to get my movies now?
Oh, to be young again. I remember what it was like when I first met Netflix. To experience that again…
Enjoy, young Baby. Enjoy.
But don’t you have to wait for the DVDs to come in the mail?
I still own a VHS too. I’m cold, and there are wolves after me.
You do, but they come extremely fast. LADIES.
Seriously though, if I put my current DVD in the mail on Monday I can usually get the next one by Wednesday. And the Instant Play selection (streaming through Netflix.com) is getting better and better every day.
I feel like I’m on a rocketship, whizzing through space. Now, if you’ll excuse me I have to use my Jitterbug to page my phrenologist. We’re going to powder our knees and hit the speakeasy for some cool gin and hot jazz.
I was about to tell you that you can stream your watch instantly movies on your ps3, but, well…in due time, I guess. But seriously, it’s the best.
I’m sure I will get the hang of it. But by the time I do, I’ll be too much like this to watch movies:
Straight chillin’, you guys!
Ack! It really wasn’t a large image I swear. Spoiler alert: it was a skeleton.
There’s always RedBox, but if that’s too hip for you, you can always check out* your local library!
*Haha…get it? Check out!
Looks like Redbox just came one step closer to ending the world in a conflagration of Furry Vengeances.
For some reason, Blockbuster always got my account confused with my dad’s. Even though I no longer lived at home when I opened my account and I didn’t even open it at the same Blockbuster location, they mixed up our phone numbers. My dad had a cast on his leg last summer and rented a lot of video games to pass the time (my dad is a 12 year old boy) and was always late returning them (can’t drive with a freaking cast on your leg). I kept getting calls from Blockbuster on a 000-000-0000 number with a recording reading out that I needed to return title Wii (pronounced “double-u-eye-eyyyye”) while he got off without any late charges. I will always remember how annoying Blockbuster was. Oh, the memories.
The last time I ever went to a Blockbuster, I rented like eight super girly movies. The Comic-Book-Guy at the counter said it was the worst selection ever, so I told him it was because my husband was away at Army and I was super sad about it. He said he was once in Army and charged me a total of $0.54 for my entire load. Plus free sympathy junior mints.
A week later, it was out of business.
And that’s why you always leave a note. Wait what? Where was I going with this?
Finally, some good news! Now to go counter-balance this elation by watching CNN read viewer comments on the Trade Center mosque non-issue.
When I was little and spent time at my grandmother’s I looked forward to going to Blockbuster. She had no cable, no air conditioning, and no VCR (IT SUKCED), so my mum would have to rent one from Blockbuster for us for the weekend. You always had to put a $100 deposit down and they came in these stupid blue plastic covers. I don’t why she never just bought a VCR…
anyway one time we rented A Time to Kill and my crackhead aunt took it. Blockbuster charged $100 for it (I don’t why they act like movies cost that much) and that was the end of that. Banished.
Hollywood Video was better anyway. At least they only charged $3.99 for a movie and you could keep it for 5 days. Not to mention they were cool with letting you get away with late fees. Sometimes they’d let you say “damn I don’t have the money now can I just pay a dollar?” and they’d always say “yeah pay the rest next time” and let you rent. F U Blockbuster!
haha I quit blockbuster a year ago…boo ya, ahead of the game!
So I guess I don’t have to return my copy of The Santa Clause now?