Say Goodbye to Blockbuster in 2011?

I always thought of Blockbuster as the over priced HMV of video rental stores, and hence only ventured in when they were having a sale on old stock. The local independent newsagents usually had a cheaper video rental service upstairs or in the basement, and tended to have more variety - i.e. not just 40 copies of each mainstream new release and a token back catalogue (at least in the UK anyway).

The best video rental store I ever went to was a place called Jubilee Video in Ashton-Under-Lyne. That place had this vast basement with practically every UK video release imaginable no matter how obscure. On top of all that the place was run by an older guy who had seen everything down there and would chat to you and recommend really cool stuff. I learnt a lot from renting there and was gutted when the place closed down.

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100 Favourites From The Future: REWIRED

Ours aren't bad in their selection (ie, they've got a fair selection of non-English titles, mainly Tartan releases but, hey) and, as you say, their sales are generally good.

That said, I've not been in an actual Blockbuster for years. In Ireland the chain is Xtravision but as they've only recently been sold by Blockbuster I'd imagine the layout of the stores is very similar indeed. They've been selling more and more electrical goods recently (MP3 players, cameras, games consoles, TVs etc) to try and head off the drop in rental income but they're a bit hit and miss in terms of pricing.

There was a great video rental store in Omagh in the 80s but my mate bought it out and turned it into a record shop.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

agreed.. I think it's also because of alternative entertainment, like video games. Some games like Call of Duty 4, on the opening wknd sold 300 million, more than most big budget movies. Also the number of movie rental places have increased too, in Canada there're rogers videos, zip.ca and many other.. I'm sure there're more in the states. Also don't forget on demand services, that was quite disruptive too since for new movies it might be rented out in blockbuster, but it'll be available from 'on demand' services.

The last time I was in a Blockbuster there rates were outrageous and I think people started to go to the next best alternative at the time which was Netflix. Netflix was cheaper and although you had to send in the movies and there was a waiting time people with the economy went with the cheaper route. Now the Red Box and other similar film distribution centers provide an even cheaper alternative which is beneficial to most people in the economy we are living in today.

Blockbuster techniques simply allow you to be more attuned to the popular audience you must serve if you want to sell your material.
One of the most important blockbuster elements is what I call the 'double track line.' Hit films always have a character line and an action line, or, to put it another way, a personal story and a case to be solved.
The character line, or personal story, refers to some kind of struggle the hero must go through to make a character change and grow as a human being.
The action line, or case, involves the trouble the hero must deal with to save the day.
The audience wants to see both of these lines play out over the course of the story. Having only the personal line gives you a 'character study.' Having only the action line gives you a 'plot piece.' Neither will be a popular success.
Caution: some writers try to write a hit film by going strictly for the action line. They figure they'll cut out the slow personal stuff up front where the hero's weaknesses are expressed and go right to the non-stop action. They've just made a pact with the devil. While they may gain some speed up front, they have just blown the payoff of the movie.

As of Saturday (or sometime around that), Blockbuster will officially file for bankruptcy

hello closing stores

Here in Canada Blockbuster was never that big anyways. I have not see one since I was a kid. We have Rogers Video.

I found it ridiculous that Blockbuster would charge so much for their movies. I lived in Florida and if it wasn't a new release it was .99. Then I moved to Chicago and movies that were out for a few years still cost $4.99 to rent. Not right. I'll go to Walmart and buy it for $8.

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I don't feel sorry for them at all. Blockbuster put many small mom-and-pop stores out of business when they first "rose to power".

I'll play the Big Bad Conservative and say that that doesn't bother me much. If a mom-and-pop store goes out of business, it's because it can't compete. I feel about as sorry as I would have for buggy manufacturers' when the internal combustion engine was invented.

Anyway, Blockbuster's not going out of business because mom-and-pop took night classes and got MBAs, it's going out of business because Netflix and Redbox are destroying them. So if one's loyalty is to small video shops, this isn't better or worse; just a different name, and a lot of red envelopes instead of blue cases.

At least Small Good Liberals have some feelings.

Bad comparison. Two different technologies.

But I know, the "free market" must rule and roll over whoever/whatever gets in its way.

...unless they can get bailed out by the government.

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"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo.

Don't get me started with that. That's where I part company with both parties.

Indeed! They care about the welfare of people and animals and trees and certain kinds of rocks and we only care about money and money. Also, we hate poor people and minorities. Women we tolerate for procreation. So, basically, if a conservative ever runs into an infertile black woman who runs an independent video store, they hiss and flee like a vampire from sunlight.

There is, of course, a difference between "this is fair, inevitable, and probably good in the long run," which is my position, and "I don't care about these adorable old people at all and have no sympathy for their plight," which is the stereotypical conservative position.

I'm not sure if there's much meaningful distinction between technology in a gadget sense, and in a delivery mechanism sense. Both are about providing something cheaper, faster, and/or better than the old way. The assembly line was as much an innovation as the automobile, so making more movies more available to more people is, in many ways, a technological increase above the limited (and, on average, farther away) selection of an independent store.

It has value in other ways, of course, just not as much to people as a whole. Technology is both the product itself, and its availability, be it through lower costs or better proximity.

This makes the free market sound like a cold, single-minded entity, rather than the name we give letting people make independent choices. It only seems devious when most people make choices different from our own, though. Nobody's mad at the "free market" for making cheap bread instead of, I dunno, tree bark, but at a fundamental level it's the same thing: most people want the former rather than the latter, so that's what we get.

Of course, it doesn't sound so sinister (or unreasonable) if you say "things most people want get made more than things less people want."

The Blockbuster Video Living Museum offers tourists a glimpse of how Americans rented movies before the advent of services like Netflix and iTunes



move over civil war re-enactors..coming soon.. the be kind rewind role-play..lol

Well, now you've changed your tune a bit, because the bolded part above sounds more like your previous statement:

But I can see where this is leading so once again I will steal a line from the MCP: End of line.

Sure, but it "doesn't bother me much" because it's "fair, inevitable, and probably good in the long run." That outweighs everything else, though it doesn't indicate a complete lack of human emotion or sympathy. In other words, it's on net, if that makes sense.

It probably sounds a little colder than I meant for it to, but then again, I was being a little (I thought obviously) facetious with the whole thing, as you can probably tell from my sarcasm in the following post. Incidentally, it's a good thing Michael_10 isn't around, because that paragraph would have made his head explode in a fit of rage.

Anyway, I didn't mean to turn this into an analysis of free market economics, so yeah, no problem with letting it drop. But if someone wants to have at it, that's fine, too.

I assume he can still view the forum??? If so then it may still happen.

make your own thread you supply side economic whoremonger !!

I posted a downright funny satirical take on the blockbuster. its above a few posts.

the onion hits a hom-run again.