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The end has finally come. Please post your store closing info, Blu Ray/Dvd bargains and final goodbyes.



Blockbuster to close U.S. retail stores, mail DVD operation

Roger Yu, USA TODAY 6:29 p.m. EST November 6, 2013




AP Dish Blockbuster Store Closings

(Photo: Scott Anderson AP)

Story Highlights
Stores will close by early January next year
Mail DVD operation to close by mid-December
Parent company Dish Network hopes to "leverage the brand"


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It's the last picture show for Blockbuster.

The retail company that introduced millions of Americans to stay-home movie nights said Wednesday it will close its 300 remaining U.S. stores by early January next year. Its DVD-by-mail business, introduced as a competitor to Netflix, also will be shut down by mid-December.

"This is not an easy decision, yet consumer demand is clearly moving to digital distribution of video entertainment," said Joseph Clayton, CEO of Dish Network, Blockbuster's parent company. "Despite our closing of the physical distribution elements of the business, we continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand, and we expect to leverage that brand as we continue to expand our digital offerings."

Dish Network, which offers satellite pay-TV service, said it will retain licensing rights to the Blockbuster brand and, for now, its vast video library.

"Blockbuster has no brand," said Dan Rayburn, an analyst at StreamingMedia.com. "Consumers stopped thinking about the brand a long time ago. Why did they take so long to close?"

Dish plans to focus on its Blockbuster @Home business, a streaming service available to Dish pay-TV customers for an extra fee.

Blockbuster On Demand, its streaming service for the general public, also will continue to operate. "The quantity of movies (for Blockbuster On Demand) is so limited," Rayburn said. "Some of them are not even on (high-definition). It's not even a real service. You can't put it up there with Vudu or Netflix or Hulu."

Dish Network bought Blockbuster in April, 2011 in an auction for $320 million as Blockbuster was emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Dish's plan at the time was to leverage its more than 1,700 store locations to offer in-store rentals that would complement Dish's other video offerings. "Cross-marketing and service-extension opportunities" were mentioned by Dish.

But competitive pressures and adapting to the rapidly changing streaming technology proved to be too daunting for Blockbuster's management, as video lovers continue to flock to Netflix, YouTube and other start-up streaming sites. Cheaper kiosk rental locations, such as Redbox, undercut its prices.

Dish continued to close stores throughout the country. Its rental library was cut in half in the last year, down to 41.5 million units of DVDs and games as of June from 81.9 million a year earlier.

Blockbuster's revenue fell to $120 million in the second quarter, less than half the $253.3 million it generated in the year-ago period.

"It's an interesting footnote to business history. (Dish) thought (Blockbuster) had a longer tail than it did. But digital distribution happened faster than people may have thought," said Matthew Harrigan, a media analyst at Wunderlich Securities.

Living Deadpan

The PV DVDs & Blu-rays were $3.99 or lower when I stopped in Thurs. Fortunately they were patient and let me inspect the quality of each disc.

Picked up on DVD:
The ABC's of Death
Antiviral
The Corridor
Excision
The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh
Maniac (2012)
Stitches
V/H/S/2

Would have bought Kill List if it wasn't so scratched.


FYI: http://www.blockbuster.com/closingStores

Alan Smithee

Mine was trying to sell used DVD of "Hotel for Dogs" at 5 bucks a pop. I already have one I fished out from a Hollywood Video's dumpster that they couldn't even give away!

asianxcore

Does the price vary per store? I read on another website that most stores are at $4.99 at the moment.

I bought most of what I wanted the two times I stopped by my local store, but might make another trip next week.

Living Deadpan

I'm honestly not sure. I stopped at a different location on Monday and they were $5.99, but it sounds like Thursday is the day of the week when BB lowers their clearance prices.

asianxcore

Thanks for the heads up!

I'll stop by this coming Thursday to see what's left in the world of Horror, Cult & Foreign.

Steve

went in last night. ugh. disc only DVDs $2.99, disc only Blu-Rays $4.99! Most blu-rays at least $5.99 w/case. DVD's $4.99 with case.

Waay too high for used rentals, imho. my daughter wanted one, so I got it for her. Every copy of the DVD looked like it was used as a hockey puck. No way were these ever going to play. Ended up getting the blu-ray version. (that is an interesting side benefit of migrating to BR that I didn't expect - used BRs hold up significantly better than used DVDs).

Prices will have to go WAAY down for me to stop by. If they continue to go down $1/week, then I will wait until at least 3 more weeks to visit.

ymmv, of course.

DVD-Obsession

I bought 100 empty DVD & BR cases for $8. 8 cents each was worth it. They were 5 for $1 then 10 for a $1, so I asked the guy if I bought 100 can I get an additional discount. So spending $8 is still better than $10. Bring your own empty box to store them in your car, they didn't want to give out any empty boxes.

Living Deadpan

Yeah, I wished I waited a few days to buy V/H/S/2, Stitches & Last Will. I bought those Monday for $5.99.

I was surprised by the amount of indie-horror new releases they had. The stores closer to me that were phased out a couple of years ago didn't have nearly as much selection as these rather distant BB stores I visited in the last week. One can catch up on films from the last year released by the likes of Magnet/Magnolia, IFC Midnight and some more recent releases from Dark Sky Films (Frankenstein's Army, Stitches, Hypothermia, The Innkeepers).

I pretty much bought V/H/S/2 for the "Safe Haven" segment.

Alan Smithee

The one I went to was also trying to sell empty Eco-Cases- good luck with that!

sandman007

I got The Lifeguard for $4.99. Probably because it is a fairly new title but it looks brand new.

That'sAllFolks

I live almost across the street from one and I haven't been in there since before Thanksgiving. I guess I may stop by in a couple of days, but I don't expect to buy anything until the last week.

asianxcore

I did the same as you and bought some stuff at $5.99. I should have waited, but many were the only copies in the store ([REC]3, Pieta).

The closest store to where I live also had a lot of Indie Horror still left. Trying to get back as soon as I can, but I've been sick for over 2 weeks now

asianxcore

Checked out the San Pablo, CA store this evening. Out of the two stores closing within 25 miles from where I live, it was the only other store I hadn't been to.

They had a lot of great stuff left. $2.99 for DVDs and $3.99 for BDs. More 'recent' DVDs and BDs were $5.99 & $7.99 respectively, but there weren't much of those.

Picked Up:

We Need To Talk About Kevin (BD)
Kill List (DVD)
Excision (DVD)
Inbred (DVD)

Would picked up a bunch more, but many of the discs I ran into had stickers on the actual artwork

asianxcore

Rohnert Park, CA is at the same pricing as I mentioned above.

Stopped by today and picked up:

The Bling Ring (BD)
The Man With The Iron Fists (BD)
Stitches (DVD)
The Silence (DVD)

Living Deadpan

I stopped in again at a BB in Mesa, AZ. And, aside from Stitches, they still had available for $2.99 the DVDs I bought for $5.99 and $3.99! Plenty of copies of V/H/S/2 left (and V/H/S, for that matter).

I guess most BB patrons aren't into indie & foreign horror? There were still multiple copies remaining of [REC]2 and [REC]3. Plenty of copies of Frankenstein's Army (which, while not a masterpiece, has some cool moments). I bought the last copy of Antiviral at another location, but this one had 4 copies!

I have to say this final round isn't nearly as fun as it was bargain hunting the first 2 waves of Blockbuster closeout sales, or the Hollywood Video closeouts prior to that. They seem to have phased out a lot of their Asian horror flicks. I remember a few years ago BB had many more Tartan Asia Extreme DVDs, for instance.

Good luck finding any Criterions at the remaining BBs.

Living Deadpan

Stopped in one last time today (Mesa, AZ). All PV DVDs & BDs were $1.00 and the signs said the store would only be open for 4 more days.

DVDs I picked up for $1:

Absentia
Animals
Antiviral
Byzantium
Curandero - Dawn of the Demon
Entrance
A Hijacking
Kill List
The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh
Manborg
Maniac (2012)
Micmacs
Nailbiter
No One Lives
[REC]2
Storage 24
Sushi Girl

Googlesurfer

Blockbuster was overpriced. Why pay $4 for a new release when it's easy to find for $1?

Alan Smithee

Saw some "store operations" binders at one Blockbuster- unfortunately they were empty. I've got a couple from Hollywood Video though, they're pretty funny.

Living Deadpan

I worked for HV back around 2000. What's in their binders?

What was really dreadful were the days we had to show up before the store opened to watch one of their horrid employee training videos. Once they had a Christmas video which contained bloopers, footage of the HV president & higher-ups screwing up line readings and laughing. We're there at 8 in the morning watching the least funny bloopers on Earth, none of us are laughing.

I don't recall watching this one, fortunately: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REeQqQnNW7M

drmar35mm

I made my last BB visit to the last open store I knew of about 6 weeks ago; found nothing at a price I liked. It's coming up on 2 years since I bought anything at a BB. BB is now for the history books.

story

I thought the closing was today, not yesterday. Oops, oh well.