Double_Oh_7

Looks like the end for the former rental giant in 2011.

http://www.cinematical.com/2010/07/1...uster-in-2011/

stingermck

Booo. Not an official announcement.

mike07

I said goodbye to them last year when they closed the only two stores close by. Now, in the city where one was located has nothing but a box (RED, x2) to rent from. Screw that, I'm traveling a bit further to rent from a mom & pop shop (not that I rent all that much anymore).

EdTheRipper

This can't possibly come as a surprise to anyone.

Rainet

I surely won't miss them. As i rent BB online. However i'm trying to imagine having no videostores period. I have a pretty good radar for what seems to be a decent or bad flick when i go to the store and check out the back of the blu/dvds. Would it be harder to do this online? I don't know. I also find it easier to find hidden gems in the stores vs online. I actually used to stop by the store and make a list of movies i want to rent and then go home and add it to my online list.

Drav3n

My local BB is in its "closing days" now. Ill miss the convenience of paying $30-35 a month for unlimited movie and game rentals (which I abused like crazy!). My only physical place to rent from is Redbox, which I dont mind. I just wish it was possible to have a larger selection and offer blurays already.

Alan Smithee

I 'won' a $15 gift card for Blockbastard a couple months ago- I had to search a TON of stores before I finally found something I wanted to buy yesterday. They should start catering more to the people who want to BUY stuff- I don't rent and I don't buy used stuff (especially when it's more than what I can get the same title new for elsewhere!)

On a positive note, they may have finally given up on their ban on NC-17 rated movies, as the unedited Blu-Ray of "Showgirls" is available on their website (I might've bought it if they had it in store.) Still too little too late, and they need to be punished for their dumbing-down of the video market in the 90s.

Xbox69

nah nah nah nah . . . heyy heyy heyy . . .

Mr.Briggs

And people say that there is never any GOOD news.

asabase

I just got a Blockbuster Express Kiosk (even with a couple BluRays in it!). Won't miss the B&Ms but I like the new box - closer than the nearest RedBox to me.

The only lame part is $2 for BluRay vs. $1 for DVD.

Heat

The last Blockbuster in Springfield, Illinois (population ~ 110,000) closed maybe five years ago? And the last Hollywood Video closed a couple of months ago. Neither of them could compete against Family Video, and Redbox was just the nail in the coffin.

smirnoffski

A business model built around punishing the customer, we shall have none of this no more. But I do notice a few stores here and there that still pack a crowd on Friday and Saturday nights. So it may be possible that they will declare chapter 11 and seriously downsize, but persist in a different manner.

Bob_Bobbson

The Blockbuster in my town closed about a year or two ago. Since then, we have nowhere to rent in town.. Actually, there is a redbox knockoff in our grocery store, but it has a terrible selection. Then the Blockbuster and Hollywood Video in the next town down the freeway closed. I'd have to drive two towns over now to find the nearest video store.

It's a shame too, I miss being able to go to a store and just wander around the shelves, I found several movies that way I probably wouldn't have otherwise.

Solid Snake

I never really cared for Blockbuster. Sucks that they're going out though..but it was gong to happen soon if they didn't change.

Groucho

Ten years ago, they should've have taken notice of what Netflix was doing and bought them out.

More recently, they should've taken notice of what Redbox was doing and bought them out as well.

Abob Teff

As somebody who worked for all three companies, I would say that Hollywood and Blockbuster were victims of their own doing. Family Video was not the cause of their demise.

whotony

this is as profound a statement about BBV as there could be.
I've been working in the same location since '02 and the company has never been forward thinking.
All they have done over the years is move stuff around from one section in the store to another.

Over the last year or so it has added essentially a dollar store section, selling crappy dollar store junk and now we also have an endcap with as seen on tv junk.

No progressive thinking anywhere to be seen.

Deadman31

If they were smart, they would just get out of the brick and mortar business and stick to the netflix model and the kiosks.

jpb07

I always thought #2 Hollywood execs were the smart one of the bunch....sold out to #3 Movie Gallery in a highly leveraged deal that essentially lit the fuse on what is going on with MG now.

Granted I used to work for them and every manager or DM I ever encountered gave off a very heavy white trash vibe and didn't give a crap about the employees. (I sold the hell out of one of the promotions and was supposed to get a pretty nice reward. Left the company before it came and got nothing until I complained....my nice reward turned into a Taiwan plastic watch that resembled a HV happy meal toy.) The directives from corporate were stupid. The only thing that made HV better than BB at the time was that HV didn't have a cap on how many movies employees could rent in a month. Our location also had a deal with the local theater...they'd get free rentals and we'd get free admission...which was responsible for the majority of my Titanic viewings.

Clockwork

Yeah who needs those damn jobs anyway? On a completely unrelated note, pay no attention to the 6 page Netflix complaint post below.

Hell, now that they havr less competition, good 'ol Netflix will probably lower thier prices & improve thier customer service.

Zbu

Netflix still has to compete against kiosks and On Demand.

The only rise in prices I've seen is on new movies when they first come out. A few years ago they used to run around $15-17, now they tap out around $25-30 for a standard DVD. $10 extra for the same DVD when it'll be supercheap in a year or so? I don't think so.

whotony

Netflix will be raising prices it was in a trade mag a few weeks ago. usps is rasing postage and then netflix will too.

dsa_shea

I also suspect that they are doing this with the window of opportunity to make more profit of old and new customers.

RonG617

I think there will be a need for brick and mortar video rental business. I can't get anything from Netflix if it has been released in the past month. All new releases go instantly to very long wait. Redbox is hit or miss on the new release stuff, but they have a poor back catalog of stuff. Though my Blockbusters have shut down around me, there are several times I would have gone to one in the past few months. Just because Hollywood and Blockbuster had no idea how to run a business doesn't mean that the business model of a b&m video rental is dead.

jpb07

Redbox has been Netflix's main competition for the past year +. Blockbuster and HV were merely competing with each other over who would stick around longer. Their Kiosk and mail business is likely the only thing that bought them the extra 12-18 months over HV.