After years of silent decline and then Covid, we presumed Blockbuster was completely dead. But the old giant seems to have rolled away the stone and is risen once more. Watch out Netflix.
You've probably seen or read about "The Last Blockbuster", which was at one point the only brick-and-mortar store left in the world. It was situated in the picturesque town of Bend, Oregon, and by 2015 it was clearly more of a tourist attraction than a video rental store.
However, despite being the only store left in the world, there was still a legal entity who the local franchise owner needed to pay for the branding rights. This was the same company that bought up the remaining assets from Blockbuster, called BB Liquidating Inc. (a name which would be Dickensian if it wasn't so painfully blunt). Sadly, even this store struggled to survive as a tourist attraction, and as of 2020 it was listed as an AirBnB location.
Of course, even without any Blockbusters left in the world, BB Liquidating continued to own the brand. And thus in some form (much like Sauron and Voldemort) Blockbuster continued to exist in the world, although it could no longer take on a physical form. This sad state continued until the Spring of 2023, but now new signs of life are giving us hope.
- While you wait for Blockbuster to be up and running again, consider a 30-day free trial to Amazon Prime .
Is Blockbuster... Alive?
The official Blockbuster website quietly went live again in March 2023, displaying the message "Be Kind While We Rewind". And quite predictably, it was members of a Subreddit dedicated to the memory of Blockbuster that were the first to notice the second coming:
The website is back up! by u/1xtip in blockbustervideo
The website is "under maintenance" and is difficult to access currently, but fans are now speculating some form of digital return for Blockbuster.
Other signs of life were spotted elsewhere, namely the official Twitter account, which has become very active recently. So it does indeed feel like Blockbuster is going to make a comeback.
And this would be the perfect time to strike, because customer satisfaction with Netflix seems to be at an all-time-low. Something the Blockbuster social media team have taken notice of.
Blockbuster Slams Netflix On Twitter Over Shared-Account Ban
You've probably heard about Netflix's nasty little plan to stamp out account sharing between households. If you hadn't, sorry to break the news to you.
Fans are furious, but it seems to have merely catalyzed pre-existing dissatisfaction. More and more users were already beginning to question whether their monthly subscription was worth it. We now have plenty of other offerings from Disney+ to Amazon Prime , and Netflix originals have rarely been great.
On May 25, the newly awoken Blockbuster pounced on the account-sharing situation with a great Tweet:
A friendly reminder that when you used to rent videos from us. We didn't care who you shared it with... As long as you returned it on time. @netflix
— Blockbuster (@blockbuster) May 25, 2023
And we, like a great many fans, would welcome a Blockbuster comeback. Much like vinyl, DVDs and certainly VHSs will soon re-enter our lives with retro appeal. Why shouldn't Blockbuster lead the trend?
Please don't forget that this fantastic game is just around the corner, hopefully one day you can rent it from Blockbuster: