Arts & Life

The fall of Blockbuster

Let’s face it. Going into blockbuster with that little blue rental card is officially a thing of the past.

Two weeks ago, DISH Network Corporation announced that all Blockbuster stores will close by early January. DISH President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Clayton blamed the death of the movie-rental giant on the abandonment of physical films to digital streaming.

Blockbuster was once driving smaller rental stores out of business, but for the past few years, it has been trying to survive in a generation where it had to compete with digital media format.

“One of my first jobs was in a mom-and-pop video rental store and those were almost all put out of business by Blockbuster,” Tracey Mayfield, associate dean of the Cal State Long Beach library said. “They were often seen as a villain, so there are many who feel that by it tanking for the various reasons that I have read about … is some sort of poetic justice.”

People no longer flip to the movie reviews in the newspaper before visiting their neighborhood video rental store. Now, people seem more inclined to read IMDB.com or Rotten Tomatoes before opening a new tab and surfing over to Netflix to make their decision.

But who really needs the personalization anymore? Video rental stores bring to mind images of employees who can’t really answer movie inquiries, and why wait for the new releases when they are only a torrent download away.

Los Alamitos is home to one of the last Blockbusters in the area, which stopped renting more than a week ago and has been selling their previously rented merchandise.

However, there is always a burst of life before death. At the Los Alamitos Blockbuster, there is a healthy amount of people streaming through the store from open to close. People with arms full of DVDs are trying to take advantage of the $5 to $10 movies that they will never have to return again.

One woman was balancing a dozen DVDs in her arms while still browsing the shelves.

“A lot of our customers say they’re really depressed,” said one manager who was advised not give his name.

He said the store was operating fine on its own, with 350 to 400 customers daily but, since it was owned by DISH like most of the remaining stores, it had to be pulled from retail.

Viacom bought Blockbuster for $8.4 million in 1994 to help it fund its eventual purchase of Paramount Pictures three years before Netflix was founded, according to Eric Wold, a senior analyst for B. Riley & Co.

Viacom dropped Blockbuster in 2004, and gained a dividend of $1.3 billion dollars in the process and sending Blockbuster into subsequent years of bankruptcy, according to Tom Adams, research director for U.S. Media.

Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2010, in attempt to mitigate $1 million in debt. DISH network acquired Blockbuster in 2011, but then proceeded to slowly close the 1,700 remaining retail locations.

Of the original 9,000 stores from nine years ago, 303 remain, according to the New York Times.

A handful of locations will remain open, however, because roughly 50 Blockbuster locations in the U.S. are owned by third-party franchises.

In an IBISWorld report, Analyst Jesse Chiang said the fall could be the result of the attempt to push Blu-ray discs into the hands of consumers during the height of the economic crisis. At $4.99 a pop, the discs were mostly untouched at the Los Alamitos Blockbuster liquidation sale.

Today, the movie-rental market is shared between Redbox at 45.5 percent, Netflix, Inc. at 24.3 percent and Blockbuster, Inc. at 16.9 percent, according to the report.

DISH still operates “Blockbuster @Home,” an online streaming site, as well as “Blockbuster On Demand,” and said it plans to hold onto the streaming rights for content.

According to Wold, Redbox is expected to rake in an additional $200 to $300 million in annual revenue once Blockbuster stops providing physical films to viewers.

Junior film major Mary Hanson said she thinks the changes were inevitable.

“People are lazy and would rather stay home or use fancy technology,” Hanson said. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing, it’s interesting to watch it change.”

Hanson also said she feels that while entertainment is easily accessible, people have become close-minded. Watching a film is no longer something done with friends and family, but rather something to do alone before falling asleep or in lieu of studying.

When walking into Blockbuster for the first — and last — time in years, a great sense of nostalgia will wash over you, evoking memories of spending too long to choose a film that would be perfect for one of those gloomy days.

While more convenient rental models dominate the consumer marketplace, movie buffs are already beginning to miss the days of slowly navigating the aisles at the familiar movie-rental store.

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