The Blockbuster website is active and fans are speculating about a comeback. What is the status of the company?

www.cbsnews.com/news/blockbuster-website-reactived-comeback-is-video-rental-company-returning-after-being-bought/

Excerpts:

Children of the 80s and 90s rejoiced this week when they realized a blast from the past may be creeping back into the zeitgeist: Blockbuster. The antiquated but still beloved movie rental retailer has a live website – even though the company ceased most of its operations in 2014. Some fans believe that is evidence the company is making a comeback.

In a tweet this month, the company joked about reopening: "New business idea: We're going to come back as a bank and use VHS and DVDs as currency. Time to go visit your mom."

The tweet was a joke, but three days later, Twitter users realized the Blockbuster website was active again. The message on the homepage: "We are working on rewinding your movie."

After a few people tweeted that they had noticed the website was active, more nostalgic Blockbuster fans shared their theories about the website as well as their memories of picking out flicks and video games with their family and friends.

"Some of my favourite childhood memories were going to Blockbuster on a Friday night," one person tweeted.

"The blockbuster website is alive?? if they make a comeback in ANY way i will cry," another tweeted.

While Blockbuster was a mainstay for many families in the 80s and 90s, on-demand movie options started to become popular, with rentals available with the click of a button. Brick and mortar movie retailers puttered out and Blockbuster announced in 2014 it would be closing its nearly 300 remaining stores in the U.S.

The company had tried to adapt as the movie rental landscape changed. Like the early days of Netflix, Blockbuster was mailing DVD rentals to homes, eliminating the need to drive to the store. But Netflix pivoted to streaming and Blockbuster chose not to, a business decision that ultimately lead to their downfall.

The Blockbuster brand was sold to satellite TV company DISH in 2011 for $320 million, according to Variety. They owned the licensing rights and created Blockbuster On Demand, a library of thousands movies available to DISH customers and as a standalone app. The app is no longer available.

In 2021, a Blockbuster decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, was created with the goal of acquiring Blockbuster from DISH. A DAO is an entity that has no central governing body, unlike a corporation with executives or board members at the top. They usually use cryptocurrency in transactions.

The Blockbuster DAO, later renamed Rewind, had a goal of raising $5 million to buy the brand from DISH.

"The Blockbuster brand is not only nostalgic, but it's a historic landmark in the history of film," the DAO's account tweeted in December 2021. "Despite its 1/1 brand recognition, the company was destroyed by terrible leadership with an inability to pivot and make dynamic business decisions."

The DAO said there are several options for the company after it is bought, including creating an NFT presence, a streaming platform or distributing films to theaters.

Rewind, which has become a video platform for creators, said they had 13 meetings with DISH about the acquisition. "Unfortunately, the idea of wholly acquiring the Blockbuster brand was shut down immediately. Dish had spent $320 million on the brand in 2011 and they believed it was still worth more than any community like ours would be able to raise," the DAO says in a release on its website.

CBS News has reached out to Rewind and DISH for comment and is awaiting response.

It is unclear when the Blockbuster website was activated or updated, and Blockbuster no longer has an active public relations email, but CBS News reached out to the last remaining Blockbuster location in Bend, Oregon, for any insight they might have.

The last Blockbuster was the focal point of a 2020 documentary that explained the company's downfall and the Bend location's survival. The store is more of an attraction, making money by selling merchandise rather than renting movies.

I wonder with all of the online movie subscription websites, will it work in this modern day?

My local Blockbusters, back then, the shops are now a McDonald's and a funeral directors.

I wonder with all of the online movie subscription websites, will it work in this modern day?

My local Blockbusters, back then, the shops are now a McDonald's and a funeral directors.


My suspicion is that if the Blockbuster brand is indeed reactivated it will be as a streaming service.

My suspicion is that if the Blockbuster brand is indeed reactivated it will be as a streaming service.
Simply putting it, it had to, and I may give it a go...

Btw, can customers be trusted to bring the DVDs these days?

My suspicion is that if the Blockbuster brand is indeed reactivated it will be as a streaming service.


Everything in this day and age is all about streaming.

Simply putting it, it had to, and I may give it a go...

Btw, can customers be trusted to bring the DVDs these days?

For return? I don't think so.

Everything in this day and age is all about streaming.


Yeah, it will be interesting to see what comes from this.

Everything old is new again.

Everything old is new again.


Yeah, but if that were the case, wouldn't things like iceboxes and horse & buggies be back?

Yeah, but if that were the case, wouldn't things like iceboxes and horse & buggies be back?


Give it time.

Everything old is new again.

History never repeats, it rhymes 

Give it time.



;D

I never thought records would come back, but here we are. While I also suspect Blockbuster could attempt to be (and possibly work as) a steaming service, there's a gap in the marketplace for video stores and video rentals. Don't get me wrong, Netflix still has their DVD-by-mail service, but it's no longer their bread and butter. (Or should I say Eggo's?) I say streaming and video stores can coexist.

The documentary was quite good. I never got around to watching the cancelled sitcom.

Yeah, it will be interesting to see what comes from this.

Does Blockbuster have an app? ???

Yeah, but if that were the case, wouldn't things like iceboxes and horse & buggies be back?

I would also like to see other things come back too.

I would also like to see other things come back too.


Like 8 track tapes. That music was so cool.  8)

Like 8 track tapes. That music was so cool.  8)


8 tracks were a bit before my time but vinyls and cassettes. I have seen vinyls of recent pop albums, such as Harry Styles' "Harry's House".


My suspicion is that if the Blockbuster brand is indeed reactivated it will be as a streaming service.


That's what they should have done to compete with Netflix. I did use Blockbuster well in to the early 2010's with the mail-in DVD/Blu-Ray subscription. What I liked was they also rent video games, so it was like a combined service with GameFly.

Like 8 track tapes. That music was so cool.  8)

And also retro cigarette machines.

https://poserworld.com/images/thumbs/0008335_70s-era-vintage-cigarette-vending-machine_550.jpeg

8 tracks were a bit before my time but vinyls and cassettes. I have seen vinyls of recent pop albums, such as Harry Styles' "Harry's House".

That's what they should have done to compete with Netflix. I did use Blockbuster well in to the early 2010's with the mail-in DVD/Blu-Ray subscription. What I liked was they also rent video games, so it was like a combined service with GameFly.

I agree that Blockbuster should be a streaming service like Netflix.

And also retro cigarette machines.

https://poserworld.com/images/thumbs/0008335_70s-era-vintage-cigarette-vending-machine_550.jpeg


And candy cigarettes.  :P

Yeah, but if that were the case, wouldn't things like iceboxes and horse & buggies be back?



Give it time.


You all may be laughing, but we're closer than you might think.  The zero carbon movement is reviving old school solutions such as using goats to replace gas & electric lawnmowers:

https://hiregoats.com/

https://hiregoats.com/why-hire-goats%3F

R3wdAuK7Tms


See also: cottagecore.  It's the 21st century version of the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottagecore

If anyone will bring back the horse and buggy it's these people.

You all may be laughing, but we're closer than you might think.  The zero carbon movement is reviving old school solutions such as using goats to replace gas & electric lawnmowers

To be honest, I thought that goat thing was a great idea since I first heard about it. It's a win-win. The goats get to eat to ther heart's content, the lawn gets cut, and it doesn't harm the environment.


See also: cottagecore.  It's the 21st century version of the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s.

This, however, I'm not so sure about. For better or worse, and for all it's pie-in-the-sky idealism, that 1960s "back to the land" concept was sincere and people gave it a genuine go on communes and such.

"Cottagecore" on the other hand, just sounds ridiculous. A fantasyland of cosplay.

Dig what Wikipedia says:

Cottagecore is an internet aesthetic popularised by adolescents and young adults celebrating an idealized rural life. Traditionally based on a rural English and European life, it was developed throughout the 2010s  and was first named cottagecore on Tumblr in 2018.The aesthetic centres on traditional rural clothing, interior design, and crafts such as drawing, baking, and pottery, and is related to similar aesthetic movements such as grandmacore, farmcore, goblincore, and fairycore. Some sources describe cottagecore as a subculture of Millennials and Generation Z...The tenets of cottagecore can help to satisfy for its proponents a desire for "an aspirational form of nostalgia" as well as an escape from many forms of stress and trauma.

"Desire for an aspirational form of nostalgia", "goblincore", "fairycore". Need I really say more?  ::)

And candy cigarettes.  :P

Yes, I do remember candy cigarettes.