The one with the blue ticket stub …
“Movie night” took on a new meaning in the 1980s. You could simply stop by your local video store and pick up a VHS tape to watch at home instead of going to the theater.
There were plenty of local video rental stores with small, curated selections. But walking into a Blockbuster was like shopping at a megamall instead of a little boutique. They had full walls of the latest releases plus thousands of other titles. It felt like the movie world was at your fingertips.
Unfortunately, Blockbuster couldn’t keep up with the times, never believing in the viability of online DVD rentals and streaming services until it was too late. Eventually, the sight of a closed Blockbuster became commonplace, with the iconic blue ticket stub logo getting duller by the day.
But did you know …
1. The VCR boom
Blockbuster Video opened its first store at the perfect time. The year was 1985, and VCR sales were going through the roof. At that time, 28% of U.S. households with a TV also had a VCR, a percentage that was expected to double by 1990.
But if you wanted to watch a movie on that newfangled device, it’d cost you. Buying a movie on VHS cost around $50 to $100 in the mid-’80s, so rentals were widely preferred. Blockbuster wasn’t the first video rental store by any means, but its vast inventory with thousands of titles beat out the local shops.
2. Live from Blockbuster, it’s movie night!
In most video rental stores at that time, customers brought the movie box up to the counter, then an employee would check in the back to see if it was in stock. But Blockbuster offered so many titles that it didn’t make sense to follow the same store setup.
Blockbuster became the first video store to use a “live” display. That meant movies were actually placed on the shelves, so customers simply brought it up to the register to rent it.
3. Family-friendly, porn-free
Besides the “live” displays, Blockbuster set itself apart by creating an atmosphere that fit its "America's Family Video Store" slogan. Many video rental stores at the time would have an adult film section, but Blockbuster never offered X-rated films. The fact that parents could let kids roam the aisles without worrying about what they might see worked in Blockbuster’s favor.
4. Unlikely mascots
A pair of CGI spokesanimals for Blockbuster made a big splash when they debuted in a 2002 Super Bowl ad. Carl (a rabbit voiced by James Woods) and Ray (a guinea pig voiced by Jim Belushi) starred in a series of Blockbuster ads. The two furry friends lived in a pet store window display across the street from a Blockbuster, where they playfully riffed on everything from kung fu films to Flashdance.
5. Sports in the swamps
What do video rentals have to do with theme parks? Not a whole lot, but Blockbuster co-owner Wayne Huizenga tried to bring the two together in 1994 with a proposed 2,500-acre sports and amusement complex called “Blockbuster Park” located just outside Miami.
Some of the many features of the park would include movie and music production studios, a baseball stadium, a hockey arena, and an "entertainment village" with a virtual reality game arcade. Though it was never actually built, the very idea of “Blockbuster Park” shows just how powerful the brand had become at that point.
6. And the Oscar doesn’t go to …
The Academy Awards are all about prestige films. But shouldn’t hilarious comedies and splashy action thrillers get some recognition, too? The Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, which ran from 1995 through 2001, created a way to honor big box office hits, popular video rentals, and fan-favorite stars.
Many of the winning films and actors at the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards definitely weren’t the types to score Oscar nominations. Jim Carrey winning an award for Ace Ventura: Pet Detective? Enough said.
7. The kitchen sink
Blockbuster’s era of dominance took a sharp turn when services like Netflix came onto the scene. Stakeholders at Blockbuster clearly didn’t recognize the potential at first, turning down the offer to buy Netflix for just $50 million in 2000 only to turn around and try to enter the online DVD rental market on their own in 2004.
The overconfidence of Blockbuster would eventually become its downfall, and also led to one of the most hilarious incidents in corporate history. The day after Netflix CEO Reed Hastings declared in a 2004 earnings call, “In the last six months, Blockbuster has thrown everything but the kitchen sink at us,” he received a package from Blockbuster. It was an actual kitchen sink.
8. Are you not entertained?
Blockbuster had over 9,000 stores at its peak in 2004, but a decade later, only around 300 remained. As of 2019, there’s only one Blockbuster left in the world.
Located in Bend, Oregon, the store has become a fun destination for film lovers. Plus, it happens to have a very unique set of memorabilia centered around Russell Crowe, including costume pieces Cinderella Man, Robin Hood, and Les Misérables along with director chairs for Crowe and Denzel Washington from American Gangster.
Oddly enough, the collection came from Anchorage, Alaska after one of the last Blockbuster stores closed there in 2018. The store originally got the memorabilia from the HBO show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, which had purchased the collection from Crowe then donated it to help the Anchorage store stay in business.
9. Best slumber party ever
Ever wanted to relive the sleepovers from your childhood? The last remaining Blockbuster aimed to do just that by briefly becoming an Airbnb rental in September 2020. The owners of the store offered a limited number of one-night stays at the store, each of which would be fully prepped for a 1990s-themed sleepover. A faux living room space was set up with a pull-out couch, bean bags, and pillows — plus a stack of “new releases” from the ‘90s.
10. This is — literally — the end.
In 2013, the remaining Blockbuster’s company-owned stores were shut down (certain independently owned franchises, like the one in Bend, were allowed to stay open). The last of those company-owned stores to shutter was located in Hawaii, and the name of the final rental proved to be hilariously fitting for the occasion: This Is the End.
Want to avoid a late fee? Forward this to your friends who remember the excitement of picking out a flick from the “New Releases” display.
Editorial: Ashley
Illustration: Nick