re: Blockbuster Documentary Netflix

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Right, IIRC Blockbuster eventually came around to streaming, but it was way late to that party and was dying by that point, right?

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Oh, yeah. They were already done for when they started up their streaming service. By that time Dish Network had bought the company and the streaming service was only available through Dish if I am remembering correctly.

was that the game with Bobson Dugnut?

Thought about naming my son that name. He'd be the king of travel ball.

22204405455 Remember it like it was yesterday.

I started at BBV 1998. I saw a lot of amazingly poor decisions by our CEO John Antioco. In fact, in 1999, there was a pilot test market for rentals by Internet in Colorado. I thought to myself “that’s funny, what do they expect me to do, deliver it to them?“ It failed. I remember this because Denver was also a test market for what would become Redbox. It was originally owned by McDonald’s Corp. hence the “Red” like their roof. McDonald’s didn’t pursue it and it became a different business entirely.

As far as the back-and-forth on whether or not it was Netflix that killed BBV, it wasn’t the catalyst for the downfall but was the nail in the coffin.

Revenue share was touched on in the doc about VHS but it was never fully explained what happened when DVD came around. Do you remember when you could purchase a DVD new at Walmart for $14 the same day that it became available for rental at BBV for $4.50? You couldn’t do that with VHS. This explains why: Hollywood’s biggest blunders

The article essentially says how arrogant Redstone and Antioco were when it came to the studios wanting to renegotiate rev share share for DVD and give rental a window before they would release it for retail sale and BBV declining with Redstone saying “we are your profit.”

This eventually brought the price of DVDs down so low by the likes of Walmart and Best Buy willing to take losses on them just to get people in the doors for the shot to sell them something else higher margin. It also lowered the capital requirements for a business like Netflix to obtain inventory to start their DVD by mail concept.

Ever since the DVD, it put Blockbuster on it’s heels because of the increased competition from retail giants to internet startups with novel approaches to content delivery.

The job had its ups and downs, but I can look back on it fondly. As someone stated before, nostalgia is a hell of a thing.

Pretty sure this was a real candle, someone just edited the description.

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And yes I'm sentimental about it. Makes you feel old to be old enough to watch the birth, rise, and then fall of a massive industry.

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If you haven't watched Colin Hanks' doc on Tower Records, search it out.

My mind was blown that a VHS tape once retailed for $100.00

I watched this and thought it was ok. Early in the film they brought up a much more intriguing angle about places that had separate rooms for adult movies. Somebody should really dive into that. Like the dudes taking their kids to rent the muppet show and sneaking off to venture into the adult section secretly. That is vintage 80s douche baggery at its finest and would be comedy gold. Calls into the house. " Sir you are late on returning muppets take manhatten and debbie does dallas."

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People were always full of shite about their late fees. We gave you several hours free that you didn’t know about and made sure the return was clear before then. People got real upset about it, it made me laugh. So many late fee Karen’s.

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I really don't get the hate for late fees even by posters in here. It wasn't hard to return a video on time I would never expect to "rent" something and be able to keep it as long as I wanted

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First VHS we ever owned.

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Wish I still had the original Star Wars trilogy on VHS. Before Lucas defiled it.