Hello and welcome back to picsandportraits.
Now usually I try to avoid pandering nostalgia, at least explicitly, but with all that’s
going on in the world right now, all the craziness and uncertainty, I thought it might be nice
to escape back to a period and idea I’m sure many of you have nostalgia for:
home video rental.
This is going to be sequel of sorts to one of my favourite videos we’ve produced: our
Brief History of Home Video Rental.
You can find a thorough introduction to video tape and other early home media formats there.
That will give you more context.
Now many associate video stores with the ‘90s and VHS, pizza, Friday or Saturday night,
that it’s sometimes easy to forget places like Blockbuster operated well into the streaming
era.
Today we are going to cover the period, roughly from their DVD conversion until closure in
2010.
Also, despite the title, The Dying Days of Blockbuster, we are going to be looking at other retail
chains as well independent and even some video game chains.
We are more or less travelling back to the 2000s, which is underrepresented decade here.
We usually go back much further.
To some it sound silly to have 2010 nostalgia, but nostalgia is merely a sensation or phenomenon
and you can experience at and for anytime.
We will try move sequentially but may veer off a bit as I am much more interested in
just immersing ourselves into the aesthetics of the time rather than providing a detailed
history.
We will follow some kind of a format here.
We are going to start with DVD, the format that really carried this market through its
final years.
DVD, digital versatile disc.
Media formats often get hitched to a medium, CDs for music, VHS for movies, but they can
really store anything, as long as there is a way to interpret and relay the data.
Unlike VHS or even Laserdisc, DVD was a digital video format but it was not the first to be released commercially.
That goes to VCD, or Video Compact Disc, though these were much more popular in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
DVD is my favourite format for movies or visual media.
I’m sure that partially has to do with the fact I grew up with it.
Laserdisc did a lot of things DVD gets associated with first but where I was, I never saw
one.
Laserdisc was something I learned about later.
DVD was my introduction to commentary and special features.
Early on these were interactive menus and trailers.
Before YouTube, you could not easily access or even see old movie trailers.
It was special, in a way.
The film, and later the video game, industry embraced DVD as the standard format, replacing
VHS, cartridges or CDs, in the case of the Playstation and the rental market had to adapt.
Founded in 1985, Blockbuster had established itself as the dominant video rental store.
Throughout the rest of 80s and 90s, it expanded across America and then world.
This business model worked as early home media was extremely expensive and this was a way
to view movies at home, without spending upwards of $80, and even $100, per movie, which then
carried over to DVD.
In these days where media is so accessible and seemingly expendable, spending upwards
of half a month’s subscription to your streaming service of choice to simply rent a copy that’s
potentially been rented hundreds of times for a night or two may sound shocking but
this was the most cost effective way to view movies at home.
In 1997, when it was clear DVD was going to the new standard, Warner Brothers offered
Blockbuster exclusive rights to rent DVDs of the films before they would be released
for purchase.
In exchange, they would get the same deal they already had for VHS, 40% of the revenue
from the rental of their films, but Blockbuster declined.
Now many will cite Netflix, still correctly, as the downfall of Blockbuster but I think
turning this deal down hurt them just as much, as Warner Brothers would instead lower the
wholesale price of their DVDs, thus allowed retailers charge less when selling them, making
owning more affordable and opening up the purchasing market.
The early 2000s still saw Blockbuster on top.
In 2001 they hosted the final, Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.
This was a more pop culture centric award ceremony that had began in 1995.
After this year they cancelled 2002, citing security concerns following 9/11 and they
just never came back.
The first major ad campaign of the 21st century was Carl and Ray.
This began as Super Bowl Commercial in 2002 that starred Jim Belushi and James Woods as
a guinea pig and rabbit.
These were more or less short vignettes that followed the classic comedy duo format of
a straight man and wise guy.
The humour came from their reaction to new deals, like multiple rentals for a low, fixed
price or guaranteed stock.
This was one of the bigger ways larger chains competed or flat crushed independent stores.
If there was a new movie out, it was guaranteed to be in stock or you’d get it free next
time.
They ordered several copies and would simply sell off excess copies once the hype died
down.
The early 2000s was also a period where gaming was exploding.
Spurred by the XBOX, an American console entering the market, and the fact that the PS2 also
served as a DVD player, at a time these were still very expensive.
Blockbuster began renting video games in the late 80s, , despite Nintendo’s objections.
Quick history lesson.
During that time Nintendo was industry leader and they took issue with Blockbuster, specifically
that they photocopying game manuals.
In Japan, Nintendo did not allow their products to be rented, in line with that country’s
copyright laws.
American laws are different.
There was the Computer Software Rental Amendments Act, that prohibited computer games from being
rented but this did not cover console gaming, much to Nintendo’s chagrin.
In the summer of 1989, Nintendo sent cease and desist to Blockbuster, to stop infringing
on its copyright by making copies..
Blockbuster’s reasoning for this was that customers lost or destroyed the game manuals and they were
integral not only to learning how to play the game but sometimes completing it.
Star Tropics, comes to mind, not the photocopying would really help in that situation.
Blockbuster would ignore Nintendo’s letter and a lawsuit ensued.
This would eventually be settled out of court and the two companies mended their relationship
in the following years.
In the early 2000s, games were no longer relegated to children and nerds.
This was the rise of the gamer, game culture, a certain archetype responsible for a lot
of awful online discourse.
I’m not knocking people who play games, I myself play games, just the ones who send death threats to developers
and voice actors.
This was the beginning.
At the time I was working at an EB Games, Gamestop, for American viewers.
Retail stores specialising in selling video games, both new and used, and it was that
last one that gave an early advantage over Blockbuster.
Customers could trade in their used games, infamously at a fraction of their original
cost for store credit towards new games or other used games.
Blockbuster sought to compete with these retailers, with a game pass, that allowed a certain amount
of game rentals for a monthly fee, and eventually offering a trade-in service of their own.
They would later expand their services to include selling new games and consoles, a
sort of store within the store known as Game Rush. They would also sell DVDs.
Around this time, Blockbuster also went online.
Here we see their website circa 2006, the game section, with the Game Rush branding.
In 2005, Blockbuster made a move to purchase their largest competitor, Hollywood Video.
A good introduction to Hollywood Video, and actually working at a video store, is
this training video, circa 2004.
This sells the lie that you are working in the “entertainment” business.
This is retail, but it appeals to a certain kind of person.
Film nerds, aspiring filmmakers.
Working here, one might think it’s like Clerks but it’s closer to Staples or Walmart,
pushing promotions, loyalty programs, and meeting sales goals.
This is a standard training video, starting with an outline of policies around harassment.
It lists the different forms and basis.
Today, the list would be a bit longer, with gender expression and gender identity on here.
We get some very uncomfortable dramatisations but more importantly, some great shots of
the interior of Hollywood Video.
This includes marketing material and the front desk area, as well as the video game section, which we
will get to in a bit.
Part two brings us to Hollywood.
It’s less about HR as it is PR as it tells the history of Hollywood Video.
Founder Mark Wattles is interviewed in the first Hollywood Video in Portland.
There is a timeline, starting in 1988 of the major accomplishments by year.
Hollywood was very the Pepsi to Blockbuster’s Coke.
While it may not be the most blatantly exciting, this does offer a fascinating behind the scenes
look at the operation of a video rental chain.
We are let into a call centre that served customers, I’m assuming with things like
disputes.
Anyone who has ever worked service knows what it’s like to get threatened with a lawsuit
because something isn’t in stock or some other policy you have no control over.
Those calls would be directed here.
They also dealt with vendors and studios to coordinate releases and marketing.
Here is the distribution centre, with different sections named after streets in Hollywood.
All the videos, promotional stuff, cases, concessions even, came from.
We see how media is prepared for rental, which I thought was extremely interesting.
When we finally get in-store, we learn the planned layout of each store and are introduced
to their guaranteed in stock program, which is more or less the same as Blockbusters.
The rest just has to do with the mission statement.
Part 3 is a robbery simulation, that’s very upsetting and not really relevant.
It’s intercut with interviews of employees who experience a robbery or trauma.
To really date this, the final part is a Jackass parody, complete with warning.
It’s known as Knuckleheads.
This is basically a safety video where exaggerated stunts, a la Jackass, are presented as the
wrong way of doing things so you can calmly be shown the correct way.
Like Blockbuster, Hollywood had their own video game section Game Crazy, that we’ve
seen throughout this.
They actually beat Blockbuster to the punch.
Game Crazy was founded in 1999 and would almost always be contained within a Hollywood Video.
Instead of going with Blockbuster, Hollywood Video was instead bought out by the smaller
Movie Gallery, which I really couldn’t find much material for, though they would continue
operating them as Hollywood Video, a subsidiary, rather than straight up convert them to Movie Gallery.
Now before we we see how everything fell apart, I’d like to quickly look at local, independent
video stores, during this decade.
We talk a lot about accessibility but affordable recording technology and video hosting platforms
like YouTube gave local video stores, indies, a platform.
My favourite is this one for a video game, that also sells or rents anime, or Japanese
animation as its referred to here.
This even resulted in some unofficial commercials from larger places. I'm assuming these are for franchise locations.
Here is a homemade commercial for Movie Gallery that is a great snapshot into the day to day
functioning of a store rather than a dressed up, idealised corporate version we’ve seen
so far in promotional material.
I think this is an accurate depiction before the bottom totally fell out.
The warning signs were there.
Blockbuster introduced a bunch of new policies, like abolishing late fees, in 2005.
Commercials were produced celebrating this, like they already knew it was an awful practice.
They also produced a series looking at what life looked like after late fees.
Anecdotal experiences are presented, like a busy mother not having to worry about getting
charged because she couldn’t make it to the store in time.
In reality, this only gave customers a week past the due date before they were charged
the full-price of the movie or game, which predictably lead to legal action, as the customers
believed the advertising to be misleading.
In 2005, they also launched an unlimited rental program, All You Can Watch.
This was $24.99 but was later slashed to $14.99 and gave the option of unlimited rentals,
with caveat that they can only rent one movie or game per visit.
And a couple years later, Blockbuster Total Access debuted.
Dubbed by pundits of the the times as a possible Netflix killer, this was Blockbuster’s movie
by mail service.
Unlike Netflix, this gave you the option to return the movies you rented online in-store,
at a certain membership level
which we see here.
There is four different levels, that allowed rental of 1-3 DVDs, at a time, with a premium
option to to have unlimited in-store exchanges.
Despite this effort, Blockbuster faced increasing competition from that company they once had the
chance to buy in 2000 for a measly $50 million, Netflix.
Netflix had started as a video by mail service but in 2007 they started streaming content
over the internet, via subscription and this more or less began a cultural shift in how
people view or rent movies.
Looking at the advertising Blockbuster was putting, you could tell they were scared.
Every one of them mentions Netflix, which is never a good sign when you’re supposedly
number one.
They attempted to compete with the purchase of Movielink, a VOD service, but obviously
this never took off.
In 2008, they failed to acquire electronic chain Circuit City, and in 2010, Blockbuster’s
old rival, Hollywood Video, folded, signally the end of this era of video rental.
Nearly a billion dollars in debt, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in September 2010, closing
many of its stores.
The following year, satellite TV provider, Dish Network purchased its assets and attempted
to keep 500 of its corporate owned stores open.
Most of these were shuttered by 2014 and between then and now, all the franchise stores have
followed suit.
This period saw a huge jump in terms of visual media as you have the seen, from standard
to high definition, analog to digital video.
It also kicked off, which we would see more the next decade, the move from physical media
to digital media, at least in terms of popularity.
Over night, many retailers, or at least their DVD sections disappeared, with the shift to
online.
I get people having nostalgia for this period, the movie store, just the mall, I certainly
do, but media is so much more accessible these days, especially now that more specialty streaming
services have emerged.
Blockbuster was great but it was extremely limited when it came to niche content.
The idea of spending $5 to rent a movie, one movie, even for five nights, doesn’t hold
up to spending $10/month for a massive library of titles and TV shows, for unlimited access
and on demand.
Though of course, this is also renting.
If you stop paying, you can no longer access them and broadcast rights can expire at any
time, which I think makes a great argument for physical media that I will not push here, but
certainly believe there is future resurgence coming.
I will post links to most of the material covered if you want check it out.
I don’t know, maybe that was too oddly specific but I certainly enjoyed it.
Let me know some of your favourite video store memories from this period down in the comments.
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