Blockbuster files bankruptcy
 

and so it begins......
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_736072.html

If ever there the saying "adapt or die" applied, it is here.

amen brotha

No wonder. I've never rented a movie in years.

You usually only have to wait a few months now for a movie to be available on pay-per-view.

Saw this one coming a mile away...

Shocking, yet not so.

Not really a surprise.

About time...

blockbuster canada is uneffected by this.

Surprised they lasted as long as they did. Can't beleive they allowed netflix to steal their customers.

time consuming to go and get a movie.. Expensive to rent compared. Time consuming and a pain in the ass to RUSH back the next day.

Just not worth it now days.

who would have though this would happen with Netflix and Hulu being around?

They are still going to be around for a bit since it's a Chapter 11.

I thought they filed for chapther 11 last year??

The Redboxes did the real damage...killed their new release business. Lot's of shareholders are going to take it in the ass to the tune of about $300 million.

IVRs are going to make a comeback.

:thumbsup:thumbsup

I was wondering when that was going to go under - good for me tho we got a ton of blackbusters in my town .. should be able to hit some good sales :D

They did.

I have a Blockbuster online membership. It's a lot like Netflix....only a ton better because they actually have the movies you want. When I had Netflix it kinda sucked because of the movie selection.

Anyway, my blockbuster membership allows me to have 2 movies at once. I just put what I want in my cue and they mail them to me. Whenever I'm done, I stick 'em back in the mail.

When they ship them to me...they email me and I usually get them the very next day (they are quick)

So I thought they DID "adapt" pretty well.

Maybe they were a little late doing it and lost a market share?

yea, too little too late

tube sites are still the soup kitchens of the internet.

they had a chance to compete with netflix and got greedy.

i used to have a blockbuster account and was nice that you could take the movie into the store then exchange it for another one... then it turned to charge you $1 which is when I left.

After that they continued to hike up the price until I believe you only got $1 OFF a rental.

pretty lame and stupid IMO where they had a chance to compete and take down neflix but brushed them aside

true, but with Netflix now launching in Canada it may just be a matter of time...

Dvds are out. Usb sticks are in

If they want to save their company they should start renting porn movies. I know of two mom & pop video stores that are around only because of the porn movie section. I think they have more porn then they do mainstream movies. Also lower the price of your movies, $5 to rent a movie from Blockbuster!! No wonder why Redbox is kicking their ass, $1 to rent a movie for one night, $1.50 for blueray.

They were to late to compete with NetFlix. By the time they started their Blockbuster Online NetFlix had a huge membership base and they couldnt really give a good reason why the consumer should switch.

In hindsight they should of shuttered the stores along time ago and gone the kiosk route (RedBox). Then they would have the online portion where you can have the DVD's mailed or stream them. Then if the consumer wanted instant gratification they could return the DVD to the kiosk and pick up another without waiting. Or people who didnt want the subscription could just rent 1 at a time.

We have a NetFlix account and have 3 discs but probably hit a RedBox kiosk twice a month still.

If they actually go under and shut down their online rental as well, then it will be a really bad thing for indie movie maker, as redbox only carries 300 movies or so and netflix doesn't have as big an inventory as blockbuster...

We have a blockbuster across the street. I hadn't had a membership there in like twenty years, but sure enough they still had my account on file and it was easy to reopen it. My kid wanted to watch a certain video for her birthday party, blah blah blah and we rented it for a buck and then dropped it off the next day. Can't beat that really.

We've only used it a handful of times since then and I think most movies cost $3 a night, but whatever.

I was thinking they already had filed...hmm

:2 cents:

No surprise, Netflix and Redbox are king now.

Sic transit gloria mundi . . . .

yep.....someone has to battle the redbox......

When you have services like Vudu (walmart yuck i know) that release movies to stream the day they are released on dvd for 3.99 its kind of hard to beat the convience. 3 clicks later i am watching my movie and i dont have to worry about taking it back. The down side to Vudu not all movies are avaiable to rent the day they are released. Some it takes a week or two. But you can still buy them for 20 the day they come out if you gotta see it :) Its a small amount of movies so no biggie

so glad i boycotted them back in the easrly 90's for the bullshit daily late fee....took 15 years but im glad to see that fuckng rip-off center out of biz :2 cents:

I thinks they failed to capitalize on the online and mail thing.
If they had spun off the on-demand, ship to your mailbox part people would have thought of them differently.

I for one hear BlockBuster I think : Big Store, Ridiculous Late Fees, and bad customer service.

Change the name and only offer what Netflix did and they could have been a contender ! ! !

Their anti-adult policy enabled many mom and pop video stores stay in business.

good riddance

I hooked my $9 netflix account up to my Wii player and I can watch like 10,000 movies and TV shows on demand 24/7 now. I use it everyday and love it. It's so easy.

They will be a $200 stock soon. They're at like $160 now.

Once they lose the need to buy and store physical DVDs and warehouses/distribution centers completely...

I think Blockbuster couldn't really adapt because, when they were in the cat bird's seat, they really took advantage of their customers. I remember they had deliberately misleading terms so that most customers ended up owing late fees, when they thought they were on time.

I am sure that if/when Blockbuster goes out of business the selection at the competition will improve, as distributors that relied on Blockbuster as an outlet are required to find alternatives.

and redbox.

1. They were late to the game. Netflix had already established millions of members before blockbuster tried this. Most blockbuster existing users didn't need to have stuff mailed they were close to stores anyway.

2. Netflix (the mailing system) didn't kill blockbuster. More like netflix's download videos to your bluray or wii, expanding ppv watching from your home on cable/satellite, and finally RedBox.

Getting the shit in the mail was good for people who didn't live near a blockbuster. But people who could go to the store, wtf am going to go to blockbuster and pay $4 when I can go to redbox and pay $1.

Also, blockbuster (the franchise model) could not adapt. Sure blockbuster could compete with netflix to mail movies but pretty sure blockbuster corporate made money from that and not franchise holders. Blockbuster made their money from franchises (like affiliates), they tried to adapt via mailing but that was like inhouse traffic.

The whole "sending in the mail" will be obsolete in a couple years. Who wants to wait a couple days to get a movie, with technology and increasing amount of BW to homes, people want the shit now, and more and more people will be renting right to their bluray etc.

The parallels to adult are uncanny.

They kinda sorta tried to adapt and they did it too late, and they where way too big to survive it. They need to ditch the "franchises" etc...

I think that would have kept them in the lead till now, but if they didn't (or don't) focus on online rentals like netflix is switching to, then they would still be left behind and obsolete.

One day, in the not so far future everyone will have access to an online library of tens of thousands of movies and instead of getting in your car and driving or waiting for something to show up in the mail you will use your remote (or mouse) select any movie just about ever made, and boom its on your tv playing. I saw that coming 10+ years ago, you think with the money blockbuster (was) making they would have been the ones to develop the technology.

I love going in and taking advantage of their 3 used DVDs for $20 deals...built up a huge collection of movies I wanted to own, but didn't really want to pay $20 for...

I'll never forget their big END OF LATE FEES campaign - although it actually wasn't the end of late fees.. what a shit company, good riddance

another torrent victim?

Netflix have stolen the show with their app for the iphone, u gotta move with the times Blockbuster!

With all the little mom and pop video stores they put out of business over the years, some might just look at this as karma.

karma is a bitch especially when you only have yourself to blame for not adapting to the changing times

Great post.

I've been following the Blockbuster debacle for a while now. You knew they were in trouble when they announced that they would no longer charge late fees, yet we then found out that the made something like 700 million per year on late fees. It was going to be nearly impossible to replace that lost revenue.

The mail in system is decent and can offer those close to a blockbuster value (I guess you get a couple of free in store rentals each month), but they can't compete with Netflix. I have had Netflix for a long time. I like them because they have more of the hard to find and independent movies than blockbuster appears to have. Add in the live streaming and it is the best $9 you can spend on entertainment.

I don't think the mailing videos part will die off in a couple of years though. I think it may eventually, but there are a ton of people who don't have their TV's hooked up to their Netflix accounts yet. That will change, but it will take time. Not to mention they would need to get streaming rights to every movie they have and a lot of the newer movies they can't yet get that.

Blockbuster shot themselves in the foot when they took advantage of customers with crazy late fees, kept raising their prices and shrunk their inventory. It is a classic example of letting things pass you by then trying to play catch up which rarely works.

:2 cents::2 cents::2 cents: