By: Manuel Avalos Mateos

Founded in 1985, Blockbuster went from being a king in the entertainment industry, and thriving in the era of physical movie rentals, to filing for bankruptcy in 2010.

Blockbuster was widely known for its chain of movie rental stores. They offered a wide variety of different movies and video games that customers could rent, take home, and later return them.

Blockbuster was booming during the 1990s and early 2000s when renting movies meant taking a quick trip to a store. People loved going to Blockbuster, especially on Friday nights. Families and friends would rent movies for the weekend making it a big deal. Blockbuster was also a community that connected all sorts of people with movies. People would talk about new releases and grab copies of popular films during that time, which would be all a part of the experience.

Blockbusters blue and yellow signs were iconic, easily recognizable, and everyone was familiar with it. The best times for Blockbuster was when new movies were released and people would rush to their local Blockbuster for a copy of the movie. Blockbuster however, would not last for very long.

Netflix, at one point, when it was still a small company and still growing, offered to sell their company to Blockbuster for 50 million dollars. The CEO “laughed them out of the room”, rejecting their offer.

Its fall can be attributed to the rapid growth of digital streaming services. Blockbuster had always stayed with having physical stores instead of having to change or create their own online service.

Blockbuster would continue to show its downfall as the digital age for watching movies began to grow and gain more and more popularity. The quick shift to digital streaming services, and the decline of physical movie rentals caused Blockbuster to face major challenges and eventually file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010. Blockbuster eventually had no choice but to close all of their locations through 2014 which left under 100 stores sitting globally.

Blockbuster, at its peak, had roughly over 9,000 stores worldwide. Today, only one store remains in Bend, Oregon.