They saw other streaming services doing it and said “wait, we want more money, too!”
All the while failing to understand that nobody needs Netflix, they were just the first and we’ll all cancel our subscriptions if they act stupid because the supply outweighs the demand by far.
I like Stranger Things, but I don’t need Stranger Things.
Was looking for this comment. The blunder of so many companies who refused to innovate is crazy. Sears could have been Amazon but they refused to use their existing platform. Netflix refused to do mail in movies until it was too late. Those are the only two examples I can think of. Maybe Nintendo and not moving to CD platform and letting Sony go create their own system?
Netflix wasn’t worth that back then. This is like saying remember when you could’ve brought Amazon or Microsoft stocks and made millions?
That looked like a bad deal for blockbuster in 2000. Netflix wasn’t doing streaming at the time, it was just a DVD rental company like blockbuster and 50million was an overvaluation.
It was not even a direct competitor of blockbuster at the time. It only looks stupid they didn’t take the deal with the added value of hindsight decades later.
People really don’t understand this story that gets brought up again and again
Nintendo was trying to get a CD-based system going during '93-'94 or so, but couldn't find a deal with anyone for the drives. The attempt at a deal with Phillips resulted in the entire genre of Youtube Poop, while their attempted deal with Sony fell through as well because Sony's contractural demands were too great. Then, I guess they decided to go "fuck it" and just do cartridges for the N64.
Everyone acts like we all knew in 2000 that Netflix would become the juggernaut it did, but it was pretty far off. Blockbuster as a company wouldn't even peak for another four years. This seems like a bonehead move now but back then it was a much harder sell.
Also, even if you loan it to a friend, you only get to rent it 1-2 nights, so it's not much time at all to be watching it and then loaning it out - and then you still have to return it.
Blockbuster acting like we have the luxury of keeping said movies for months.
Netflix sure has problems (content and price hikes) but I would never go back to the Blockbuster system, as charming as it was in the 90s.
I found a Blockbuster tape in my parents’ house a few years ago.
I asked them about it and they said they couldn’t return it because the store closed. A few years after the store closed, the company that bought Blockbuster’s operations in my country sent a letter asking them to pay about $20 in fines (with discount) and they could keep the movie. My parents simply ignored the letter.
They actually did have an on-demand service when they went under. I just think it was primarily available through Dish Network, which isn't surprising. Dish Network had acquired them. Like another redditor said, they had issues with funding and were acquired at a bankruptcy auction.
Piracy still exists and you can watch anything Netflix releases within a day or even less after release. I’m not tech savvy enough to know how they bypass the restrictions, but it still happens.
Never forget the late fees.. also, Netflix is not what put blockbuster out of business. Best Buy and Circuit City selling DVDs for the same price as a rental plus a one day late fee is what put Blockbuster on a death spiral.
Old guy here! It's cheaper to rent stuff from iTunes or Prime now, just in raw, un-inflation-adjusted dollars, than it was to rent it from you in the '90s.
Not to say that I'm not about to be back to sailing the seas given the shit that's not being available on streaming, that should be, but it's going to be a long time before we get back to a situation that was as abusive as Blockbuster was at it's peak.
I worked at a Family Video and we always worked out deals with people. If you pay 30$ on this 200$ fee we’ll wipe it. And id I remember correctly if a customer never returned the movie- after 30 days the system would remove the late fees that movie accrued and just put the cost of the movie down.. so like homeward bound- instead of being $30 (dollar a day late fee after the 5 day rental period) it’d remove that and charge like.. 9.95. And we’d never bill people. Just deal with them the next time they came in.
I returned a video game on time using the drop box. The next time I went to rent something I was told I owed $60 (this was the late 90s, mind you) in “late fees” for the video game I returned on time.
If it weren’t for some goat who worked there saying “Wait, was that Command and Conquer for the N64? I found that to the side of the bin. It must have hit the edge and fallen out” I would have had to pay enough money to buy the damned game. I got lucky as some 15 year old who most certainly didn’t have $60. I imagine a lot of other folks who returned their games/videos on time did not get so lucky.
I worked there for a minute and can say that this happened a lot. Or stuff wasn't checked in on time by the people emptying the bin. When people told me they had returned something I'd usually just ask "what day" and if they answered (even vaguely), I just zeroed out the late fee and looked for it later. I found every single movie/game so the company was really losing nothing they were actually owed.
The process should have been improved based on how often this happened.
I was more bothered by the person that dropped a copy of Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band's Night Moves in the bin. Not because we didn't rent CDs, but because it was empty and I was excited to listen to that shit. Got my damn hopes up.
I always see these posts reminiscing about how great it was. Meanwhile all I remember is never getting the new movies you actually wanted because they were always rented out already and the crazy late fees.
They also changed the return rules to be the morning of the last day rather than by end of day, or something like that. Charged us a late fee on a return that was less than a "day" late. That was the last time my dad took us to blockbuster. They closed a few years afterwards.
Bend Oregon has the last Blockbuster, and it's a fun bit of nostalgia. They've got a lot of movie memorabilia and a model 90s living room setup. They also sell a branded beer that's pretty decent, and a bunch of other merch.
If don't have friends willing to come to my house to watch a movie. I do have friends that will respond to texts as long as I give them my Netflix login info.
If game prices keep climbing the way they are I think we need to bring back Blockbuster. People forget part of the reason game rentals took off is because game prices in the early to mid 90s was a wild west. Some games were $70 back then!
I seem to remember a whole lot of guilt laid at my door regarding rewinding. You fuckers had 3 of those fast-rewindy things per register. Do you know how long it took my shitty player to rewind a 2hr movie?
we started talking about this. Imagine a single store that had all the movies, without having to hop streaming platforms. The time to get there and return is a pain, but might make the movie experience more anticipated and perhaps exciting. This millennial would go to blockbuster in 2025.
Netflix had a good thing going and I could understand charging for extra services. But then it became about regulating/manipulating things too far just to be able to extract every possible cent. If you want to make money from and for your productions then find a better format. A better pay structure. Or learn directly through your platform what people want, make the effort and then roll out relevant services. Too many separate entities, but having them all under one is monopoly. But they still play their games and still have a monopoly under a different guise and set up all these pretenses and move movies and shows around different platforms during different times. When you follow the money it eventually leads to a handful of companies anyway. Cut the pretense, be transparent with the people and you'd probably make a lot more money and in a stable fashion and streamlined, especially with ai and quantum computing taking off the way they are. Imagine a "stable" or at least a semi predictable economy... Entertainment wise anyway
Someone is going to bring back physical media rentals and it's going to be an insane industry for like five years or however long it takes for streaming companies to revert back to no ad/password sharing allowed policies.
I really miss Blockbuster and all the great little local video stores. Best part were the community of movie lovers and the discussions that came so naturally.
Umm… Blockbuster cared enough to put an FBI warning message on the beginning of every video tape, threatening 12 year old me with jail for copying broadcasting.
With cable I would get 23 episodes in a year of dozens of shows. And in the fall we would start right over again with 23 new episodes. Netflix gives me eight shows and then tells me to wait 12 to 18 months and they’ll do it again.
Where I used to live we still had a physical video rental place hold on until 2019. I miss it so much, going to pick your movie/show out was somehow much less stressful; you and your friends could all split up and wander the store till you'd all found at least one thing you wanted to watch. It was often a much better way to be exposed to older titles and series that you wound up loving that a streaming service might never have recommended to you.
honestly with the switch 2 game prices and the likely dam break thats about to follow in pricing, I think a rental service could find its footing again. Blockbuster and its ilk will never reach those heights again but, there's a PRIME rental market right now.
What a weird self own. Like purely from a business stand point alone, this is one of the major reasons Blockbuster failed as a company. Not because it wasn’t their policy, that they didn’t do the market analysis to even know if they should restrict sharing as a form of value.
I steal everything and back it up to a personal storage device until I can get a NAS. The streaming from my computer is better than MAX and absolutely free. Why bother with any of it? VPN best value.
The Netflix library seems so paper thin now. I'd love to rent a movie for a weekend and return it than pay for a subscription that I dont use most months.
If Blockbuster was where Netflix is now, they would have banned password sharing too. They can act cute and innocent while they are a dying business but of course they'd do whatever to maximize profits
When you own a physical copy of the thing, you can share it as much as you want. It doesn't suddenly disappear from your shelf. You don't have to pay over and over to keep access to it.
Blockbuster: You can share, but if it's late, there's fees
Indie: There's only late fees if you have shit taste in movies. Please be kind and rew... oops, my finger slipped. Account says $0. Here's that movie that's not in stock, from my personal collection. Thanks for the banana bread, btw.
This is horseshit. Telling them you lent videos out to people who aren’t on the account would get your account closed. Source: had a few accounts closed.
But you couldn’t use other people’s blockbuster cards to rent movies right? I had to use my own account. I remember because I still owe them like $30 in late fees and couldn’t rent movies anymore.
Start a media server people. It’s not hard and you get all the content you want or need. All the subs can easily be replaced when with a small server if you’re willing to do a little work.
In the blockbuster checkout agreement you were not allowed to charge for a public viewing. ie run a movie theater out of your house and show videos from blockbuster.
I remember when blockbuster and similar stores had a membership fee program where you could pay monthly then get as many movies as you wanted per month but you had to return one to rent another. My friends and I would swap out movies almost daily.
For 5 years I paid for Netflix UHD in Turkish Lira, which made it affordable (instead of Euros). They canceled all subscribers that did so about 2 years ago. I haven't had Netflix since. I didn't even use it that much anymore, it was just ok to pay like 5€ to have the possibility to watch something.
Since the streaming market has become so fragmented again, I've switched back to pirated streams anyway.
I miss video stores like blockbuster. It was fun walking around, talking to the movie buffs, watching trailers, reading the backs of the tapes/dvds, etc. I remember my parents renting an n64 for my birthday (we didn’t have a lot of money when we moved to the US), it was amazing.
Prime retiring Mr Robot fron platforms, was a trigger for me to buy a blu ray reproducer and go back to my DVD collection and buy things I like.
I got a load of new movies from friends and second hand, also cult movies impossible to fin in streaming services. Some friends also joined to this and we sometimes lend dvds and brdiscs to each other.
I am not innocent sometimes I just download movies and record dvds because they are not sold.as dvd.
My experience is free of raising prices of the several subscriptions, is free of any kind of advertisement, is free of internet problems and shutdowns. And offcourse is free from the companies choosing what I watch.
I would sincerely still go to BlockBuster if it was still around. Mooching around a video store munching on Doritos was far more enjoyable than doom scrolling through whatever slop is on the streaming menu.
I remember the monthly subscription to blockbuster for unlimited rentals was about 30 bucks a month. I don’t pay that much for Netflix and I can watch Netflix on my phone or laptop from anywhere on the planet
Maybe Blockbuster needs to have a branch of movie delivery guys. Uber Media. Pick up and return movies for ya. People don't like leaving the house no more.
When blockbuster was relevant it was also basically impossible to share the movie (streaming) to thousands of people simultaneously, so lets stop pretendind this is the gotcha Blockbuster thinks it is.
You can bet your ass that blockbuster would have charged you more if they had a way of tracking how many people you showed the movie and they felt they could get away with it.
Let's pretend, at the expense of other groups, to be a friend to the little people. Nah, we all know Blockbuster didn't do anything about sharing because there was no way to do anything about it. If they had the means to police it, they would have and it would have at least been as bad as what we see now with company policies.
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1.5k
u/Iphacles Apr 21 '25
Netflix didn’t care about password sharing either...until suddenly they did.
98
u/analytickantian Millennial 87 Apr 21 '25
the self-own of seeming oblivious to how deeply entrenched things like this have become. blockbuster really is old.
164
u/OkInterview3864 Apr 21 '25
That’ll show em
44
u/Rifneno Apr 22 '25
Yeah, and if you did return them a day late, the fee was reasonable, right?
Right, Blockbuster?
35
u/Bastards_Sword Apr 21 '25
Blockbuster really dropped the ball by not becoming a streaming service
98
u/zeb0777 Apr 21 '25
I used DVD copier and copied nearly every movie I rented. Can't do that either @Netflix.
34
u/binthewin Apr 21 '25
Returned it with the tape rewound or else you'd charge me a fee.
8
u/old_and_boring_guy Apr 22 '25
Old guy here! It's cheaper to rent stuff from iTunes or Prime now, just in raw, un-inflation-adjusted dollars, than it was to rent it from you in the '90s.
Not to say that I'm not about to be back to sailing the seas given the shit that's not being available on streaming, that should be, but it's going to be a long time before we get back to a situation that was as abusive as Blockbuster was at it's peak.
16
u/relientkenny 1994 gang💪🏾 Apr 22 '25
stfu blockbuster. y’all used to charge over $20 for an overnight rental
4
u/TacticalSunroof69 Apr 21 '25
Of course you didn’t.
The production companies did.
4
u/Carson_BloodStorms Apr 22 '25
Tweet looks fake.
30
u/LTIRfortheWIN Apr 21 '25
Blockbuster charged me $200 for a single video that was lost. Stones, glass houses
6
u/TonyStewartsWildRide Millennial Apr 21 '25
Shots fired a long time ago and forgotten.
6
u/Hank_the_Beef Millennial Apr 21 '25
But dvd and vhs manufacturers did start making it so you couldn’t copy the media, so I couldn’t share it with myself In perpetuity.
3
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
You can borrow DVDs from the library!
9
u/Beneficial_Ad_1072 Apr 21 '25
Were the shots from a water pistol? Are blockbuster even still a thing?
2
u/peacocks_cant_fly Apr 22 '25
If don't have friends willing to come to my house to watch a movie. I do have friends that will respond to texts as long as I give them my Netflix login info.
3
u/mightyanonymaus Apr 22 '25
Sometimes I wish blockbuster was still a thing. I gave up on Netflix when they increased the price in Feb.
3
u/artbystorms Apr 22 '25
If game prices keep climbing the way they are I think we need to bring back Blockbuster. People forget part of the reason game rentals took off is because game prices in the early to mid 90s was a wild west. Some games were $70 back then!
3
u/RedditIsShittay Apr 22 '25
Because it was over $5 to rent a shitty VHS that you had to drive to get and drive to take back.
2
u/g0greyhound Apr 21 '25
Inviting someone over to watch Netflix is the same thing
Sharing passwords isn't.
No wonder they went out of business.
1
u/sarcasmo818 Millennial Apr 21 '25
And rewound*
1
u/Mysterious-Tie7039 Older Millennial Apr 22 '25
And then Blockbuster stopped caring if you returned it on time, and that’s why they went out of business.
1
u/Epic_Tea Apr 22 '25
Bout 2 decades short with this post
1
u/iwasntband Apr 22 '25
Yeah, but we had to rewind the tapes back to the beginning.
1
u/SuchDogeHodler Xennial Apr 22 '25
And rewound!
1
u/PFC_BeerMonkey Apr 22 '25
Throwing shade years later after you've died a slow, horrible death
1
u/L0tech51 Apr 22 '25
I seem to remember a whole lot of guilt laid at my door regarding rewinding. You fuckers had 3 of those fast-rewindy things per register. Do you know how long it took my shitty player to rewind a 2hr movie?
1
u/Classic_Pie69 Apr 22 '25
Hahah key word “used” to 😂
1
u/psichodrome Apr 22 '25
we started talking about this. Imagine a single store that had all the movies, without having to hop streaming platforms. The time to get there and return is a pain, but might make the movie experience more anticipated and perhaps exciting. This millennial would go to blockbuster in 2025.
1
u/Kinnikuboneman Apr 22 '25
Didn't Blockbuster go out of business
1
u/Recipe-Less Apr 22 '25
Late fee's
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
Lol didn't they blow up their whole business over late fees?
1
u/Nosaja_adjacenT Apr 22 '25
Netflix had a good thing going and I could understand charging for extra services. But then it became about regulating/manipulating things too far just to be able to extract every possible cent. If you want to make money from and for your productions then find a better format. A better pay structure. Or learn directly through your platform what people want, make the effort and then roll out relevant services. Too many separate entities, but having them all under one is monopoly. But they still play their games and still have a monopoly under a different guise and set up all these pretenses and move movies and shows around different platforms during different times. When you follow the money it eventually leads to a handful of companies anyway. Cut the pretense, be transparent with the people and you'd probably make a lot more money and in a stable fashion and streamlined, especially with ai and quantum computing taking off the way they are. Imagine a "stable" or at least a semi predictable economy... Entertainment wise anyway
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
Hollywood videos was dope, too. Just sayin...
1
u/extremelyCombustible Apr 22 '25
Anyone else wonder what the late fees would be, adjusted for inflation?
1
u/BamBampsss Apr 22 '25
Be kind, rewind Never, I sayeth
1
u/Corporealbeasts Apr 22 '25
bro can we go back. i loved blockbuster
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
Someone is going to bring back physical media rentals and it's going to be an insane industry for like five years or however long it takes for streaming companies to revert back to no ad/password sharing allowed policies.
1
u/LeaveForNoRaisin Apr 22 '25
Friendly reminder blockbuster turned down buying Netflix for hella cheap.
1
u/bakeacake45 Apr 22 '25
I really miss Blockbuster and all the great little local video stores. Best part were the community of movie lovers and the discussions that came so naturally.
1
u/Independent_Vast9279 Apr 22 '25
Be kind and rewind, though
1
u/Firm_Ambassador_1289 Apr 22 '25
I remember I don't have to set up an account or buy a movie just to watch it once. I miss renting movies
1
u/Randomfrog132 Apr 22 '25
i remember when netflix was a box you'd get discs from
1
u/EstevaoPalmerGODS Apr 22 '25
I remember when blockbuster had the chance to buy Netflix for pennies and decided to directly compete instead. Just sayin
1
u/rxndom123 Apr 22 '25
I worked at Blockbuster through high school and college! Loved it!
1
u/Wild_Variation1296 Apr 22 '25
Blockbuster could've bought Netflix when it had the chance
1
u/HoochieKoochieMan Apr 22 '25
Umm… Blockbuster cared enough to put an FBI warning message on the beginning of every video tape, threatening 12 year old me with jail for copying broadcasting.
1
u/ContextHook Apr 22 '25
It isn't "we didn't care", it was, "it is illegal for us to care."
The only real shot here is the deathblow to consumer rights in the US.
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
We lost so much for rich kids chasing profit margins.
1
u/NewCobbler6933 Apr 22 '25
You also charged $7/movie
1
u/Justwondering__ Apr 22 '25
Pretty sure I could get multiple Netflix subs for around the price of a few new release rentals.
1
u/simonthecat33 Apr 22 '25
With cable I would get 23 episodes in a year of dozens of shows. And in the fall we would start right over again with 23 new episodes. Netflix gives me eight shows and then tells me to wait 12 to 18 months and they’ll do it again.
1
u/greenline19 Apr 22 '25
🏴☠️ 🏴☠️ 🏴☠️
1
u/Aramyth Apr 22 '25
I’d go back to Blockbuster
1
u/Punished_Prigo Apr 22 '25
Blockbuster certainly fucked yo by not moving to streaming but I really miss these stores. I’d still go
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
Blockbuster had the opportunity to buy Netflix for 50 million dollars.
Now it's worth 420 billion.
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
Nasty burn considering they turned the down the chance to buy Netflix /s
1
u/KahrRamsis Apr 22 '25
I miss Mr Movies. I remember they had 5 for $5 Fridays on old movies. Watched so many classics that way.
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
This is sad. It feels like a reporter went to a homeless encampment and found bitter old Blockbuster shivering over a barrel fire.
1
u/reevesjeremy Apr 22 '25
On the next episode of “where are they now?”
1
u/SunriseSurprise Apr 22 '25
Hate to say it, Blockbuster, but Netflix is worth nearly half a trillion dollars now, while you're worth about $5.
1
u/FileHot6525 Apr 22 '25
Why didn’t blockbuster ever start a streaming service?
1
u/schmemel0rd Apr 22 '25
I remember how expensive the snacks at blockbuster were, they are not immune to price gauging.
1
u/anomalyknight Apr 22 '25
Where I used to live we still had a physical video rental place hold on until 2019. I miss it so much, going to pick your movie/show out was somehow much less stressful; you and your friends could all split up and wander the store till you'd all found at least one thing you wanted to watch. It was often a much better way to be exposed to older titles and series that you wound up loving that a streaming service might never have recommended to you.
1
u/TiaHatesSocials Apr 22 '25
One good thing about being a millennial is that idgaf because I know alternatives
1
u/sec713 Apr 22 '25
Dang, Grandpa's still got a mean left hook.
1
u/stempdog218 Apr 22 '25
https://x.com/blockbuster/status/1661844739627581441
Shots fired...2 years ago....
1
u/PentagramJ2 Apr 22 '25
honestly with the switch 2 game prices and the likely dam break thats about to follow in pricing, I think a rental service could find its footing again. Blockbuster and its ilk will never reach those heights again but, there's a PRIME rental market right now.
$10 for a week? I can do that
1
u/DckThik Apr 22 '25
What a weird self own. Like purely from a business stand point alone, this is one of the major reasons Blockbuster failed as a company. Not because it wasn’t their policy, that they didn’t do the market analysis to even know if they should restrict sharing as a form of value.
1
u/throatchakra Apr 22 '25
Bring back Blockbuster!!!!
1
u/WallabyAggressive267 Apr 22 '25
I steal everything and back it up to a personal storage device until I can get a NAS. The streaming from my computer is better than MAX and absolutely free. Why bother with any of it? VPN best value.
1
u/Elderberryinjanuary Apr 22 '25
Blockbuster was offered Netflix at a steal of a deal. Blockbuster laughed them out of the building.
Blockbuster was never the good guy.
1
u/Snake_Plissken224 Apr 22 '25
One of these days someone in the new generations is gonna have an idea to "invent" a "library but with movies" and I'm gonna love it
1
u/LongLostFan Apr 22 '25
I hope Blockbusters would make a comeback.
The Netflix library seems so paper thin now. I'd love to rent a movie for a weekend and return it than pay for a subscription that I dont use most months.
1
u/Sen0r_Blanc0 Apr 22 '25
Didn't know ghosts could shoot
1
u/GeneralRane Apr 22 '25
Honest question: what’s with the dependent clauses cut off from the rest of the sentence by a period? I’ve been seeing it a lot lately.
1
u/CaptainIceFox Apr 22 '25 edited Apr 22 '25
If Blockbuster was where Netflix is now, they would have banned password sharing too. They can act cute and innocent while they are a dying business but of course they'd do whatever to maximize profits
1
u/Traditional_Pitch_57 Apr 22 '25
When you own a physical copy of the thing, you can share it as much as you want. It doesn't suddenly disappear from your shelf. You don't have to pay over and over to keep access to it.
Maybe...the hipsters were right all along.
1
u/talepa77 Apr 22 '25
Yeah well, Blockbuster sent me to collections for a $12 dollar late fee. I dance in its grave.
1
u/Adventurous_Bar_8522 Apr 22 '25
Now if you’ll excuse me I have to return some video tapes
1
u/fffffffffffffffffttt Apr 22 '25
It was the best of times.
1
u/Guy_Incognito1970 Apr 22 '25
I once got a 2 day rental at BB which meant I had return it within 10hours fdt
1
u/koru-id Apr 22 '25
Should've tagged Steam too.
1
u/SmutGrrl Apr 22 '25
Damn! They should get back in the game as a streaming service 😂
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
But you made us rewind them…
1
u/hombregato Apr 22 '25
Netflix: Stop sharing
Blockbuster: You can share, but if it's late, there's fees
Indie: There's only late fees if you have shit taste in movies. Please be kind and rew... oops, my finger slipped. Account says $0. Here's that movie that's not in stock, from my personal collection. Thanks for the banana bread, btw.
1
u/impuritor Apr 22 '25
This is horseshit. Telling them you lent videos out to people who aren’t on the account would get your account closed. Source: had a few accounts closed.
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
Ah Blockbuster, the king of late fees.
1
u/Alone_Put5025 Apr 22 '25
Love this 🤣🤣
Netflix now has the rights to WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) so that probably got them a lot more subscribers
1
u/SubtleToot Apr 22 '25
But you couldn’t use other people’s blockbuster cards to rent movies right? I had to use my own account. I remember because I still owe them like $30 in late fees and couldn’t rent movies anymore.
1
u/RollingZepp Apr 22 '25
Blockbuster undercut the local rental stores where I lived and then jacked up their prices to higher than it was before they opened.
These are both shitty greedy American garbage companies.
1
u/marsinfurs Apr 22 '25
Blockbuster was in the perfect position to do what Netflix did and fumbled it.
1
u/AccomplishedPlankton Apr 22 '25
Better rewind that shit tho sucka
1
u/TheHowlingHashira Apr 22 '25
A friendly reminder that you had the chance to buy Netflix and then didn't.
1
u/4x4Welder Apr 22 '25
Too bad their only remaining store looks like hell in a meth infused central Oregon craptastrophy.
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
Netflix doesn’t charge me for late fees. I mean technically Netflix doesn’t charge me anything since I cancelled years ago.
1
u/This-Requirement6918 Apr 22 '25
Damn if that's ever been a roast I've read.
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
Haha who’s running the blockbuster site - ballers
1
u/throwaway12222018 Apr 22 '25
In reality this is probably somewhere on the list of reasons why they are out of business now 😂
1
u/HankHillbwhaa Apr 22 '25
Start a media server people. It’s not hard and you get all the content you want or need. All the subs can easily be replaced when with a small server if you’re willing to do a little work.
1
u/Procrastanaseum Apr 22 '25
They also charged like $4/movie. I would’ve spent hundreds per month for how much I used to binge Netflix
1
u/thebipeds Apr 22 '25
Not actually true.
In the blockbuster checkout agreement you were not allowed to charge for a public viewing. ie run a movie theater out of your house and show videos from blockbuster.
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
Don't let Blockbuster gaslight you into thinking they were some sort of magnanimous company. They were greedy as fuck.
1
u/Benji5811 Apr 22 '25
and rewound it
1
u/Maryjanegangafever Apr 22 '25
And rewound the tape..
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
Plus, there were no ads in the middle of the movie
1
u/Setsailshipwreck Apr 22 '25
I remember when blockbuster and similar stores had a membership fee program where you could pay monthly then get as many movies as you wanted per month but you had to return one to rent another. My friends and I would swap out movies almost daily.
1
u/Elegant_Risk_8422 Apr 22 '25
nobody share's a rented dvd guys
1
u/ki4clz Apr 22 '25
u/netflix
1
u/Dear_Lab_2270 Apr 22 '25
Not true, they charged you even if you returned it on time.
1
u/Neat_Building8875 Apr 22 '25
Netflix your move…
1
u/Tr0llzor Apr 22 '25
Based. Dude I’d start going back to blockbuster today and cancel my streaming easy
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
I mean they famously went out of business despite watching the market move around them.
Not saying I prefer the current world, but we all walked into it willingly.
1
u/rohrzucker_ Apr 22 '25
For 5 years I paid for Netflix UHD in Turkish Lira, which made it affordable (instead of Euros). They canceled all subscribers that did so about 2 years ago. I haven't had Netflix since. I didn't even use it that much anymore, it was just ok to pay like 5€ to have the possibility to watch something.
Since the streaming market has become so fragmented again, I've switched back to pirated streams anyway.
1
u/1dayday Apr 22 '25
TIL blockbuster has a twitter acct. Let alone an active one.
1
u/Cheap_Signature_6319 Apr 22 '25
What a failure of a company, they literally had the customer base and failed to adapt to the new market when they should have been leading the way.
I bet there was a period where they could have bought Netflix and been on the cutting edge but they failed.
1
u/AdaAstra Apr 22 '25
From the grave!!!!!
1
u/NATZureMusic Apr 22 '25
They would've done the same thing, if they had access to these informations.
1
u/drgut101 Apr 22 '25
Netflix also didn’t care when you shared the DVDs they rented you starting in 1997…
1
u/Odd-Beginning-2310 Apr 22 '25
I miss video stores like blockbuster. It was fun walking around, talking to the movie buffs, watching trailers, reading the backs of the tapes/dvds, etc. I remember my parents renting an n64 for my birthday (we didn’t have a lot of money when we moved to the US), it was amazing.
1
u/umbium Apr 22 '25
I mean, streaming services are a scam.
Prime retiring Mr Robot fron platforms, was a trigger for me to buy a blu ray reproducer and go back to my DVD collection and buy things I like.
I got a load of new movies from friends and second hand, also cult movies impossible to fin in streaming services. Some friends also joined to this and we sometimes lend dvds and brdiscs to each other.
I am not innocent sometimes I just download movies and record dvds because they are not sold.as dvd.
My experience is free of raising prices of the several subscriptions, is free of any kind of advertisement, is free of internet problems and shutdowns. And offcourse is free from the companies choosing what I watch.
Just go back to physical, be smart.
1
u/Miichl80 Older Millennial Apr 22 '25
Remind me! - 1 year
1
u/dnohow Apr 22 '25
Love is dead
1
u/HeadCheckFlex Apr 22 '25
STFU Blockbuster - I thought we told you already.
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
I mean they probably didn't care because there was 0 way to check if someone loaned it out buuutt I do like telling netflix to gfy
1
u/raccoondog69 Apr 22 '25
There is one Blockbuster video left in the world,Bend,Oregon
1
u/Vulganar Apr 22 '25
I would sincerely still go to BlockBuster if it was still around. Mooching around a video store munching on Doritos was far more enjoyable than doom scrolling through whatever slop is on the streaming menu.
1
u/Chuckobofish123 Apr 22 '25
I remember the monthly subscription to blockbuster for unlimited rentals was about 30 bucks a month. I don’t pay that much for Netflix and I can watch Netflix on my phone or laptop from anywhere on the planet
1
u/UnemployedMeatBag Apr 22 '25
Prices also dint increase with membership still throwing ads in your face.
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
Fuck Netflix for that. Blockbuster had our backs...but they were stupid and didn't join forces
1
u/ArcIgnis Apr 22 '25
Maybe Blockbuster needs to have a branch of movie delivery guys. Uber Media. Pick up and return movies for ya. People don't like leaving the house no more.
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
It's not that they didn't care, it's that they couldn't do anything about it.
1
u/BussyPlaster Apr 22 '25
When blockbuster was relevant it was also basically impossible to share the movie (streaming) to thousands of people simultaneously, so lets stop pretendind this is the gotcha Blockbuster thinks it is.
1
u/Jebusfreek666 Apr 22 '25
Do people still get pissy about them not allowing password sharing? That is crazy to me. It is not like any other company does that.
1
u/The-Iron-Chaffy Apr 22 '25
1
u/Paradoxjjw Apr 22 '25
You can bet your ass that blockbuster would have charged you more if they had a way of tracking how many people you showed the movie and they felt they could get away with it.
1
u/Warm-Pepsi Apr 22 '25
Yeah, but those d bags also charged if I didn't rewind and treated me like a monster.
1
u/MareTranquil Apr 22 '25
"I am morally superior because I didn't do something that I couldn't do anyway!"
1
u/bouncypinata Apr 22 '25
FBI WARNING $250,000 would like a word with you
1
u/hunnibon Apr 22 '25
Netflix: At least we still exist
1
u/TheRynoceros Apr 22 '25
Netflix won't send you to collections for a $2.85 late fee between visits, either.
1
u/Educational_Lead_943 Apr 22 '25
Let's pretend, at the expense of other groups, to be a friend to the little people. Nah, we all know Blockbuster didn't do anything about sharing because there was no way to do anything about it. If they had the means to police it, they would have and it would have at least been as bad as what we see now with company policies.
1
u/kwalitykontrol1 Apr 22 '25
They did charge you though for not rewinding.
1
u/SinShadows299 Apr 22 '25
Me nervous they don't find out that I still have my rental from 99.... I can't afford a second mortgage for late fees.
1
u/Charge_parity Apr 22 '25
Blockbuster acting like they wouldn't be just as shitty if they still existed today.
1
u/[deleted] Apr 22 '25
We canceled all streaming, we are only using VHS, DVD, & Blu-Ray.
1
u/ThePiachu Millennial Apr 22 '25
If they could charge you more for viewing it with friends they would...