Thursday, March 25, 2010

Blockbuster is 'bleeding to death'


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Blockbuster is in a heap of trouble with nearly $1 billion in debt, and its latest fixes might not be enough to keep the company from filing for bankruptcy.

Read the full article here

7 comments:

Octopunk said...

On one hand, good! Let 'em bleed. Blockbuster has been my enemy ever since I watched their edited-for-Blockbuster version of Peter Jackson's Dead Alive. And their movie collections, especially their backlist, continue to be terrible (we've got one near us that I poke into during Horrorthons, inevitably I leave with only candy).

On the other hand, there's this: "There's still demand for physical video stores, but that will go away if Blockbuster were to fail."

If video stores themselves disappeared, that would make me sad. I still use the one near us from time to time (the one across the street from Blockbuster), and I like that it's there.

That quote sounds a lot like what the banks were saying during the bailout times -- "we're going down, and we'll take the whole shebang with us." I still wonder how much of that is true, and maybe watching it unfold in the smaller arena of video stores would be cool. Maybe mom 'n pop video stores would come back, wouldn't that be great?

JPX said...

“If video stores themselves disappeared, that would make me sad.” That’s the conundrum for me. I drive past a small mom & pop’s video store in my home town every day on my way home from work. I always think, “I can’t imagine it’s going to last much longer, profits must be razor thin.” Yet I never go into it. The Hollywood Video near me is going out of business and all DVD’s are $5. The Blockbuster down the street from Whirlygirl closed last month. I never rent movies from these places but I like the idea that they exist. I felt the same way after Ben Franklin’s closed in my home town. It was ultimately a crappy, over-priced five and dime but I miss it. To this day, twenty years later, I still think of Ben Franklin’s whenever I’m in the plaza where it used to be. I can’t imagine that the physical video store will exist much longer, especially since video on demand is essentially here (e.g., the other day I realized that I had never seen the Belushi movie “Neighbors”. With 2 or 3 clicks online I was able to watch a perfect copy – awful, awful film by the way). We will refer to the old video store like our grandparents refer to the cobbler. Cobbler?

Octopunk said...

Cobbler? Was he next door to the blacksmith? Apparently your grandparents lived in some sort of Bavarian fairy village.

Pretty funny how your example of lightning fast media is John Belushi's Neighbors. God, what a dud. "Did you telekinetically will the towel to fall off of my nude wife?" I can only assume a lot of drugs were consumed wherever that one was written. The wrong drugs.

Octopunk said...

The sad thing is that video stores still occasionally have something to offer that you can't find on line. I guess that's more true with certain urban specialty stores; perhaps those guys will survive.

Johnny Sweatpants said...

At one point people said "I'm gonna miss the milkman. Sure I can just pick up milk at the same place where I buy the rest of my food but I like the idea that a man comes to my door to deliver it." Then again, those who said that were likely horny housewives.

Blockbuster can eat a bowl of dicks. I worked there and we couldn't play a PG movie because some old bitty got offended. And speaking of pooping at work - my manager (and JPX's chum) Big Bob spent about half his shift doing unspeakable things to the bathroom. How can one possibly take so many dumps?

And Octo you're soooo right about Blockbuster's shit selection. There's a reason for it: if a movie isn't rented for 6 months it gets sold in the used bin. Idiots!

Record stores are next. In New England Newbury Comics is trying to stay relevant by selling retarded items like talking Mr. T key chains and what not.

But if Amoeba Records closes I don't think I'll ever recover from the heartbreak. I'd like to think they're doing fine because of their massive selection of rarities, imports and out of print items but who knows.

DKC said...

"Blockbuster can eat a bowl of dicks."

Just literally made me choke on my lunch I laughed so hard.

I think the Blockbuster in Seekonk is still open? But the one in Bristol is gone now.

JPX said...

The Blockbuster in Seekonk is gone!

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