The rise and fall of Blockbuster as a new Netflix comedy is set in the ‘last remaining’ store

From the signature blue-and-yellow color scheme to the oddly comforting smell of rows of plastic video housings, anyone who grew up in the 90s will remember the thrill of traveling to Blockbuster in search of a movie.

While the video chain thrived in the 1980s and 1990s, it was destroyed by streaming services, and by 2014 Blockbuster had closed the last of its own stores, and today only one, in Bend, Oregon, remains.

And now a new Netflix comedy follows the fictional lives of employees of the movie rental chain’s “last remaining store.”

Titled Blockbuster and released on November 3, the series stars Fresh Off the Boat’s Randall Park as store manager Timmy Yoon and Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Melissa Fumero as his longtime love Eliza.

Here, Femail takes a trip down memory lane that will send a wave of nostalgia to anyone who remembers scouring the aisles, rewinding their tapes and trying to dodge the late return fees.

The once successful video rental giant has its roots in a single store that opened in October 1985 in Dallas, Texas.

The company’s founder, David Cook, used the revenue from the first few stores he opened to build a massive warehouse and expand his growing empire.

In the late 1980s, the company was sold for $18.5 million to John Melk and Wayne Huizenga, former executives at Waste Management, who massively expanded the business, opening a store every 24 hours.

By 1992, Blockbuster was the industry leader in video rental, with more than 2,800 stores worldwide. The company’s growth was driven by acquisitions of other retailers such as the British Ritz and the American chains Major Video and Erol’s Video.

The turning point for Blockbuster came in 1997, when Silicon Valley executive Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph launched Netflix, which went public five years later as a DVD-by-mail service.

In 2000, Mr. Randolph had offered to sell his company to established rival Blockbuster, but the offer was turned down.

The Netflix founder revealed in his 2019 book that at the time of the sale offer, Blockbuster CEO John Antioco nearly laughed when a $50 million price tag was mentioned.

At the time, Blockbuster was the dominant player in the DVD and video rental market. The company peaked in November 2004, with 84,300 employees and 9,094 stores worldwide.

Although Netflix introduced its streaming service in 2007, Blockbuster was unable to adapt and the decline was rapid. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2010.

The following year, Dish Network bought Blockbuster’s remaining 1,700 stores before the company’s last stores closed in 2013. Blockbuster’s 528 stores in Great Britain had to close.

Meanwhile, Netflix’s popularity skyrocketed from 2007, with the company expanding its usability to the Xbox360, Blu-ray players, and TV set-top boxes in 2008.

In 2019, a manager of the world’s last Blockbuster store said it continues to survive because of its loyal pool of older customers who “cannot use Netflix.”

Oregon’s Bend franchise became the last to survive after the world’s penultimate Blockbuster announced it would be closing its doors that year in Perth, Australia.

And one of the reasons for its continued success, along with a sense of community and great customer service, is that some of the older regulars can’t access or use online streaming services like Netflix, one employee said.

“Some of them just don’t want access to the new technology culture, and some don’t have laptops or devices to stream the sites,” said acting manager Dalton Chambers, who felt it made sense for the store to continue to thrive on DVDs only because of the technological advancements. gap.

“The same goes for things like Blu-ray DVDs,” Dalton told the DailyMail.com. “A lot of the older generations also just opt ​​for regular DVDs because they don’t want to mess with Blu-ray. They don’t want to take the chance that it might not work for them.’

But Dalton also pointed to its unique location and customer base as another reason for the store’s historic success.

“We’re in Bend, Oregon, and here in Oregon a lot of things thrive,” he explained. “We’re a craft brewery mecca, we’re really an outdoor city, we’re in just the right niche that can make things thrive.

“People are like, ‘oh, there’s the last Blockbuster to survive — let’s keep going!” – those are the personas of everyone here – that’s our mantra.’

The Bend store has been open for over 20 years and most of the sales come in thanks to classic old movie titles.

Speak with pop sugar about his new series, American actor Randall confessed that he had mixed feelings about streaming.

He said, ‘I like the convenience of streaming. I will say that it is something very special to have to work a little for your content and create an event of the actual choice.

‘I long for the simplicity of that time, and as Timmy says, the human interaction that goes with it.

“Talking to the clerk in the store, getting recommendations, giving recommendations, all that stuff, in real time. I think it’s fun. And it’s something we sadly don’t have anymore.’