Does anyone even remember Blockbuster?
Blockbuster’s website was unexpectedly altered last week, after being inactive for nearly a decade.
The alteration features the Blockbuster logo in front of a solid blue background with the words “Be kind while we rewind” on various mobile devices. Whereas laptops and desktops had “We are working on rewinding your movie” in the same iconic Blockbuster style font, according to a Friday article by ComicBook.
Once a major retail chain, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and closed all but one of its locations by the end of the decade, according to the same article.
Currently, the only location left is in Bend, Oregon. The store was featured in a documentary “The Last Blockbuster” in 2020.
The documentary looks at the end of an era for the retail chain and how this one location has kept the age of the video store relevant, according to IMDb.
Does this unexpected web activity mean that the company will return in some capacity?
While it’s anyone's guess what the company will do next following this change, I for one, am hopeful that the company can bounce back in today’s modern times by rebranding as a streaming platform.
Even though the company licensed the brand on several occasions for various pieces of merch and other nostalgic purposes, I think the only real way the brand can survive is to develop their own streaming service.
I believe the company could certainly come back and be a real competitor against Netflix and Hulu.
Assuming this does happen, they should exist digitally to the same business model they did physically before.
Blockbuster should include digital movies and video games.
While almost everyone remembers the company being a retail giant in the age of the video store, not everyone may know that they also offered video game rentals, according to a Jan. 28, 2022 YouTube video by Cinemassacre.
Blockbuster could have all the digital movies and shows streaming services today have, on top of digital, on-demand video games.
While this may not be possible with console exclusives like the Halo series or the Super Mario series, they could definitely include non-exclusive games and indie games on their platform, in a similar way that Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Now does with their games.
Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Now are subscription services where players can stream and download digital video games, from the comfort of their own homes.
If they created a digital cloud for something like this, that would be a great way for them to survive in today’s modern times.
Blockbuster could even charge more for increased storage and generate more revenue by turning this into a service similar to how iCloud manages and backs up data on Apple devices, with several packages for different amounts of storage.
With the increased popularity in digital music platforms, I think Blockbuster would strive if they cash in on a piece of the music streaming pie.
This is a part of the business they weren’t allowed to adopt when renting media physically, as music rentals were banned in the United States in 1984, according to TechCrunch.
Doing this would allow the company to gain even more revenue, and once again give them a lifeline to survive more comfortably amongst the streaming juggernauts that exist today.
The company would have the potential to charge in different group packages for movie streaming, video game streaming or downloads, music streaming and increased storage, managing it all through an iCloud-like system.
Users should be able to access their content on any smart TV through the internet, with the use of a Blockbuster app, similar to Amazon Prime Video, Netflix or any streaming service that currently exists.
While this may seem like a long shot for now, this is the only way I see the company bouncing back from obscurity. It’s a business model that they should adopt full-heartedly if they decide to try and do so.
