Oh how the mighty have fallen. Blockbuster is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a matter of days. Yes, it seems the company will be heading off to the big blue box out in the country where it’ll be able to run and play with a bunch of other video stores in fields! Please don’t cry sweetie, it’s okay. You still have Netflix!
Anyway, Reuters has a lot more information on the subject that I won’t even pretend to understand. If I did I wouldn’t write about television and film for a living. But one thing I do understand is they are $900 million in debt. $900 million! That’s almost a billion dollars in fees! Were they not getting our phone calls?
Blockbuster’s demise comes after several years of decreasing performance. With the rise of streaming and renting movies online, cheap kiosks like Redbox, and direct mail services like Netflix, Blockbuster was slow to change. Sure they adopted direct mail services, online streaming, and kiosks, but too little too late. Plus I still have a bad taste in my mouth from all those unnecessary late-fees. It always sucks to see a company go under, but Blockbuster didn’t exactly help their case. I’ll take my red envelopes any day over blue stores.
Source: Reuters
