By the end of January 2014 the remaining 300 US-based retail stores and DVD-by-mail distribution centers of Blockbuster will be no more. It doesn’t come as too much of a surprise since the company been hemorrhaging money for years and retail Blockbuster stores were already on the endangered species list.
I personally have a lot of fond memories as a kid going to Blockbuster on a friday night to get the latest movies. There’s a ton of game nostalgia as well since Blockbuster was really the only affordable way to keep up with all the releases of the 8-64 bit eras. Not only that, they also rented hardware. I have very vivid memories of renting the Nintendo Virtual Boy… and the crushing disappointment (and headache) of actually playing the Virtual Boy. My first experience with the Sony Playstation was also as a weekend rental. But as video killed the radio star… digital killed the disc rental business.
Netflix was ahead of the curve with DVD-by-mail and digital streaming; Blockbuster just couldn’t keep up with them. The Blockbuster brand will live on through Dish Network and the Blockbuster @Home service.
Speaking of Netflix… they just signed a HUGE deal with Marvel. Netflix has already been offering original shows like the newest season of Arrested Development and Orange is the New Black. Marvel and ABC studios will be producing 4 live action series and a mini-series event for Netflix based around the heroes and villains of Hell’s Kitchen, New York.
The 4 shows will be based on Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones (look her up). The mini-series is rumored to be based on The Defenders… so maybe even throw Dr. Strange into the mix. We can be expecting to see the first shows from this deal sometime in 2015.
