EPISODE 102: Blockbuster

Low Culture Boil

In this ep Amber and Rax talk about the video rental store that killed all other video rental stores, Blockbuster. We look back now with nostalgia at the time when we went to a physical Blockbuster before it was ruined by Netflix, but we forget that they were once the bad guy taking out independent video rental stores. We forget that Netflix was once the new kid on the block taking down big bad Blockbuster and their late fees. So the question is, now that Netflix is the big bad guy, who's going to take them out? Maybe it will be NPC tiktoks streamers? Probably not that, but something new will come and Netflix needs to remember that history repeats itself.

Oh, for all you article heads, here are the pieces we referenced:

Viral TikTok NPC Streamer Pinkydoll Doesn’t Care What You Think (Samantha Coke, Motherboard, July 17 2023) https://www.vice.com/en/article/4a3ny9/viral-tiktok-npc-streamer-pinkydoll-doesnt-care-what-you-think

Why Hit Movies AreCalled Blockbusters (Olivia B Waxman, Time Magazine, 2020) https://time.com/5776406/blockbuster-meaning/

Blockbuster: The Rise and Fall of the Movie Rental Store and What Happened to the Brand (Frank Olito and Alex Bitter, Business Insider, April 24 2023) https://www.businessinsider.com/rise-and-fall-of-blockbuster?amp

Is Blockbuster Video About To Make A Comeback? (Stuart Heritage, The Guardian Mar 23 2023) https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/mar/23/is-blockbuster-video-about-to-make-a-comeback