# Damned Blockbusters! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 7, 2006, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704 "2006-04-07T12:33:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2006, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/21 "2006-04-07T15:52:00Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > How did he know you didn’t want the Herzog version? Because video stores don’t have the Herzog version. I had to get that one through Netflix. Took me 20 years, but I finally saw it. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2006, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/22 "2006-04-07T16:02:31Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > At BB I’d probably spend 15 minutes searching the shelves for it before giving up. I’m truly baffled at how they stay dominate the market. They aren’t. Surely you know that Blockbuster is going bankrupt? The video store is going the way of daily milk delivery, full service gas stations, shoeshine boys, and ground sloths trapped in tar pits. They are being killed by Netflix, on demand cable, and dirt cheap retail DVDs, and the next nail in the coffin, streaming video, is just around the corner. The days of both the neighborhood video store and the corporate chain video store are officially over. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/23 "2006-04-10T21:20:49Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > It’s sure no **Legend of Billy Jean**. From memory " Stand up and face, the enemy And with the power of conviction, there is no sacrifice. It’s a do or die situation We will be invincible" ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/24 "2006-04-10T21:27:52Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > They aren’t. Surely you know that Blockbuster is going bankrupt? > > The video store is going the way of daily milk delivery, full service gas stations, shoeshine boys, and ground sloths trapped in tar pits. > > They are being killed by Netflix, on demand cable, and dirt cheap retail DVDs, and the next nail in the coffin, streaming video, is just around the corner. The days of both the neighborhood video store and the corporate chain video store are officially over. Well, Blockbuster has started its own on-line service similar to Netflix. Perhaps too similar. Netflix is suing them for patent infringment. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/25 "2006-04-10T22:07:11Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Blockbusters Video moved into a strip mall down the street from where I live. There was already a large independent video store in the strip mall across the street. Blockbusters gave it too much competition. The existing video stote survived, but only by shrinking to half the size and switching to “adult” videos only. Way to go, Blockbusters! The olf video store had a pretty good collection, including a great “Cult” section that Blockbusters, in its one-size-fits-all mentality, didn’t have. > > \ > > There are other Blockbusters (where we could use our cards)… So Blockbuster opened, and rather than support the independent video store that was so great and had a wonderful selection of movies, you went to Blockbuster. And now you’re mad at Blockbuster. Uh huh. That must’ve been a mighty big gun the boys and girls at Blockbuster had pointed at your head, that they were able to compel you to enter its doors and fill out the paperwork and rent movies. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/26 "2006-04-10T22:11:38Z")
He joined Blockbuster _after_ the indie store closed down, I’ll betcha. What does it cost to join Blockbuster anyway? I think it’s free here in Brooklyn. _I_ have a damn BB card, even though there are about six independent stores closer to me than Blockbuster is…once in a while, we want to rent some crappy movie for Banjo or Pianola, and BB lets us have it for extra days. And the Ukulele Lady is very fond of the sort of flying-glass films that make up a great proportion of their stock. Also, they had a copy of _Tampopo_ when, for some unexplained reason, the hipster shop two blocks away did not. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/27 "2006-04-11T12:00:24Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > From memory > > " Stand up and face, the enemy > And with the power of conviction, > there is no sacrifice. > It’s a do or die situation > We will be invincible" You know what’s really scary? I didn’t read that, I sang it. :eek: (Hey, I loved _The Legend of Billy Jean_!) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/28 "2006-04-11T12:24:00Z")
**Uke** ’s got it right, **Otto**. Why would I go to Blockbuster when the indy store had a better and weirder selection? But what choice did I have after BB drove the indy into the XXX ghetto? ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/29 "2006-04-11T12:33:05Z")
I have been actively boycotting Blockbuster since 1988. When the moved in down the street from the family owned indy store that I worked at and managed. They made a huge, huge issue about how they were not going to rent or own **Last Temptation of Christ** (and we did, because this is a free country after all, right?)because they were a decent family store, but had on the floor \*\*Sorority Jello Wrestling and the like. We carried our soft porn and hard stuff behind the counter and you had to ask for ‘the sheet’. Oh, and the staff thought Gene Kelly was a woman. The splinters. I still smite them whenever I drive past and use a local video store ( Mammoth, not local but not soulless.) And only because Blockbuster killed The Little Red House Video Store that was Da Bomb in our town. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/30 "2006-04-11T14:53:39Z")
I really hope the next incarnation of video services has a niche for someone like me. Netflix looks great, but I’m not paying a monthly fee when I don’t watch enough movies to justify it. I like the video store for those rare (every three to four months usually) occasions that I feel like seeing a movie. It’s not worth the money I’d have spent on belonging to Netflix in the interim. I wish someone would create an on demand movie service that has tens of thousands of movies available at a click, so when I feel like watching Devil Dog: Hound of Hell, it would be there. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/31 "2006-04-11T15:06:20Z")
That sort of service makes so much sense that it’s practically inevitable. Every movie ever made available via streaming video. Every song ever made available via streaming audio. All available via an “all you can stomach” monthly subscription fee, or a per-view fee. Shipping physical disks around is pretty inefficient, even DVDs in paper envelopes. Once you’ve got the network pipes built then streaming the content is practically free for the providers. I don’t know how long it will take before such a service is available, it might be 20 years before it becomes reality. Hopefully this will happen before I’m dead. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/32 "2006-04-11T15:56:59Z")
Yep, when that happens I will get a computer at home. One with a honking big screen. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/33 "2006-04-11T16:10:38Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Blockbusters Video [snip] Originally from Buffalo? I’m asking because it’s a city where people shop at Target’s, Wal-Mart’s, Rite Aid’s, Home Depot’s, Gap’s, and Pottery Barn’s. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/34 "2006-04-11T17:04:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by CalMeacham > Blockbusters Video [snip] > > Originally from Buffalo? I’m asking because it’s a city where people shop at Target’s, Wal-Mart’s, Rite Aid’s, Home Depot’s, Gap’s, and Pottery Barn’s. ??? I don’t understand this statement. The only reason I was using Blockbusters is that they essentially displaced the nearby video store. I certainly didn’t choose them. And aren’t most of those stores pretty widespread? What’;s it got to do with Buffalo? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/35 "2006-04-11T17:10:34Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > I don’t know how long it will take before such a service is available, it might be 20 years before it becomes reality. It became a reality a few years ago. Unfortunately, the selection is crap. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/36 "2006-04-11T17:14:42Z")
Ahh – it sinks in. It’s that final “s” No, I just honestly thought while I was posting that it was Blockbusters (plural) video, despite having seen the sign a jillion times. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/37 "2006-04-11T17:19:17Z")
I live in fear that my local video store will close down. But, they’ve been open since I moved to Baltimore in 1996 and there’s been a Blockbuster the entire time, so I don’t think that’s happening. I’m sure I’ve spent more money there than anywhere in Baltimore except the liquor store and the grocery store. They have a room categorized by director. NICE. They don’t always have the new arrivals in stock, HOWEVER, if you know the clerks, sometimes you can get one of next Tuesday’s new releases on a Friday. They’ve been known to wipe a late fee or two off the books for a regular, too. See if Blockbuster does that for ya. Netflix? Jesus. I have friends with Netflix that still have “new releases” in their queue that I saw last October. Besides, I’ve yet to figure out how getting some random movie out of my queue is going to be the one I want to watch on a particular night. . .“gee, I feel like having a glass of scotch, smoking a joint, and putting in ‘The Long Goodbye’ at Midnight, but I guess, ‘In Her Shoes’ or ‘The Incredibles’ will do just fine.” ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/38 "2006-04-11T17:28:17Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > They aren’t. Surely you know that Blockbuster is going bankrupt? > > The video store is going the way of daily milk delivery, full service gas stations, shoeshine boys, and ground sloths trapped in tar pits. > > They are being killed by Netflix, on demand cable, and dirt cheap retail DVDs, and the next nail in the coffin, streaming video, is just around the corner. The days of both the neighborhood video store and the corporate chain video store are officially over. Not to mention the latest greatest thing since sliced bread I’ve discovered. **REDBOX!** They are DVD renting/vending machines in all our McDonalds. They pack them with all the new releases and you can rent a DVD with your credit/debit card for $1 a day. And it can be returned at any McDonalds Redbox machine. So if there’s 5 new releases I want to see in April, I’ll end up spending $5. If there’s 15, $15. If there are zero, $0. Keep it an extra day, $1 extra. Sure beats $4.50 at Blockbuster or $15 Netflix whether I watch movies that month or not. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/39 "2006-04-11T17:32:06Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > Netflix? Jesus. I have friends with Netflix that still have “new releases” in their queue that I saw last October. Really? I’ve always had good luck with new releases. I got Capote the day it came out. It’s the old obscure stuff that I have to wait for. Murder by Death has been in my queue for about 4 months now. I had to wait 6 months for Iolanthe. > [@](#): > > Besides, I’ve yet to figure out how getting some random movie out of my queue is going to be the one I want to watch on a particular night. . .“gee, I feel like having a glass of scotch, smoking a joint, and putting in ‘The Long Goodbye’ at Midnight, but I guess, ‘In Her Shoes’ or ‘The Incredibles’ will do just fine.” That’s why you never put stuff in your queue until the day you return something. I remember talking to someone about Netflix, saying that I always had fewer then 3 things in my queue at any given time. He boasted having over 30 in his queue. Premium service, I guess. I couldn’t understand how he could be proud of that. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704/40 "2006-04-11T18:26:45Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Really? I’ve always had good luck with new releases. I got Capote the day it came out. Capote, sure. Try to get King Kong or Narnia right now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/damned-blockbusters/351704.md?page=3)