Blockbuster History

In the brick and mortar movie rental industry, Blockbuster is clearly the leader. With the merger of Hollywood Video and

Blockbuster was a family friendly video rental business that everyone learned to love and accept into their day to day life. Families rented the newest movies and sometimes the oldest to sit back at home with a bag of hot buttery popcorn and share a laugh or two. Blockbuster was successful, but their ignorance, their cockiness and their never changing ways was their downfall. To begin with, Blockbuster was created in October of 1985, and by 1992, it was the leading video rental business on the market. They had many slogans such as "Go Home Happy," or "Never without a movie," they let their customers take home movies and watch them in a timely fashion.

One other company that gave Netflix competition was Blockbuster, which was founded in 1985. Much like Netflix in the starting stages, Blockbuster allowed customers to rent movies online and have them delivered to their

Overall, the entire U.S. blockbuster mentality is to make a film that is successful and makes money even if there is a lack of story and more spectacle. Many films that are blockbusters are not great films. In general you can take Michael Bay films such as the “Transformer’s” trilogy which are devoted to give action pack spectacle over creative story. This actually effected national markets where more people overseas wanted to see and were willing to go and pay more for films that show things that are bigger and have more spectacle.

One article I read stated; “Netflix was operating for six years before Blockbuster launched its own movie-by-mail service. So Blockbuster had more than enough time to adapt. Instead, its bosses hinted they could copy Netflix and crush the upstart.” (Gandel & Dallas, 2010) They could have started to reshape the business yet they did try to offer their customers a mailing service towards the end but that was definitely too late at that point. The company could have structured the company based on the increased use of online components. But the company had gone too far over the edge to be able to turn it

• Blockbuster is a generally perceived name in the feature rental business sector, being the first move into the

Blockbuster was a provider of home movie and video game rental services through rental stores, DVD by mail, streaming, video on demand, and Cinema Theater. Everyone was a fan of Blockbuster in the 1990s. It was founded by David Cook in 1985; he opened his first store in Dallas, Texas. When this company first started, that had a limited video selection, but they still grew rapidly. They became one of the world’s largest providers of in-home movies and game entertainment. Blockbuster had more 8,000 VHS tapes in more than 6,500 titles. What made the store different from the others is that they displayed their movies on the shelves, they kept the doors open later than any regular video store, and they didn’t sell any adult films because it was

Two main categories exist for American films: Blockbusters and Independent Films. Blockbusters are known for excessive and expensive productions while Independent films are known for having an in-depth narrative. Blockbusters are movies that, whatever the cost, have exceptionally large box office receipts (Monahan 494). An independent film also known as an Indie Film is a film produced outside the standard studio system and distributed by independent agencies. Because of the marketing efforts put into blockbusters, they are famous before they are released. On the other hand, Indie Films are many times unknown productions that typically find popularity after being released.

Blockbuster's origins date back to the mid 1980's when the video cassette recorder (VCR) was the new hype and families all over America were quickly turning to movie rentals as a form of in-home entertainment. David Cook, who previously started David P. Cook and Associates, Inc. to offer consulting and computer services, saw an opening in the quickly expanding movie rental business. Eager to start a business, he jumped in making Blockbuster the Wal-Mart of movie rentals offering a wide variety of movies to customers in a family environment with standout buildings and bright lights. From there, Blockbuster growth exploded bringing in external investors and national attention.

The first external environment that Blockbuster faces are their competitors such Netflix, Red box, and Movie Gallery. These competitors contribute to the overall industry by their ability to deliver the same goods and services as Blockbuster. Blockbusters competitors may have better ideas that will attract new consumers, for example Blockbusters late fees could perhaps influence customers to try out Netflix products over Blockbuster. With Netflix, there are no late fees, and you can keep a movie for as long as you like. The prices of Blockbusters movies can also have an effect, they charge over $5 for five day rental where you can go to a Red box and pay only $1.07 per night.

Blockbuster opened its first store in 1985 and has grown to become the world’s number one video chain. Blockbuster is open 365 days a year with 9,800 stores worldwide. Customer base has risen above 50 million in the United States as well as several million more worldwide. The Gallup Organization, known

Blockbuster was too confident in their brand and their reach that failed to see the threat from the online rental business, meanwhile Netflix took advantage of their slow entrance to build a market and leverage on growing technology (DVD) that took off really quickly.

At the beginning the company was considered leader of its industry due to its capacity to customize a store to its neighborhood,

External environment is very important for managers to make decision about the company’s direction and strategy. In order to gain a deep understanding of Blockbuster’s industry and competitive environment, the following seven questions need to be answered. Q1: What are the industry’s dominant economic features?

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is equivalent to magic.” Arthur C. Clark couldn’t have said it better. It blows my mind how quickly and effectively new technology is being made. Could you imagine living in a world without your Iphone? Or how about having to use an actual paper map instead of your latest and greatest GPS? Well that’s how I grew up, and I turned out just fine. So before you go and get angry at your parents for not buying you the new Iphone 25s, try to imagine growing up in my generation without all these fancy gadgets.